SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
That there are no winners in war seems particularly apt for Gaza. Another chapter in the tragedy of this troubled place has been written.
Hamas has suffered a grievous defeat because of an ill-conceived and brutal terrorist attack against Israel. While its defenders portray themselves as brave fighters, there was no honour in slaughtering unarmed young men and women at a music festival, killing children in cold blood, and kidnapping others to subject them to prolonged abuse and trauma in tunnels. Or in parading before leering crowds the lifeless bodies of women they killed and brought back to Gaza. The death of the attack’s architect, Yahya Sinwar, alone on a couch among the smoking ruins of a society nearly destroyed by his actions, seemed fitting.
People wave Palestinian flags while celebrating the announcement of a ceasefire in Ramallah in the West Bank.Credit: NYT
Israel had no choice but to exact a heavy toll on Hamas for its brutality. But in doing so, the nation’s own international reputation has been damaged.
Most right-minded countries and individuals never questioned Israel’s right to take on Hamas; it was the way it went about it that concerned the international community. Hamas has spent years committing war crimes by building networks of tunnels in and among the civilian population, knowing that civilians would have to die in order to kill Hamas fighters. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise to destroy Hamas was an impossible mission, and inevitably influenced the way it was conducted.
The mission to destroy the organisation colours the ability to target precisely, along with one’s understanding of what constitutes proportionality. In the court of world opinion it appeared that Israel’s military objectives had long been achieved and the degree of devastation wrought upon the people did not appear proportionate.
Washington, too, was a loser. Hamas killed nearly 50 US citizens and kidnapped a dozen more on October 7, so Hamas declared war on America at the same time it did Israel. Washington is Israel’s steadfast supporter, but the longer the conflict dragged on, well past the time when Israel’s objectives could and should have been achieved, the Biden administration’s failure to put the weights on Israel tied Washington ever closer to the devastation wrought on Gaza.
The Axis of Resistance, an informal coalition of Iranian-supported militias and political organisations across the Middle East, has also lost – revealed to be a paper tiger.
In the north, Israel focused on an integrated and sustained air campaign and a limited ground campaign to damage Hezbollah, which in the end sought a ceasefire on Israel’s rather than its own terms. There is now a president and prime minister in Beirut imposed on Hezbollah, rather than being imposed by them, and Hezbollah is damaged, chastened and with an internal security problem.
Iran crossed a red line and directly attacked Israel not once but twice. The attacks were telegraphed to varying degrees, illustrating how Tehran fears a concerted military response to a surprise attack.
Israel’s ability to garner a Western air defence coalition at short notice to blunt Iran’s attack again showed how isolated Tehran is internationally. State coalition building is different to Iran’s non-state actor coalition with Hamas, Hezbollah, militia groups in Iraq, and Ansarullah, a Yemeni organisation. Its limitations are now plain for all to see.
In Australia, the conflict has revealed some dark truths about bigotry that infects a society when sectarian and supranational identities and interests are favoured over one’s national identity and interest.
Australians were barely touched by the war – the government evacuated its citizens from Israel and Lebanon when required, one Australian citizen was killed in Israel on October 7 and the aid worker Zomi Frankcom was killed in Gaza, while two brothers were killed in southern Lebanon, one of whom was fighting for Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organisation.
And yet the conflict’s impact was felt domestically in a way few recent conflicts have. The pro-Israel lobby was up in arms that Australia had the temerity to voice its concerns at Israeli overreach in Gaza and call on the UN for an unconditional ceasefire, ignoring the fact that the rest of the world was also calling for the same thing (with the noted exception of Washington).
Australian governments act in what they see as the national interest, which can change as they see fit. The pro-Israel lobby is not much for introspection.
The ugly face of antisemitism also resurfaced. In a secular, liberal democracy, citizens are free to criticise the policies of their own and other countries. But attacks against Jewish places of worship and anti-Jewish graffiti transcend this and have rightly caused distress in the community. The government was too slow in recognising that the line between opposition to Israeli policies and antisemitism was being blurred.
Communal leadership on the issue was also lacking. When a member of the NSW Faith Council can eulogise Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, refer to Ansarullah – another proscribed terrorist group – as “the brave people of Yemen” resisting in solidarity with Palestine, and call Israel “the enemy”, then attacks against Jewish buildings in Sydney are no surprise.
It will be years before we can properly assess what, if any, fundamental changes the Gaza conflict has brought to the region. A new generation of Gazans will grow up to hate the Israelis who killed family members and friends. Absent any meaningful progress towards a two-state solution the same conditions that led to the rise of Hamas will result in its successor evolving.
If there are no meaningful political or economic reforms in Lebanon, Hezbollah will rebuild its capabilities and absent any popular uprising; the Iranian system of theocratic governance will continue.
Without strong action by Australian governments and civil society leaders, the ugly form of identity politics the Gaza conflict revealed will continue to flourish.
Dr Rodger Shanahan is an author and Middle East analyst.
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