3^rd August 2014
The Sydney eastern suburb of Dover Heights was the scene of a solid­ar­ity with Israel rally with an estimated 10,000 people in attend­ance. As well as the Jewish community coming out in numbers, many Christian groups also par­ti­cip­ated, among them being an order of nuns, the Sisters of Sion.

The following message from three Federal Labor MP’s was read out at the rally. (Note that this appears to be the first public con­dem­na­tion by Federal MP’s of the fact that “antisemitic ste­reo­types have found their way back into the main­stream media. And here in Australia too, antisemitism has been rearing its ugly head.”)

Australia’s friend­ship with Israel is a strong and enduring part­ner­ship. It is a part­ner­ship that goes back to the founding of modern Israel, when Australia cast the first vote in favour of creating the modern State of Israel in the United Nations.
Today, Australia’s rela­tion­ship with Israel is built on the same robust found­a­tions that founded our friend­ship gen­er­a­tions ago: shared demo­crat­ic values and a common com­mit­ment to justice and to the rights, liberty and security of our citizens.
It is in this context that we once again affirm our support for the State of Israel to live in peace within secure borders. And we also affirm our support for Israel to defend its citizens against attacks by a Hamas, a terrorist organ­iz­a­tion that continues to reject Israel’s very right to exist.
In a statement issued on Thursday this week, Oppos­i­tion Leader Bill Shorten and Shadow Foreign Minister Tanya Plibersek issued a statement that included the following:
“Labor deplores the abuse of civilian facil­it­ies for military purposes, including a Gaza school that was used to hide rockets. Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel – more than 2600 so far, and Israel must restrain its response, which has cost far too many civilian lives.”
All civilized nations deplore the loss of innocent lives. And as the IDF continues to defend Israel against rocket attacks by Hamas, we call on Israel to continue to extend its efforts to avoid civilian cas­u­al­ties in its response.
We also support the right of all peoples to protest policies that they disagree with. But what we have seen at times over recent weeks, alongside the legit­im­ate protests and the heartfelt concerns of people appalled at the loss of innocent lives, is a resur­gence of anti-Semitism. Around the world syn­agogues have been attacked, blatantly anti-Semitic messages have been emblazoned on placards and social media sites, and anti-Semitic ste­reo­types have found their way back into the main­stream media. And here in Australia too, anti-Semitism has been rearing its ugly head.
So while we will always support the right of people to speak their minds, to protest, and to advocate for change, we abhor racism in all its forms, and we do not support a right to anti-Semitic hate speech and bigotry of the kind we have been seeing.
We conclude by reit­er­at­ing that Labor’s support for Israel has been steadfast since before the modern state was founded.
Our support has also been steadfast through­out the long peace process, which is the only path out of the conflict that in the last month has once again erupted into violence, causing untold suffering on both sides. Spe­cific­ally, Labor is committed to sup­port­ing an enduring and just two-state solution to the Israeli – Palestini­an conflict, based on the right of Israel to live in peace within secure borders inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised and agreed by the parties, and reflect­ing the legit­im­ate aspir­a­tions of the Palestini­an people to also live in peace and security within their own state.
Thank you,
The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP
Senator Deborah O’Neill
The Hon Bernie Ripoll MP

The following message was then read from Josh Fry­den­berg MP, Par­lia­ment­ary Secretary to the Prime Minister:

At this most difficult time for Israel and inter­na­tion­al Jewry, my heart goes out to all the families who have had members killed or wounded as we pray for an end to the violence.
Israel as a freedom loving democracy in a sea of instabil­ity and ant­ag­on­ism to her, has the right to defend itself against terrorist attacks and protect all its citizens.
Hamas has proven that it is no partner for peace and with it at the helm in Gaza, a necessary nego­ti­ated two state solution seems tra­gic­ally to be a long way away.
I thank all of you here today for Standing Up For Israel
Josh Fry­den­berg MP
Federal Member for Kooyong
Par­lia­ment­ary Secretary to the Prime Minister

Robert Goot AM SC, President of the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, gave the following address to the rally:

Friends, once again – We stand proudly with Israel.
We stand with Israel for its security and above all for peace.
We stand with Israel in mourning the deaths of 64 brave members of the IDF.
We deplore the appalling loss of life and injury sustained by innocent civilians in Gaza and in Israel. We know that Israel has taken unpre­ced­en­ted steps to minimize civilian cas­u­al­ties, and we know that those efforts will be intens­i­fied, whilst Israel exercises its fun­da­ment­al right, which we support, to protect its citizens from armed aggres­sion.
But we have to recall who it is firing the rockets and tunneling into Israel – not just “militants” as 60 Minutes chose to describe them last week, but Hamas – an organ­iz­a­tion that is openly violent, genocidal and anti-Semitic and is pro­scribed as a terrorist organ­iz­a­tion including by Australia.
And let us not forget that the Hamas Charter expli­citly calls for the elim­in­a­tion of Israel by force and the removal by exterm­in­a­tion or expulsion, of its Jewish citizens. That is why the rockets are fired and the tunnels are built.
It is not a blame game it is the shocking reality. Israel under­stands it – so should the world. It is those facts – largely ignored by the media, which are fun­da­ment­al to under­stand­ing the position Israel is in; the exist­en­tial threat to its existence; its response and whether or not it is pro­por­tion­al.
From January to 30 June 2014, Hamas fired more than 200 rockets into Israel. The only purpose was to kill or maim innocent Israeli citizens. No one com­plained; the UNHRC said nothing; there were no demon­stra­tions about Hamas’ war crimes – for war crimes they were and are.
From July 2014, Hamas bombarded Israel’s major pop­u­la­tion centres with thousands of rockets They are not fire crackers. They are not unsoph­ist­ic­ated rockets which Israel can ignore. And if they are only “backyard rockets”, it is only because Hamas’ backyard is Iran.
That the rockets have not resulted in more deaths, is solely due to Iron Dome’s effect­ive­ness. But the dis­rup­tion and the psy­cho­lo­gic­al and related effects alone on the young, the old, the survivors of the Shoah and other sections of society, is well doc­u­mented, massive and com­pletely unac­cept­able and intol­er­able.
And then there are the tunnels, con­struc­ted with materials provided to Hamas, including by Israel, to build houses, hospitals and schools, but cruelly and cynically diverted for the explicit purpose – not of safe­guard­ing or advancing the interests of Gazan civilians, but of deliv­er­ing Hamas ter­ror­ists under­ground into Israel to do their worst.
These are soph­ist­ic­ated tunnels, 4 – 5 stories below the ground, con­struc­ted in a vast network, from hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cement, diverted from civilian infra­struc­ture. And whilst Israel is condemned for killing innocent children, not one word is uttered by its critics, lamenting the death of 160 Palestini­an children who have died helping to build those tunnels.
We deplore the loss of innocent lives, but we know that Hamas’ cynicism, in locating its armaments in, and operating out of, homes and mosques using human shields, knows no bounds. Who other than Hamas, would locate its command centre under­neath the al-Shifa hospital?
And fuelled by the unavoid­able outcome of Hamas’ delib­er­ate policy, Israel’s defence of its citizens has unleashed an out­pour­ing of hatred of Israel hatred and open Jew hatred, the likes of which have not been seen in Europe, since the early 1930s.
But what would the world have Israel do? Not respond; attack the weapons but not the tunnels or vice versa; or simply turn Iron Dome off for a day or two.
We know the answer – Israel like any other respons­ible nation, must defend its citizens whilst taking care of innocents in harm’s way. No one else would put up with it and nor should Israel.
And what has been the reaction in Australia?
Last week, 43 par­lia­ment­ari­ans called for “a ceasefire, which includes an end to the Israeli occu­pa­tion and the blockade of Gaza”.
What occu­pa­tion of Gaza you may well ask? Israel ceased to occupy Gaza 9 years ago. In 2005, it uni­lat­er­ally withdrew all its citizens and troops, but left its agri­cul­tur­al infra­struc­ture, in the hope that by ceasing that occu­pa­tion it would find some peace. After Hamas took control in 2007, all Israel got in exchange were rockets. It was only then that the blockade was imposed.
And how can there be a call to end the blockade, without at the same time calling for Hamas’ weapons stockpile and the vast network of deep tunnels extending under Israel’s border, to be destroyed. Were it otherwise, a ceasefire would mean that Israel would cease, but Hamas would have an unri­valled capacity to fire.
Then they say that Israel’s response has been dis­pro­por­tion­ate. As if the concept of pro­por­tion­al­ity in war is based on the number of each side’s civilian cas­u­al­ties. It is not and never has been.
The rule of pro­por­tion­al­ity in armed conflict relates to loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anti­cip­ated”.
The “concrete and direct military advantage” of Israel’s military actions in Gaza is the removal of the direct threat posed to the lives and well-being of 8 million Israeli citizens (Jewish and Arab) by Hamas rocket attacks, which by being“indiscriminate attacks” that are “not directed at a specific military target”, breach the Genva Con­ven­tion. Further, the discovery of a vast network of tunnels from Gaza under res­id­en­tial areas in Israel, arguably poses an even greater threat to Israeli civilians than rocket fire directed at Israel’s civilian pop­u­la­tion centres.
Under the Geneva Con­ven­tions, Israel must give civilians warning of attacks and try to keep civilian cas­u­al­ties to a minimum, which is precisly what Israel does.
Israel forewarns civilians via leaflets, text messages, phone calls and other means of the time and place of impending oper­a­tions (even if this means pre­ju­dicing their military effect­ive­ness) and provides maps showing civilians where to go to be safe.
Of course Israel like every country makes mistakes, but Israel’s mistakes are neither accepted as such, nor forgiven.
And what about the main­stream media in Australia, who have failed to guard against biased, distorted, inac­cur­ate and simply erroneous coverage and com­ment­ary.
The cartoon in last Saturday’s SMH was unques­tion­ably antisemitic. Our letter of complaint to Fairfax was not even published. The Carlton accom­pa­ny­ing opinion piece, was simply a disgrace and had no place in a once highly respected newspaper. The report in yesterday’s SMH blaming Israel for breaking the ceasefire was untrue and con­tra­dicted by the UN and others.
60 Minutes “Unholy War” last Sunday night, did a massive dis­ser­vice to accurate and balanced reporting including by com­pletely failing to give its viewers an under­stand­ing of the issues and the reasons for so much loss and destruc­tion. Hamas was hardly mentioned – it was all about “Palestini­an militants” who were “funneling years of Palestini­an frus­tra­tion”. Viewers were told that Israel was “trying to get rid of as many Palestini­ans as they can”. And there was no attempt to have anyone counter that libel. And in another untruth, viewers were told, complete with graphics, that “Israel was carved out of the Palestini­an ter­rit­or­ies of the West Bank and Gaza.” The 1947 UN partition vote, the 1948 war of inde­pend­ence and the 6 day war, might never have happened for viewers of 60 Minutes.
Friends if we control the media as is sometimes hatefully alleged, we’re not doing it at all well.
Not everyone who cri­ti­cizes Israel is anti-Semitic, and whilst many people of goodwill are truly shocked and dismayed at the loss and suffering, the most con­cern­ing aspect of what we have seen and heard in the last few weeks is that, fed by the distorted media reporting, some of the anti Israel brigade both on the left and the right, are now showing their true anti-Semitic colours, or as Melanie Phillips observed “the mask has been torn away”.
And perhaps even more troubling, in Australia, there has been a dearth of con­dem­na­tion of this outbreak of anti-Semitism from civil society.
There is much work to be done and rest assured we will do it with your help. Keep writing letters get the facts from us and keep them polite factual and firm.
Friends, in our lifetime we have been truly and uniquely blessed to witness the miracle of the rebirth of the State of Israel.
After 2 millenia of yearning, Israel is here – and here to stay.
On the eve of Tisha B’av, when we mourn the destruc­tion of the 1^st and 2^nd temples in Jerusalem, we stand with Israel knowing that there will be never be the destruc­tion of a 3^rd temple in Jerusalem – never.
Today, we stand with Israel in its quest for security. We stand with Israel in its search for a true, just and lasting peace with its Palestini­an neigh­bours – 2 states for 2 peoples.
Today, as always we stand with Israel proudly together – Am Yisrael Chai