Maof

Michael Danby MHR
Monday July 17, 2006
Text of an address by Michael Danby to a public rally in support of Israel at the steps of Melbourne's GPO Monday 17th July 2006

Some of our fellow Australians watching and reading about the conflict in the last few days would adopt the fashionable position of a plague on all houses. I urge my fellow Australians to look beyond this superficial argument.

As the railway worker in Haifa interviewed this morning, said after the death of nine civilians at the railway workshop, this is the equivalent of the murder of our Australian compatriots in Bali and the attacks on the unprovoked train bombings in London, and the murder of 3,000 civilians on the world trade centre.

The political leadership of Australia whether it is government or opposition, the people who represent 95% of Australians believe as I believe, that Hezbolla and Hamas are terrorist organisations. People who have dealings with those organisations can be prosecuted under Commonwealth Law.

You have to understand where this conflict started. As Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said, Hamas and Hezbollah, the two terrorist organisations, launched rocket attacks on Israeli territory. Furthermore, Hamas and Hezbollah engaged in violations of Israeli territory, capturing and killing Israeli armed force members.

The current conflict began with the Iranian supplied missiles targeting only civilians in Israeli towns and cities. The Israelis enjoy a de facto peace with the government of Lebanon and formal peace with Jordan and Egypt.

Four years ago the United Nations passed resolution 1559 which called on all parties to respect the border between Israel and Lebanon and for the Lebanese government to disarm the Hezbollah militia. As Kevin Rudd told Sky News, all of this was done in violation of Security Council resolutions adopted over the last two years which have required the government of Lebanon to disarm the Hezbollah militia in the Southern part of that country.

Imagine that the NSW government allowed a group armed with long range rockets to bomb the suburbs of Melbourne from NSW and then protested that Victoria should not respond because they had no control of this armed militia in their territory. That is the equivalent of what the Lebanese government is saying.

In November of last year Israel despite great internal turmoil withdrew unilaterally from Gaza. Since then every day the people of Sderot and Ashkelon have had over 1000 missiles launched at them from Gaza.

It's crucial that our fellow Australian look beneath the trite lazy equivalence trap that arises from simplistic media reporting of a conflict that began with Hamas and Hezbollah kidnappings and missile attacks. That Israelis have withdrawn from Gaza, they want to unilaterally withdraw form 90% of the West Bank.

Israel is a booming bustling modern democratic technological state. It wants modernity, a future and peace.

The attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas underline what this conflict is about and what Australian's need to understand it is not about a bunch of vengeful Jews blowing up Lebanon for the sake of it. Hamas/Hezbollah and their sponsors in Iran openly say their aim is to obliterate Israel. They want to destroy the near 6 million Jews of Israel, just as the Nazis did more than 60 years ago.

There is nothing that any government no matter how davish, now matter how accepting of a Palestinian state along side of Israel can do except reject this existential threat.

Finally, let me conclude by saying, it is no coincidence that the Australian parliament classifies Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organisations. This is not something simply decided by the government. It is done with the full and total support of the opposition.

In other words, and I urge the Australian media present to communicate this to the Australian people, your elected representatives can have arrested charged and jailed any person who belongs to the organisations in Australia that are doing the same to the Israelis as they would do to us.

Kevin Rudd, Kim Beazley, John Howard and Alexander Downer, all grieve at the loss of civilian life. All call for restraint to be exercised to the extent that it can. But let there be no mistake, any defeat for those who would appose their 6th century perversion of one of the world's great religions on all of us whether it is Sheik Nazralah, Khaled Mashaal, Abu Bakar Bashir in Indonesia, or OBL in his cave somewhere in Wazeristan, is a victory for those of us whether in Australia, Israel or the United State or Indonesia, who want a democratic pluralist future.

We must be very clear that the war against Islamist terror is not a war against Lebanese, Indonesians or Muslims. Indeed, the safety, wellbeing and future of moderate mainstream Islam in Indonesia, will determine the safety and security of Australians.

So let us understand that Israel's cause is our cause. Israel's victory over terrorism is Australia's victory. The defeat of Hezbollah/Hamas is indivisible from the defeat of Jaamah Islamia or Al Qaida.

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