Liberals Support Israel’s Right to Defend Itself
Both Tony Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition and his deputy Julie Bishop have issued strong statements supporting Israel.
Mr Abbot said: “The Coalition strongly condemns the missile attacks from Gaza into southern Israel which have taken Israeli lives and disrupted Israel’s daily life.
We of course regret the escalation of conflict, but Israel has every right to defend itself against the threat while continuing to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties.
The latest escalation of conflict highlights the importance of Israel and the Palestinians reaching compromise including the recognition of Israel by the Palestinians and their renunciation of violence – necessary preconditions to achieving a lasting two-state peace settlement.”
Deputy Leader Julie Bishop added: ” I condemn the recent attacks on Israel with dozens of rockets fired by extremist groups targeting cities and towns.
Those launching these rockets are seeking to terrorise and kill Israeli civilians.
Israel has the right to defend its people against these acts of terrorism and the government has responded.
The first step towards resolving this latest conflict is for Hamas and other armed groups to halt the attacks on Israel and to commit to peaceful negotiations.
I call on the leaders of Hamas and other groups to break the cycle of violence that has brought hardship and suffering to the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.”
Compare the Liberal statement with the Labor’s.
Labor is condemning Hamas and,yet, calls on Israel to show restraint !!!
The key issue is the fact that Hamas, and in fact the entire Palestinian political entity, has been provoking Israel continuously and the rocket attacks are the strongest statement by the palestinians that they are bent on engaging Israel in armed conflict. Israel’s cannot show restraint but respond to the full extent in order to eliminate any capacity by the palestinians to engage in aggressive military activities.