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The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (the ECAJ), the peak rep­res­ent­at­ive body of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, has welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza that has come into effect after 3 days of fighting between Israel and Palestini­an Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

PIJ was estab­lished in Gaza in 1981 with the avowed aim of the anni­hil­at­ing the State of Israel by force and imposing Islamic religious law.   It has a long record of firing rockets aimed at civilian targets in Israel, and using Palestini­an civilians and civilian buildings and neigh­bour­hoods in Gaza as cover for launching its attacks.  PIJ is listed as a terrorist organ­isa­tion by Australia and numerous other countries.

The recent fighting began when Israel dis­covered that PIJ was about to initiate yet another round of attacks against Israeli civilians, a charge that PIJ has not denied.

“Under inter­na­tion­al law, Israel has the right and duty to defend its citizens and territory against armed attacks, and this includes the right to take pre-emptive action against an imminent attack”, said ECAJ Co-CEO Peter Wertheim.  “It was grat­i­fy­ing to note that Australia’s ambas­sad­or to Israel, Paul Griffiths, publicly confirmed that ‘Australia respects Israel’s right to defend itself’.”

“In stark contrast to PIJ’s tactics of attacking civilians indis­crim­in­ately, Israel’s response was both necessary and pro­por­tion­ate, being directed spe­cific­ally at PIJ targets, including two PIJ com­mand­ers who were killed”, Wertheim noted.  “Hamas did not join with PIJ on this occasion and con­sequently Israel did not take action against Hamas.  Inev­it­ably there were also civilian cas­u­al­ties, some of them caused by misfired PIJ rockets which fell short of their targets in Israel and landed in Gaza instead.  Every civilian victim is a tragedy and is to be regretted. The respons­ib­il­ity lies squarely with PIJ.”

Wertheim also called for political pressure to be placed on Palestini­an leaders to abandon their elim­in­a­tion­ist attitudes towards Israel once and for all.

“Instead of the ceasefire being a mere interlude until the next round of fighting, it is well past time for all Palestini­an organ­isa­tions to fun­da­ment­ally alter their attitude and approach to Israel”, he said.

“Instead of envisaging Israel as an his­tor­ic­al aber­ra­tion that is ille­git­im­ate and destined to disappear, Palestini­an leaders need to wake up to the reality that the Jewish people have deep roots in the land, and that Israel is here to stay.  In short, they need to start acting like leaders, instead of con­tinu­ing to submit to the most extreme and bigoted elements among them.”