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As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched Operation Gideon’s Chariots in Gaza — the final military campaign to create Donald Trump’s “freedom zone” — some Western elites suddenly became anxious.

After saying and doing nothing when Netanyahu unilaterally broke the ceasefire in Gaza in early March, and having been indifferent when Israel restarted its murderous criminal campaign against civilians sheltering in hospitals, schools and tent camps, and after Israel’s starvation doctrine had been waged for nearly three months, suddenly leaders in Paris, London and the European Union felt scared that they could face some kind of reckoning.

Brazilian journalist recently noted that the apex of the “post-modernist disease” of neoliberalism “has led to the normalisation of genocide, and this is the real face of the collective West”, now openly on display worldwide.

“Defending their genocidal aircraft carrier in West Asia is increasing revulsion globally and a backlash is going to be really historic.”   

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has belatedly scrambled to board the bandwagon, seeking political cover within a group of 22 countries calling for the resumption of food and medical supplies into Gaza.

The unwelcome optic of skeletal children dying from starvation in Gaza has suddenly frightened Western elites, who are now seeking avenues of escape from accountability for the final chapter of what surely must be called the holocaust of Gaza.

Foreign minister Penny Wong’s indicates that the signatories are not trying to stop the “war”. Rather, they don’t like the idea of mass starvation as a weapon; it’s a matter of political image.

United States President Donald Trump told Netanyahu he “was upset by images of suffering and dying children” because it is not a good look for him domestically, so he should “wrap it up”. In other words, kill and expel them by other means, but not by starvation.

The statement which Australia signed had “two straightforward messages … for Israel: allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately and enable the [United Nations] and humanitarian organisations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity.”

That was all.

The rest of the statement just repeated the empty and fork-tongued rhetoric Labor has mouthed ad nauseam for the past 18 months, including calling for “an immediate return to a ceasefire and working towards the implementation of a two-state solution”.

There is no mention, of course, that Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire agreement. No mention, of course, that Israel has transparently rejected the “two-state solution” and openly states its goal of “cleansing” not just Gaza, but the other occupied territories as well.

Australia’s interest in a “two-state solution” is a bare-faced lie because it refuses to recognise Palestine. 

The statement that “Hamas must immediately release all remaining hostages and allow humanitarian assistance to be distributed without interference”, deliberately omits any reference to the hundreds of Palestinian children, women and men held in Israeli jails.

It deliberately misrepresents the truth about “humanitarian assistance”, which is totally controlled by Israel.

Interference in the meagre distribution of aid is not the work of Hamas, but in cooperation with the Israeli military.

Labor is playing a hideously cynical and corrupt public relations scam designed to be able to say, in the future, that it was always against the genocidal destruction of Palestine.

Wong’s most recent statements say Australia “had consistently opposed the military expansion by Israel in Gaza, just as we have been clear that forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza would breach international law”.

Actually, all of Australia’s substantive actions since October 2023 have supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the “forced displacement of Palestinians”, whether in the Occupied Territories or south Lebanon. to supplying military equipment, including weapons-grade steel, essential parts for military aircraft and heavy machine guns, or providing safe haven for an unknown number of Australians who have served with Israeli military units in the past 19 months.

As the final chapter unfolds, perhaps the Labor-Coalition believe they can successfully pretend they did not breach international law by ignoring every directive issued by UN agencies. They have misrepresented what “self-defence” means, as written in the genocide convention. They have certainly misrepresented what international law says about the rights of children, women and civilians and the responsibilities of armed forces and governments to prevent human rights violations, massacres and genocide.

Omar El Akkad writes in : “This is an account of a fracture, a breaking away from the notion that the polite, western liberal ever stood for anything at all.”

This applies to Australia’s current ignominious Labor-Coalition politicians, who do nothing to stop the monumental criminal project, offering sophistry to preserve an image of moral concern while continuing to materially enable the savagery.

Australia doesn’t oppose Gideon’s Chariots; it just wants Palestinian kids to be murdered with their stomachs full, as the optics are better.

Australia’s weak self-protective sophistry is rendered even more shameful when placed beside the words of former (2006–09), who wrote on May 25: “What we are doing in Gaza is a war of extermination: indiscriminate, unrestrained, brutal, and criminal killing of civilians ... knowingly, intentionally, viciously, maliciously, recklessly. Yes, we are committing war crimes.”