Just when will the horror that is Gaza today prompt the Albanese Government to acknowledge publicly that the war in the territory is now consumed by Israel’s blood-lust revenge and a hunger for ethnic reconfiguration? Is it too much to hope that the government can find a conscience of its own rather than mimicking the deceitful utterances of its US and Israeli “friends”?
In the outpouring of Western sympathy for Israel after the Hamas attack in early October the phrase “self-defence” figured prominently. Israel, said President Biden, had a right and responsibility “to respond to the slaughter of its citizens” and the US would ensure it had what was “needed to defend itself”. Biden cautioned, nonetheless, that Israel should “do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians”. Following suit, Albanese commented that Israel had a right to defend itself, “but how it does that matters … every civilian life is valued”. Later, Albanese issued a joint statement with his Canadian and NZ counterparts declaring that the price of defeating Hamas “cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians”. Meanwhile, Penny Wong demanded that adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, “must be prioritised”.
And the result of these urgings and admonitions? A CNN report in late December quoted US intelligence sources as saying that between 40-45 per cent of the 29,000 air-to-surface munitions dropped on Gaza by then were so-called “dumb bombs”—unguided munitions which pose a greater threat to civilians, especially in densely populated territories such as Gaza.
As of early January, some........