EDITORIAL: Australia’s demand for ceasefire in Gaza is wishful thinking unmoored in reality
If the goal is to broker a ceasefire which could set into motion a process towards lasting peace, this was precisely the wrong way to go about it.
Australia is one of 28 nations to endorse a statement condemning the conduct of Israel in its war against Hamas. Other signatories include UK, New Zealand and Canada.
The statement calls for an urgent end to the war in Gaza where the suffering of civilians had “reached new depths”.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the statement reads.
“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.”
The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is indeed an outrage. For almost two years, the civilian population there has suffered immensely and unnecessarily.
Hamas could end that suffering today, if it so chose.
But ending the suffering of the Palestinian people is not Hamas’s goal.
Hamas’s goal is to destroy the nation of Israel and the lives of tens of thousands of Gazans is a price the terrorist organisation is willing to pay.
Hamas knows it cannot hope to match the military might of Israel. Its best weapon is the suffering of its own people and the battlefield is the arena of international opinion.
In this, its tactics are unmatched. Israel is already isolated geographically, hemmed in by neighbours which want it wiped from the map. Now Hamas is successfully isolating Israel from the rest of the world, obliterating the goodwill which was once taken for granted. It wants to cut Israel off from moral and military support from Western nations, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
And Australia and those 27 other nations have played directly into Hamas’s hands.
The statement does contain a nod to the losses suffered by Israel, in acknowledging that the “hostages cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 continue to suffer terribly”.
But that singular line in a lengthy statement of lecturing and moralising towards Israel is mere tokenism and serves to further the corrosive idea that Israel and Hamas are equivalent entities whose actions are both equally deserving of reproach.
It’s telling that the statement has been celebrated by a gleeful Hamas, which called it “further international recognition of the wide-scale violations committed by the fascist occupation government against innocent civilians”.
The demand contained in the statement for an “immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire” is wishful thinking unmoored in reality.
If Australia and its fellow signatories are serious about bringing to an end the suffering Hamas and its Iranian backers have brought upon Gaza, they must get real about the conditions necessary for lasting peace: a disarmed Hamas and the safe return of the remaining hostages.
