‘No satisfactory solution': Governing control in Gaza deemed ‘complicated'
'They could attempt to revert to something along the lines of Hamas,' Mr Kemp said.
'It's a very complicated situation with no satisfactory solution in my view at the end of this.'
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West Australian
9 minutes ago
- West Australian
Aaron Patrick: Penny Wong can't answer the pivotal question about Gaza
When Foreign Minister Penny Wong was asked the pivotal question about her Government's recognition of a Palestinian state - why would Hamas give up power? - the woman who spent more than a year working on a historic shift in Australian policy had no answer. 'I speak for Australia,' she told Sarah Ferguson on the 7.30 program Monday evening. 'We are working to deliver a change in the cycle of violence that we have seen, and to work with others to try and provide some hope in what has been a very dark time.' Senator Wong, though, was clearer about another crucial point: Australia's recognition is not conditional on any actions by the Palestinians. The decision has been made, come what may. There was a different emphasis earlier Monday, when Anthony Albanese referred to the 'conditions' he had placed upon the Palestinian Authority's leader, Mahmoud Abbas. The Prime Minister said Mr Abbas had promised to reform the corrupt but largely compliant institution, which Australia will, in a month's time, consider represents a new country, the State of Palestine. 'And the conditions are ones that are consistent with the declaration in June, that recognition of the State of Israel, which of course the Palestinian Authority would argue had occurred with the Oslo Accords,' Mr Albanese said. He was referring to a letter sent in June by Mr Abbas to French President Emmanuel Macron that said: 'Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces.' Mr Abbas said he was 'ready to invite Arab and international forces to be deployed as part of a stabilisation/protection mission with a (UN) Security Council mandate'. In other words, the nominal Palestinian leader was asking for the international community to give him the Gaza Strip, from which the Palestinian Authority was violently ejected in 2007. Rather than the agreement towards peace Mr Albanese portrayed the conversation as, Mr Abbas seems to have repeated the offer he made to Mr Macron. On Monday, two months after the French president posted Mr Abbas' Hamas denunciation on X, Mr Albanese claimed credit: 'This is one of the commitments Australia has sought – and received – from President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.' Mr Albanese's grasp of the intricacies of Middle East politics, and geography, has been questioned by people who have discussed the region with him in private. On Tuesday, appearing on the Sunrise program, he did not appear to know or remember that Israel abuts the Mediterranean Sea. 'Hamas don't support two states,' he said. 'They support one state. In their own words, 'from the river to the sea', from the Jordan river to the ocean.' In the US, a Democratic diplomatic veteran of the conflict did not agree with the switch. Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said recognising a Palestinian state before Hamas was removed 'would fortify proponents of terror on the Palestinian side and rejectionists of Palestinian statehood on the Israeli side.' Mr Albanese and Ms Wong say their decision was influenced by a call from 22 Arab countries on July 31 for Hamas to stop fighting and release its hostages. As anti-Israel fervour swept through the streets of the Western world, the Arab position was seen as tacit recognition of Hamas's responsibility for the war. The Arab's position showed that Hamas is being isolated, and a combination of Western pressure on Israel's right-wing government and international support for the Palestinian Authority could help remove it from power, end the violence in Gaza and bring peace closer, Mr Albanese and Ms Wong argued. 'We need to make sure that Hamas is isolated,' the Prime Minister said on Monday. 'The comments by Arab League nations have made it clear that that is their position as well.' There's an important problem with the position. Hamas is not an Arab-sponsored organisation. It is funded by Iran, the Persian power seen as a destabilising force across the Middle East by most Arab leaders. Iran's Islamist leaders are extreme anti-Semites impervious to Arab pressure. Why they would stop funding their Hamas proxies in a war against what they call the Zionist Entity is unclear. Without Iranian pressure, why Hamas's remaining leaders would retire from war and politics is a question not even Australia's formidable Foreign Minister could answer. Amid arguments about the pros and cons of international recognition, less symbolic steps towards peace seem to be happening. A regional media outlet, Sky News Arabia, reported Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are drawing up a cease-fire and hostage-release for consideration by Hamas. The deal would require the release of all hostages, and the bodies of some who have died, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli army would move to less aggressive posture and Hamas fighters would pause attacks while negotiations were held for a permanent cease-fire. The impetus for the renewed peace effort appears to be a desire to avoid another mass Israeli incursion into Gaza, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu foreshadowed on Sunday. Which suggests that, sadly, violence rather than talk can bring an opponent to the negotiating table.
Sky News AU
38 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
ABC and the Guardian labelled ‘antisemitic' for leftist views
Sky News host Danica De Giorgio and contributor Will Kingston discussed the Albanese government's recognition of a Palestinian state amid allegations of media bias and antisemitism related to Israeli actions and Hamas. 'There's an obvious answer and a less obvious answer; the obvious answer is that most of the media is of the left and the left is aggressively anti-Israel,' Mr Kingston said. 'I think there are journalists within the ABC and the Guardian who aren't just anti-Israel, they are antisemitic. 'I don't think that the left throughout this conflict has been able to comprehend that Hamas and indeed many people who hold the Islamic faith across the Middle East, do not think like us, they don't have a Western liberal world view, the concept of human rights is foreign to them.'
Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
Israel pummels Gaza City, as Hamas leader due for talks
Israeli planes and tanks have kept bombarding eastern areas of Gaza City, killing at least 11 people, witnesses and medics say, with Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya due in Cairo for talks to revive a US-backed ceasefire plan. The latest round of indirect talks in Qatar ended in deadlock in late July with Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas trading blame over the lack of progress on a US proposal for a 60-day truce and hostage release deal. Israel has since said it will launch a new offensive and seize control of Gaza City, which it captured shortly after the war's outbreak in October 2023 before pulling out. Militants regrouped and have waged largely guerrilla-style war since then. It is unclear how long a new Israeli military incursion into the sprawling city in north Gaza, now widely reduced to rubble, could last or how it would differ from the earlier operation. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to expand military control over Gaza, expected to be launched in October, has increased a global outcry over the widespread devastation of the territory and a hunger crisis spreading among Gaza's largely homeless population of more than two million. It has also stirred criticism in Israel, with the military chief of staff warning it could endanger surviving hostages and prove a death trap for Israeli soldiers. It has also raised fears of further displacement and hardship among the estimated one million Palestinians in the Gaza City region. Witnesses and medics said Israeli planes and tanks pounded eastern districts of Gaza City again overnight, killing seven people in two houses in the Zeitoun suburb and four in an apartment building in the city centre. In the south of the enclave, five people including a couple and their child were killed by an Israeli air strike on a house in the city of Khan Younis and four by a strike on a tent encampment in nearby, coastal Mawasi, medics said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports and that its forces took precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Separately, it said its forces had killed dozens of militants in north Gaza in the past month and destroyed more tunnels used by militants in the area. Five more people, including two children, had died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said. The new deaths raised the number of deaths from the same causes to 227, including 103 children, since the war started, it said. Israel disputes the malnutrition fatality figures reported by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed over the border into southern Israel, killing 1200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures, in the country's worst-ever security lapse. Israel's ground and air war against the Islamist Hamas in Gaza since then has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, left much of the enclave in ruins. Netanyahu, whose far-right ultranationalist coalition allies want an outright Israeli takeover and resettlement of Gaza, has vowed the war will not end until Hamas is eradicated. A Palestinian official with knowledge of the ceasefire talks said Hamas was prepared to return to the negotiating table. However, the gaps between the sides appear to remain wide on key issues including the extent of any Israeli military withdrawal and demands for Hamas to disarm, which it has ruled out before a Palestinian state is established. An Arab diplomat said mediators Egypt and Qatar had not given up on reviving the negotiations.
