DEATH NOTICES
In the first 2 weeks following the Oct 7 Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens, my daily FB feed contained notices desperately seeking information about missing people. These were then overtaken by death notices, as mutilated bodies were identified. It was absolutely heart-wrenching. Beautiful photos of beautiful people kept popping up on my screen, one after the other, each with a caption that stated “It is with deep sorrow...” It was surreal and seemed unending. It still does. TWO HUNDRED funerals were held PER DAY.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/horrific-scenes-as-dozens-of-bodies-found-in-israels-kfar-aza-near
Notices are still being posted, albeit slowly, as more bodies are found both in Israel and by soldiers who have entered Gaza. Parts of one young Israeli-German woman, who had been kidnapped, were found. She had been beheaded.
No one in Australia mentioned the pure trauma of just reading these notices.
GOVERNMENT
Some ministers of Australia’s national Labour government have complained of discrimination against Palestinians - after all, national landmarks have not been lit up in the colours of the Palestine Flag to mark the deaths of Gaza residents, but they WERE lit up a week earlier in blue and white in solidarity with Israel.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has hit back, referencing the open secret of anti-Semitism in the Labour camp.
The current Australian Prime Minister, Albanese, has rejected a call for him to visit Israel to show support for Israel.
Six living former prime ministers of Australia signed a call for all the hostages to be released and humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-30/former-prime-ministers-join-to-condemn-hamas-israel-solidarity/103039764
MEDIA
News reports by ABC (Australia) focus on rubble in Gaza. Suffering in Israel is rarely shown.
“Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza” is the media war cry. This continued when a Gaza hospital suffered missile damage, and protests against Israel erupted worldwide.
When comparing competing claims by Israel and Islamic Jihad about who bombed the hospital - ABC interviewers clearly stressed that Israel ‘has bombed hospitals in the past’. Israeli evidence that the damage resulted from a failed rocket launched by Islamic Jihad has been treated with scepticism.
"We are being even-handed by presenting both parties' claims" said the BBC which toed the same line as the ABC.
In an interview, former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennet retorted that a fact is a fact - if two people argue about whether it's raining outside, it's the media's obligation to actually open the window and see if it is, in fact, raining.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2023/10/19/former_israeli_pm_bennett_blasts_cnn_coverage_of_gaza_hospital_bombing_not_everything_has_two_sides.html
And with all that, Barely a peep was heard when Hamas missiles hit an Israeli hospital in Ashkelon a few days earlier.
There has been much less coverage by the media of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and friends.
In an ABC interview with an expert from a US think tank, the interviewer asked about Israel’s relentless bombing of Jordan, confusing it with Gaza. Pity the ABC can’t get its facts straight.
https://www.aap.com.au/news/no-landmark-shows-for-palestine-despite-solidarity-call/
Other media outlets in Australia have been less toxic.
INDISCRIMINATE BOMBING
On the ABC (national) news, MSF (Doctors Without Borders) accused Israel of indiscriminate bombing.
It is difficult for them to see the connection between civilian deaths resulting from Israeli raids aimed at Hamas after warning Gazan residents to get out of the way, and Hamas missiles launched at Israeli cities and pogroms butchering and torturing Israeli citizens in their homes.
Make no mistake - Gazans residents are suffering.
But does Israel have a choice? It's a quandary that no-one wants to face.
https://fb.watch/o2FazjAEp3/
When Israel did its utmost to avoid Gazan casualties in the past by showing restraint, Hamas was able to continually rebuild itself, and Israel's restraint possibly prolonged everyone's suffering for years.
Gazans have been told by Israel where it will strike so that they can leave the area. Such warnings are not just announced on the news - the Gazans receive personal phone calls and text messages. AND leaflets are dropped from overhead.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-tells-gazans-move-south-or-risk-being-seen-terrorist-partner-2023-10-22/
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/05/19/shocking-phone-call-between-idf-and-gazan-reveals-entire-conflict-in-a-nutshell-n2589676
RESPONSIBILITY FOR GAZA
The main media outlets give the impression that in 2023, Israel is occupying Gaza and is responsible for its welfare.
Nothing is further from the truth.
Gaza has been an independent region since 2005.
The residents elected Hamas as their government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_legislative_election
Hamas is responsible for providing its residents with humanitarian conditions, food, water, electricity, and medical care.
Hamas is responsible for protecting its citizens.
Hamas is responsible for minimising its people's suffering.
Strangely, Hamas does not agree and overtly refuses to care for its citizens - insisting that this is the job of its enemy Israel, which Hamas is seeking to destroy!
If that is not distorted logic, I don't know what is...
https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-hamas-official-claims-group-is-not-responsible-for-defending-gazan-civilians/
So why does the world think Israel is responsible for the Gazans?
As a humanitarian gesture, Israel has always allowed goods and services through its border with Gaza. This includes fuel, electricity and about 10% of their water supply (the remaining 90% of their water is drawn from local aquifers).
Notably, Gazan residents receive medical care in Israeli hospitals. Israelis living in border towns ferry Gazans to and from Israeli hospitals. On Oct 7, some local Gazan residents apparently followed the Hamas attackers across the border and slaughtered those Israeli do-gooders. Some even told the Hamas terrorists which Israeli girls to take hostage so that they could rape them later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo5xoCwsxKo
(at 4min 30sec)
Hamas was elected by the residents of Gaza and is dedicated to Israel's destruction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas_Charter
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-is-palestinian-group-hamas-2023-10-30/
The Gazan government has launched missiles into Israeli cities almost continuously for 17 years. Israeli border towns have suffered for years, and the Israeli government has been fearful of stirring the pot or causing trouble. Pleas by border town residents for the Government to take action to end the shelling once and for all should have been taken seriously.
https://alanmeerkin.blogspot.com/2009/01/
The Gazan government - Hamas - must be toppled. And if its residents don't do it, then Israel has no choice but to do the hard work on its own.
That translates to Israel's right to defend itself.
RESPONSES BY AUSTRALIANS
A well-respected medical specialist in Melbourne, who is clearly an Australian and an observant Jew, told me that half his hospital patients are Arabs. The day after the hospital incident, none of his Arab patients showed up for their appointments.
After the Oct 7 attack, a famous Greek restaurant in Melbourne expressed solidarity with Israel after the Oct 7 attacks.
The owners received threats and patrons cancelled bookings en-mass.
Telephone bookings were then made, but no one showed up.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/companies/melbourne-greek-restaurant-abused-for-proisraeli-post/news-story/423411f1bfe9b62c36eafa16fb94f40b
As in many Western countries, the knee-jerk reaction here to Palestinian suffering is to blame Israel and the Jews.
Perhaps this is partly due to sympathy for a perceived underdog, a position that many Palestinians play up. Western wokeness and Palestinian propaganda combine to effectively provide justification for Westerners to blame the Jews for everything that the Palestinians have not achieved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallywood
This becomes more worrying with the large and established Mediterranean immigrant populations that did not live here 40 years ago and who have imported reactionary beliefs and behaviours.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/31/islamism-is-the-ideology-of-failure/ (explained towards the end of the article).
(Note that many Palestinians want to live in peace and safety, and they suffer terribly at the hands of their brethren).
In 2015 a plot, encouraged by ISIS to behead a policeman in downtown Melbourne, was prevented by the security services. Similar plots have been uncovered and prevented.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/anzac-day-terror-plot-five-teenagers-arrested-in-australia-for-planning-isisinspired-attack-10186419.html
Arabs rallying in Sydney after the Oct 7 massacre, BEFORE Israel responded in any way, chanted Gas the Jews.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/10/reprehensible-protestors-chant-gas-the-jews-outside-sydney-opera-house/
Yesterday I saw graffiti on a public toilet wall in Melbourne that said the same thing.
Is this anti-Israel or anti-Jewish? You tell me, but I suggest we all read the writing on the wall.
SYMPATHY FOR ISRAEL
Not everyone is anti-Semitic or anti-Israel, and many sympathise with their position.
An announcer from 3AW, a more sympathetic radio station, noted that despite their small numbers in the world, Jews are at the peak of most professions, and Australia should consider inviting Israelis wanting to escape the current violence to immigrate to Australia.
I wonder what new Australians, who have found refuge here from Hamas (and friends), would think about that?
Posts
