EDITORIAL: The West’s goal must be to ensure an Israeli victory

No longer does the Middle East stand at the precipice of war.

It has tumbled over the edge, as Israel commences its ground offensive into southern Lebanon, sending tanks and troops over the border in a dramatic intensification of its efforts to dismantle the military capabilities of that nation’s terrorist group, Hezbollah.

Israel says it was left no choice, having been goaded and dragged into this conflict through 12 months of Hezbollah’s intolerable attacks, which have driven more than 60,000 Israelis from their homes.

It comes after weeks of escalating actions by Israel, including assassination raids and blitzes on key infrastructure used by Hezbollah militia.

It’s not just the actions of Hezbollah which have brought us to this point. Israel can also point the finger at the inaction of its supposed allies in the West.

Since the atrocities of October 7, Western leaders, including our own in Australia, have urged “restraint” from Israel in responding to the threat posed to it by those whose vowed goal is the complete annihilation of the Jewish state.

Instead of standing strong with Israel and against Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist outfits, we have abandoned them, hiding behind weak words and entreaties for calm from both sides. We talk of “retaliatory strikes” from Israel against its enemies and “tit-for-tat” aggressions from both.

That wilfully ignores the impossibility of the Israeli situation. It wrongly equates Israel, a liberal democracy, with members of the Iranian-backed axis of resistance.

This escalation must shatter certain myths which continue to prevail around this war.

First, that this is a regional conflict, of only remote, academic concern to nations such as Australia. It is not.

It is another chapter in the continuing struggle between the free and unfree worlds; democracies and autocracies, nations which believe in liberty for their citizens and those which seek to repress and murder their own people.

There is no more consequential fight in the world today and in this, Israel clearly stands on one side and Islamist regimes and their proxy militias on the other.

We must also stop pretending that the West’s role is to find a diplomatic solution.

Hezbollah’s raison d’etre since its formation in the shadow of the 1982 Lebanon War has been to wipe out Israel.

Diplomacy doesn’t work when the goal of one side is the complete destruction of another.

The West’s goal should be not to find a “diplomatic solution” but to help Israel to win in its fight against its enemies.

The free world, Australia included, must find a way to deal with the threat of Islamist regimes, while supporting Israel’s absolute right to defend itself.

That is the only hope of restricting this conflict and preventing it from spilling over further into a wider regional war which would devastate many more lives.

Responsiblity for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore