Israeli PM "in denial" about Gaza crisis, claims Australian PM Anthony Albanese
A day after announcing that Australia will recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations next month, Albanese said that frustration with the Israeli government amid the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza had contributed to Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
'[Netanyahu] again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people,' Albanese said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC on Tuesday.
Albanese said he spoke with Netanyahu last week to inform him of Australia's decision to join France, Canada and the United Kingdom in recognising a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly meeting in September.
Netanyahu, he said, continued to make the same arguments he made last year regarding the conduct of Israel's war on Gaza, which has now killed more than 61,500 Palestinians since October 2023, as per Al Jazeera.
'That if we just have more military action in Gaza, somehow that will produce a different outcome,' Albanese said, recounting his call with the Israeli leader, according to ABC News.
Announcing Australia's decision to recognise Palestinian statehood on Monday, Albanese said that 'the risk of trying is nothing compared to the danger of letting this moment pass us by'.
Albanese had said just last month that he would not be drawn on a timeline for recognition of a Palestinian state, and has previously been wary of a public opinion backlash in Australia, which has significant Jewish and Muslim minorities.
But the public mood has shifted sharply in Australia against Israel's war on Gaza, as per Al Jazeera.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched across Sydney's Harbour Bridge this month, calling for aid deliveries to be allowed to enter Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsens and Israel's military continues to block relief efforts, as per Al Jazeera. (ANI)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Protestors go on strike in Israel demanding ceasefire and hostage releases
JERUSALEM (AP) — Protestors in Israel demanding their government make a deal to secure the release of hostages held by militants in Gaza escalated their campaign on Sunday, staging a strike that snarled traffic and shuttered businesses. The action organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum marked a fresh push, weeks after militant groups released videos of hostages and Israel signaled plans for a new Gaza offensive. Protesters fear further fighting could endanger the 50 hostages believed to remain in Gaza, only about 20 of whom are thought to be alive. They chanted, 'We don't win a war over the bodies of hostages' and demanded a deal. Netanyahu's allies oppose any deal that leaves Hamas in power 'Today, we stop everything to save and bring back the hostages and soldiers. Today, we stop everything to remember the supreme value of the sanctity of life,' said Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest. 'Today, we stop everything to join hands — right, left, center and everything in between.' Although Israel's largest labor union, Histadrut, ultimately did not join Sunday's action, strikes of this magnitude are relatively rare in Israel. Many businesses and municipalities decided independently to strike. Still, an end to the conflict does not appear near. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the immediate release of the hostages but is balancing competing pressures, haunted by the potential for mutiny within his coalition. Far-right members of his cabinet insist they won't support any deal that allows Hamas to retain power. The last time Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released hostages, they threatened to topple Netanyahu's government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called the stoppage 'a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas' hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardize its security and future.' Israeli airstrike hits power plant in Yemen Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's capital Sunday, escalating strikes on Iran-backed Houthis, who since the war began have fired missiles at Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea. Both the IDF and a Houthi-run television station in Yemen announced the strikes. Al-Masirah Television said they targeted a power plant in the southern district of Sanhan, sparking a fire and knocking it out of service, the Yemeni station said. Israel's military said Sunday's strikes targeted energy infrastructure it claimed was being used by the Houthis, and were launched in response to missiles and drones aimed at Israel. While some projectiles have breached its missile defenses — notably during its war with Iran in June — Israel has intercepted the vast majority of missiles launched from Yemen. More tents sent to Gaza ahead of new displacement order While demonstrators in Israel demanded a ceasefire, Israel began preparing for an invasion of Gaza City and other populated parts of the besieged strip, aimed at destroying Hamas. The military body that coordinates its humanitarian aid to Gaza said Sunday that the supply of tents to the territory would resume. COGAT said it would allow the United Nations to resume importing tents and shelter equipment into Gaza ahead of plans to forcibly evacuate peopel from combat zones 'for their protection.' Tents and the majority of assistance has been blocked from entering Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade in March after a ceasefire collapsed. Deliveries have since partially resumed, though aid organizations say the flow is far below what is needed. Some have accused Israel of 'weaponizing aid' through blockades and rules they say turn humanitarian assistance into a tool of its political and military goals. Israel's air and ground war has already killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza and displaced most of the population. The United Nations is warning that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 61,897 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own. ___ Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. AP writer Samy Magdy contributed from Cairo. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at
Japan Forward
6 hours ago
- Japan Forward
WWII Through the Eyes of Hideki Tojo's Great-Grandson
For many, the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII is an exercise in remembrance. Recalling dates, paging through black-and-white photographs, or watching grainy footage in history documentaries. Surviving combat veterans, Holocaust survivors, and others who lived through the 1940s mark the day with a weight few of us can fully grasp. For the descendants of wartime leaders, however, the anniversary carries a different burden — what one might call an imposed representation. Born long after the guns fell silent, they inherit not the actions, but the legacies, of those in power. The challenge is to transcend inherited enmity and help build a better world from the rubble of history. Hidetoshi Tojo, great-grandson of wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, knows this struggle well. Speaking to JAPAN Forward ahead of the August 15 anniversary, he reflected on his journey from keeping silent about his family history to confronting it openly. "It was difficult for the Tojo family after the war," he recalled. "Even though I knew from a young age that the man in the history books wearing that uniform was my great-grandfather, I kept quiet for a long time." A family photograph of Hideki Tojo. (©SBS Insight screenshot) That changed in 2015, during the 70th anniversary of the war's end. Tojo agreed to a series of interviews, including one for Insight , a talk show on Australia's SBS network. The program brought together an unlikely group: the son of an Australian POW, Josef Stalin's great-grandson, Harry Truman's grandson, a Polish couple who had survived Auschwitz, and Niklas Frank, son of Nazi official Hans Frank. The filming took place before a live audience under hot studio lights. "Truman's grandson couldn't be there in person, but we spoke remotely," Tojo recalled. "It was important for me to meet one of President Truman's descendants," he said. "I found him to be a man of great understanding. He has visited the sites of the atomic bombings, met survivors, and you could feel in him a kind of pang of conscience over their suffering." Hidetoshi Tojo (center) appears on the Australian TV program Insight in 2015 alongside John Dunlop (right), son of Australian surgeon and POW Weary Dunlop, and Niklas Frank, son of German Nazi politician Hans Frank. (©SBS Insight Screenshot) Clifton Truman Daniel, the eldest grandson of former US President Harry Truman, appears on Insight via remote video. (©SBS Insight screenshot) That encounter shaped Tojo's view of history. "Of course, the United States was a victor in World War II. But when you think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and sense in someone like Truman's grandson the moral weight of that, then you realize there were no real winners in that war." Over the years, his exchanges with other descendants of wartime leaders gave him a broader perspective. "In many ways, not much has changed since then," he reflected. "The cast of characters is different, but the structural exploitation from the colonial period has simply been repackaged as global capital. That's neo-colonialism." While he values studying history, Tojo believes the future must take priority. "History is important, but the world hasn't moved much beyond eighty years ago. I've decided to leave the fine details to the professional historians. As citizens, our role is to move forward." Part of that forward motion came from unexpected affirmation. During the Insight taping, Tojo mentioned two acts by his great-grandfather that he views positively. The first was the 1943 Declaration for Greater East Asian Co-operation, issued at the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo. Framed as a call for Asian self-rule free from Western colonial domination, it was promoted as a vision of mutual prosperity among Asian nations. Hidetoshi Tojo (front row, fourth from right), great-grandson of former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on June 18, 2025. (ⓒVatican Media/Kyodo) The second was the Otpor Incident of 1938–1940, when Lieutenant General Kiichiro Higuchi, supported by then-Kwantung Army commander Hideki Tojo, helped thousands of Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution by allowing them safe transit through Japanese-occupied territories. "After the filming, the Polish Auschwitz survivors told me, with tears in their eyes, that my great-grandfather had done a wonderful thing in helping to save Jews," Tojo said. "That moment began to change my relationship with my family's past." His reflections are also shaped by the work of Shinsho Hanayama, a philosopher and Buddhist priest who served as chaplain at Sugamo Prison and was present at Hideki Tojo's execution in December 1948. Hanayama recounted to younger Tojo that his great-grandfather shook hands with prison guards before being led to the gallows. It's a gesture the priest saw as "a handshake of friendship between former enemies, a symbol of peace to be told to future generations." Former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo listens as his death sentence is pronounced at the Tokyo Trials in November 1948. For Hidetoshi Tojo, Hanayama's message was clear: reconciliation is not a passive state but a deliberate choice, even in the most bitter of circumstances. Carrying the Tojo name in modern Japan has not been without challenges. Some people regard him with skepticism, assuming he must defend every action of his great-grandfather. Others avoid the topic altogether. Yet Tojo insists that descendants must be allowed to engage with history in their own way. Today, his focus is on cultural preservation. He is involved in a project to connect people with Japan's Shinto heritage, including an online platform that helps users locate local shrines. For him, reconnecting with cultural roots is not about nostalgia but about grounding society in values that can endure beyond political conflict. Author: Jason Morgan, Kenji Yoshida
Toronto Star
6 hours ago
- Toronto Star
The Trump administration wants to end the UN peacekeeping in Lebanon. Europe is pushing back
WASHINGTON (AP) — The future of U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon has split the United States and its European allies, raising implications for security in the Middle East and becoming the latest snag to vex relations between the U.S. and key partners like France, Britain and Italy. At issue is the peacekeeping operation known as UNIFIL, whose mandate expires at the end of August and will need to be renewed by the U.N. Security Council to continue. It was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel's 1978 invasion, and its mission was expanded following the monthlong 2006 war between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.
