By Jim Hayes

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has attacked Australia for acting shamefully for moving towards recognising Palestinian Statehood. Ther only shameful part about this is that it took so long. It took more than the admitted 61,000 Gazan’s dead, many of them women and children, and perhaps as many as 40,000, plus Netanyahu’s loud proclamation to totally annex Gaza. Australian public opinion moved this rather than compassion from the Australian leadership.

Netanyahu’s attack on Australia is an attack on all of us, and it would only serve justice if the Australian government moved to cut economic ties and send the Israeli ambassador home. This is what Australian society must now call for.

This will continue to be called antisemitic by the Zionist lobby and apologists for Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians. This is certain. But it should not get in the way of standing up for justice. Human decency demands speaking out against the modern-day holocaust, aiming at the extermination of a people.

Many Israelis now agree. Last weekend saw more than 100,000 in the streets demanding peace and a pull out of Gaza through a peace deal, a military deal to pull out forces. This would create the conditions for the release of the about 20 Israeli hostages in Gaza. Israeli is becoming increasingly fragmented.

Division is growing within the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), showing up in public division between senior officers and political leaders. Even more telling is the growing list of soldiers criticising the war of Gaza. Significant numbers are now refusing to go into Gaza. Some are deserting, according to a host of reports coming out of Israel. According to Israel’s national broadcaster, Kan, only 60% of soldiers are showing up to reserve duty.

“This is the most severe crisis in the history of relations between the political echelon and the military since the 1948 war,” said Prof Yagil Levy, the head of the Institute for the Study of Civil-Military Relations at the Open University of Israel.

World opinion is now firmly on the Palestinian side. With many governments joining to recognise Palestinian statehood. Event some of the staunchest allies of both Israel and the United States, the enabler of the crimes against humanity, finding themselves compelled by the tide of public opinion to at least look good.

Australia is part of this irresistible tide. Nothing like it has been seen for a long time. The resilience of the pro-Palestinian movement, its determination, and capacity to remain ongoing has won the hearts and minds of the population. Frightened of this, the political elite move to wedge through accusations that have shifted from false accusations of antisemitism, towards claims that this movement poses a security threat and accuses it of creating social division. More Anti-democratic laws are proposed and applied. It’s too late for this to work. These attacks will be resisted and their authors isolated. When too many people are targeted, they will become unenforceable. The powerful movement in support for the Palestinians is also a movement for democracy in Australia.

Above all else, it is the courage of the Gazan’s. They are not defeated. The continue to stand up in the face of the horror. This is the source of the resistance, drawing in humanity into an unstoppable tide of history. Israel and its enablers will be defeated. The start of this had begun. The questions are how long will it take and how much more suffering there will be before the last nail is hammered into the coffin of this monster?