EDITORIAL: Australia misses what’s at stake in Middle East

By all accounts, Joe Biden doesn’t much like Benjamin Netanyahu.

Revelations the US President had called his Israeli counterpart a “son of a b...h” and a “bad f.....g guy” hung uncomfortably over the pair’s telephone conversation this week, the first time the leaders had spoken since August.

But Mr Biden hasn’t let his personal feelings towards Mr Netanyahu cloud his judgment.

The United States has taken a grown-up, realpolitik view of the current Middle East crisis.

That is, Israel must win. Because this is a fight between the free and un-free worlds, and to allow Israel to fail would be to allow autocracy to triumph over democracy in the most consequential battle of our time.

So Mr Biden took the opportunity during that call to reaffirm the US’s “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security”, according to a White House readout.

He also reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against ongoing aggressions from Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which “has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone” and “condemned unequivocally” Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this month.

In a lamentable contrast to the maturity shown by the US, Australia’s response to the crisis has been embarrassingly unsophisticated, unduly influenced by a leftist, United Nations’ view of international relations.

Australia’s leaders appear to have missed what is at stake here. They’ve allowed themselves to be carried away by the momentum of domestic protests.

The pleas from Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong for “de-escalation” from Israel, in wilful ignorance of the fact that the stated goal of Iran and its terrorist proxies is the annihilation of the Jewish state, are the sort of earnest but uninformed prattle you would expect to hear at a first year peace and conflict studies tutorial.

Not out of the mouths of the leaders of a supposedly mature nation and ally to Israel.

Iran is controlled by a fanatical regime. The idea it will voluntarily agree to a peaceful compromise is an undergraduate fantasy.

While Australia may have missed the importance of Israel’s fight against Iran, other Arab nations have not.

It’s an open secret that the leadership of Middle Eastern nations are quietly barracking for Israel.

These Arab states understand the threat Iran poses to their own nations through its terrorist proxies including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis which are the No. 1 source of instability in the region, feeding chaos, dysfunction and disorder.

And for this reason, they welcome the prospect of a weakened Iran, even if it comes via an Israeli victory.

Anything to lessen Iran’s toxic influence and limit its militias’ corrosive effects on their own institutions.

If only Australia’s leaders could find it within themselves to display the same pragmatism.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor Christopher Dore.