Media Report 2025.09.12
Others deal Trump out of the game
The Age & Sydney Morning Herald| Waleed Aly | 12 September 2025
The vast bulk of Donald Trump’s presidential playbook centres on deal-making. On matters as diverse as trade and foreign policy, the approach seems broadly consistent: sweep away such guardrails as global rules of free trade or geopolitical alliances, and reduce matters to a suite of country-by-country agreements. In this way, there is no need for the US even to feign consistency, or fealty to any set of overarching principles. Trump doesn’t need a coherent philosophy on tariffs or democracy, sovereignty or even war. In this world, there are no rules, or doctrines. There is only leverage.
In this way, the US president hopes to achieve everything from the enrichment of America to a Nobel Peace Prize. The early signs are not encouraging, especially on the world peace front given both Russia’s war on Ukraine and Israel’s annihilation of Gaza are only continuing apace, apparently impervious to the art of Trump’s dealing. But Israel’s bombing of Qatar this week, targeting Hamas officials, represents something even deeper. At issue now isn’t merely whether Trump will succeed in making deals. It’s whether other nations will any longer see much reason to bother trying.
Trump has condemned what he has described as “unilaterally bombing inside Qatar – a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace”. The crux of Trump’s ire is the last point he raises: Qatar is central to Trump’s deal-making. Specifically, it is a key player in any ceasefire or peace deal that would, in addition to halting the carnage in Gaza, return the remaining Israeli hostages home. Indeed, there can be such no deal without Hamas, and Qatar can bring them to the table.
Yet among those Israel killed was the son of Hamas’ top negotiator. This could only have been an attempt to kill the father. That is, Israel is ostensibly engaging in peace negotiations with Hamas, while attempting to kill the very people with whom it is negotiating.
At this point there are two possibilities. One is that this was a relatively spontaneous attack, perhaps in response to this week’s terrorist attack on a Jerusalem bus, as Israel’s defence minister has said. If so, Israel has chosen the very moment Hamas was considering Trump’s most recent ceasefire proposal – whose terms Trump said Israel had already accepted. To that end, Hamas’ chief negotiator held talks with Qatar’s prime minister this week. To try to kill that negotiator while he’s formulating his response is a strange way to pursue a peace deal.
The more likely scenario – confirmed by Israeli sources – is that this attack had been in planning for months. In that case, Israel can only have been negotiating under false pretences during that time. That would render the negotiations a charade, while the Netanyahu government’s forever war rolls on: a war that is now its own end, having proceeded well past what the Israeli army deems sound military objectives. And if those negotiations were a charade, then Donald Trump, Dealmaker in Chief, has been presiding over nothing.
It is not even four months ago that Israel bombed Iran, declaring an intention to degrade or destroy Iran’s nuclear program. This, too, occurred while Trump was holding negotiations, this time with a view to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. In that case, Israel attacked mere days before a scheduled US-Iran meeting. And while those talks had shown signs of becoming unproductive, Trump was proceeding with them all the same. And here, too, Israel targeted a leading Iranian negotiator (unsuccessfully, it later turned out). Needless to say, whatever else Israel’s bombs destroyed, Trump’s negotiations were among the rubble.
In the lead up to this, Trump had always said publicly he opposed Israeli strikes on Iran. In the aftermath, he claimed he had allowed them, and Iran had been given a negotiation deadline that expired the day before Israel struck. That is hard to square with the fact a meeting was still scheduled for the coming days, but either way, Trump had gone from opposing a strike and trying to strike a deal, to supporting one and joining the war in a matter of days.
On both occasions, that left Trump being either duped, or duplicitous. In the Qatari case, it certainly seems the former. Trump has maintained clear objections to Israel’s actions, Israel has claimed sole responsibility, and Trump admits he was only told about the attack when it was too late to stop it. As it happens, the US warned Qatar of the attacks after they had already commenced. Now, Trump has promised the Qataris he will not let something like this happen again. Precisely how so, when he was powerless to stop it the first time, he doesn’t say.
Because ultimately, Trump is choosing powerlessness here. He cannot press Israel to abide by international law – which both the Iranian and Qatari strikes violated – because Trump has abandoned any pretence of supporting a rules-based order. Trump does have enormous leverage over Israel in the form of military aid and co-operation, but there is absolutely no sign he has any intention to use it. Accordingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently feels he enjoys sufficient impunity that he can simply defy Trump, who will look on impotently.
In which case, duped or duplicitous, it makes little practical difference. Neither is good because either renders Trump’s negotiations close to worthless. Iran may well conclude it would have been better off shunning negotiations and leaving the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. And Qatar has found being part of Trump’s negotiations lends it no protection whatsoever. Meanwhile, Russia’s Vladimir Putin showed no desire to negotiate with Trump at a summit in Alaska last month, and rebuffed all Trump’s entreaties to end the Ukraine war. So unobliged does Putin feel that he didn’t even stay for the lunch they had planned.
That’s a sorry state of affairs for any US president. But it’s positively noxious for this one, for whom the deal is everything. That’s Trump’s card. The biggest one he has to play. Now it turns out it, in this game, it’s a card of dubious worth.
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Hi-tech, low-ethics future
The Age | Letters | 12 September 2025
Hi-tech, low-ethics future
Re ‘Precision missiles ending Gaza peace talks’, 11/9 – one conundrum surviving the gobsmacking at Israel’s lethal raid on Hamas’ leadership in Qatar is: “Who knew?” On this seemingly trivial detail swings a key contemporary insight.
Did Israel really “go it alone”, thumbing their nose at the US by informing them too late? Or did Israel tell Donald Trump early, but defy his stated view that “it does not advance US’ or Israel’s goals”? Either way, rogue Israel won.
Or does the real clue lie in correspondent Paul Nuki’s concluding hint: Trump and the involved host of the peace talks, Qatar’s PM, are both contenders for this year’s Nobel Prize.
Trump’s record actually does suggest it’s conceivable he’d look away from a targeted strike on Hamas negotiators, even while they were working on a response to his own ceasefire proposal. That is, if his personal interest would be advanced.
If Nuki’s idea is more than a whacky conspiracy theory, it’s even more shocking than the emergence in recent years of targeted assassination as a quasi-legitimate international relations tactic, prominently deployed by Russia, the US – and of course Israel.
Where does this hi-tech, low-ethics pathway lead?
Ken Blackman, Inverloch
Israel’s actions legal
It’s ludicrous how Israel is copping so much criticism for a strike on Hamas terrorist leaders in Qatar, when reaction to similar strikes on terrorists by other countries have been so different. Not only this but strikes ordered on Israel are coming directly out of Hamas leadership within Qatar. The US strikes on Osama bin Laden and various ISIS leaders to give just one example, were welcomed by many of those now condemning Israel – for doing exactly the same.
The Hamas leaders in Qatar aren’t just a negotiating team they are directing attacks on Israel, including the October 7 atrocities and the recent attack on buses in Jerusalem while sitting in Qatar, which killed six people. Moral equivalence?
This makes Israel’s action legal under the self-defence pro visions of Article 51 of the UN Charter.
As to arguments Israel damaged ceasefire hopes, the Hamas leaders were blocking every proposal from their safety in Qatar, so maybe this will encourage them to be more reasonable.
Stephen Lazar, Elwood
Is world pro-Hamas?
I’m not sure what point Cathy Wilcox is trying to make. My reading of it is that Israel is surrounded by a whole world that is aligned with the Hamas terrorist group.
All those countries and peoples either directly support Hamas’s genocidal goals or are willing to sit idly by while Hamas attempts to bring about the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people. No wonder Israel has to fight so often and so hard simply to survive.
David Francis, Ivanhoe East
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With friends like this . . .
Sydney Morning Herald | Letters | 12 September 2025
The US knew Israel was going to attack a key US ally and did nothing to prevent it, nor warn that ally (“Israel blows up peace talks, makes mess for US”, September 11)? Then it issues a limp “unfortunate” muttering that means nothing. We call ourselves a US ally. It tells us that we are a key one. We are paying billions for the privilege- submarines and tariffs, etc yet our PM keeps getting snubbed, our PBS is under attack, our environmental prudence and social media governance likewise, the list goes on. Actions speak louder than words. Being an ally means something different to us than it does to the US. We are wise to keep building alternative alliances.
Mark Sapsford, North Turramurra
The fact that Israel has once again violated international law with its attack in the sovereign state of Qatar is hardly news worthy. Since when did Netanyahu’s far-right government abide by international or humanitarian law? Israel’s supreme arrogance stems from its ability, with Trump’s absolute, endless and even reluctant support, to act with impunity. As a result, it has become an out-of-control, rogue state and a threat to world peace.
Bernard Moylan, Bronte
Despite President Trump’s best efforts, he seems to have made a poor choice in backing Israel come what may. Thursday’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox really said it all. Any excuse to bomb other countries as long as it keeps Netanyahu out of jail. What will you do to save the world, Donald?
Nola Tucker, Kiama
Justice v revenge
Our exceptional police have once again thought and planned, searched and found. Australian criminals and overseas interferers have their fingers in many of the reprehensible attacks on Jewish people and property (“Two arrests over antisemitic attacks”, September 11). Antisemitism is evil, and its presence in Australia must be actively resisted. However, it is not antisemitic to denounce the actions of the current Israeli government against the Palestinian people. Equating antisemitism with such opposition is an insult to the great majority of people in the world who are not antisemitic, but who can distinguish truth from lies, justice from revenge and the essential remembrance of a past genocide from a present murderous land and power grab.
Sister Susan Connelly, Croydon
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Loophole lets Hamas flag flyer off
The Australian | Bimini Plesser | 12 September 2025
A major loophole in federal legislation will allow the protester who flew a Hamas flag at a recent pro-Palestine rally in Brisbane to get away with it.
As 10,000 people marched through Brisbane’s CBD on August 24, a man waved the terrorist organisation’s flag above the crowd.
Australian Federal Police on Thursday revealed that while an investigation had been conducted and a Hamas flag seized, no charges would be laid.
A national counter-terrorism law introduced in 2023 states it is a criminal offence to display a terrorist symbol only if the person knows it is a prohibited symbol.
It is understood the man seen flying the Hamas flag claims he did not know what the symbol represented. His name has not been released.
The Australian Jewish community has expressed serious concerns over this “loophole” in the law, with one leader calling on police to investigate how the flag was obtained.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said the man who flew the flag should be prosecuted “and there should be no ifs or buts about it”.
“Hamas is an openly genocidal organisation that has videoed its terrorists butchering babies and raping and mutilating women,” he said. “The public display of the Hamas flag is abhorrent and a criminal offence under federal law. The fact that person claims not to have known it was a Hamas flag, in the context of a political demonstration about the Gaza war, defies credulity.
“It is beyond belief police would accept such a claim at face value, instead of testing it before a court.”
Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president Jason Steinberg said it was “lunacy” that no charges had been laid.
He said he could not believe anyone would take a flag they’d been handed and wave it if they didn’t know what it was.
“Ignorance is not an excuse,” he said. “It’s lunacy that someone wouldn’t know. The laws federal parliament passed were to ensure these terrorist symbols and flags were a criminal offence so it’s outrageous.”
Mr Steinberg said he hoped, if authorities accepted the man’s claims he did not know what the symbol represented, an investigation would be launched into who gave it to him.
“Who supplied that flag to him? How does the flag of a prescribed terrorist organisation appear on our streets? How does that happen?” he asked.
“I would call on the authorities to investigate that.”
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DOHA strike ‘like US hit on Bin Laden’: Bibi
The Australian / AFP | Staff writers | 12 September 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has compared his military’s strikes on Hamas leaders in Qatar with the US assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.
In a televised address, he called on Doha to either expel Hamas leaders or bring them to justice, warning: “Either you expel them or put them on trial – if you don’t, we will.”
Comparing Israel’s strike in the centre of Doha to US operations after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, Mr Netanyahu said: “We also have a September 11th. We remember October 7th. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“What did America do after 9/11? It promised to hunt the terrorists who committed that horrific act, wherever they were.
“It also passed a UN Security Council resolution two weeks later stating that governments cannot shelter terrorists.”
Responding to international criticism of the attack, the Israeli Prime Minister said: “These countries should be ashamed of themselves. What did they do when America killed Osama bin Laden? Did they say ‘Oh, what a terrible thing happened to Afghanistan or Pakistan’? No, they applauded. They should applaud Israel for standing by those principles and applying them.”
While Pakistan and Qatar are sovereign nations, both have frustrated the West with their support for terrorists over the years.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Pakistan sheltered not only bin Laden but other terrorists involved in the massacre. Similarly, Qatar has provided shelter to Hamas leaders for years.
Ismail Haniyeh, who preceded Yahya Sinwar as the group’s political leader until his assassination in 2024, lived in luxury with his millions in Doha, from where he approved the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Jerusalem has repeatedly asked Doha to expel militants living in comfort in the Gulf state, to no avail.
Mr Netanyahu’s remarks also appeared to be an indirect response to Donald Trump, who had called him in anger after the attack, criticising him for acting against a strong US ally. Mr Trump was equally angry that Israel had launched its strike without warning the US beforehand
In his address, Mr Netanyahu suggested Israel would target any country that provided shelter to terrorists. He did not name Turkey, but Istanbul has provided shelter to Hamas leaders.
Mr Netanyahu’s stance was backed by prominent Republican Steve Daines, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, who compared Hamas with a “cancer” that should be cut out.
“The Israelis, as we’ve seen, whether it’s with Iran or Hezbollah, sometimes doesn’t matter where these leaders are,” Senator Daines told Fox News Digital. “They’re going to come after them, not unlike the US did when we went after Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. We didn’t ask Pakistan for permission.”
He said if the US were in Israel’s position and “1200 innocent Americans (were) slaughtered by terrorists 40 miles (64km) from Washington DC”, then the “US would do everything within its power to eradicate the threat”.
Earlier, Qatar’s Prime Minister said Doha was considering the militant group’s future in his country, but the attack had killed any hope for the hostages in Gaza.
Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told CNN Doha was also reassessing its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas for a Gaza ceasefire.
The strike targeted Hamas officials meeting to discuss a US proposal for a truce, which included releasing all t surviving hostages over the first 48 hours.
The Wall Street Journal reports that after learning Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya was meeting with other officials in one building, Mr Netanyahu gave the green light for the attack. Ten jets fired long-range missiles from outside Qatar’s borders, killing six people including Mr Hayya’s son.
Israeli media reports defence officials are pessimistic about the strike’s results. “Right now there’s no indication the terrorists were killed,” one told Channel 12 TV.
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Israel was right to target the leaders of Hamas – they don’t want peace
The Australian | Letters | 12 September 2025
The Australian’s editorial of support for Israel’s targeting of Hamas leadership in Qatar is to be commended. Some commentators, and President Trump, have expressed dismay that this strike has set back negotiations for peace. This is a misguided view for, as much as the West would wish it to be so, peace is simply not part of the Hamas lexicon.
Alan Freedman, St Kilda East, Vic
Greg Sheridan and many others state that although Israel has every right to wage war on Hamas, violating the sovereign state of Qatar was a bridge too far. However, I do not remember anyone criticising America for violating the sovereign state of Pakistan when it hunted down Osama bin Laden. Any country that provides shelter for leaders of a terrorist regime is a fair target in my mind.
Robert Krochmalik, Pearl Beach, NSW
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Cops fear anti-Israel chaos at ALP offices
The Australian | Mark Morri | 12 September 2025
Three days of unauthorised anti-Israel protests are set to target Labor Party offices across the state next week, putting NSW and federal police on alert.
NSW Police are having to deploy significant resources for risk assessments in order to determine the number of officers they will need to monitor the protesters.
Police Association of NSW president Kevin Morton told The Daily Telegraph recent protests were taking officers away from serving the community and had left the force “stretched to the limit”.
“Our officers are turning up day after day, often on rostered days off, to staff these protests to the point some are suffering burnout,’’ he said.
A group calling itself Stop Arming Israel has organised next week’s protests, dubbed “Occupy ALP offices”.
It has posted on social media seeking supporters to protest at the offices of all state and federal Labor MPs, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s at Marrickville.
“It’s time to escalate,” the post says.
“We are calling on community groups and individuals to occupy their local ALP representatives’ offices between September 16th and 18th. The goal of the office occupations is to deliver a letter to the MP and organise a meeting to discuss what they are doing to stop the genocide.”
The Daily Telegraph understands the targets also include Premier Chris Minns’ office at Kogarah.
NSW Police said it was aware of the planned protests and would “monitor the situation accordingly”.
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‘Bring Bibi to justice’: Qatar PM
Daily Telegraph (Herald-Sun, Courier-Mail) | 12 September 2025
DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister warned that Israeli’s unprecedented strike in Doha targeting Hamas killed hope for Gaza hostages, calling for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be “brought to justice”.
His comments came a day after deadly strikes targeted Hamas leaders in Qatar – a US ally – a first in the oil-rich Gulf that rattled a region long shielded from conflict.
“I think that what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told CNN.
Doha is “reassessing everything” around their involvement in future ceasefire talks and discussing next steps with Washington, he said.
The attack on the residential compound also cast doubt on Qatar-mediated Gaza ceasefire talks and undermined security reassurances to the Gulf from key ally Washington.
Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed Israel would “act against its enemies anywhere” while Mr Netanyahu urged Qatar to expel Hamas officials or hold them to account, “because if you don’t, we will”.
Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political bureau since 2012 with Washington’s blessing, and has been a key mediator in Gaza talks alongside Egypt and the United States.
Palestinian militant group Hamas said six people were killed in the strikes, but its senior leaders had survived, affirming “the enemy’s failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation”.
Authorities were still searching through the rubble of the compound for the remains of victims.
Israel’s military said it also struck Huthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, including in the capital Sanaa, killing 35 people according to the rebels.
And in Gaza City on Wednesday, the Israeli military destroyed another high-rise building as it intensified its assault on the territory’s largest urban centre, despite mounting calls to end its campaign.
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Labor’s terror blunder
Courier-Mail | Ellen Ransley | 12 September 2025
Australians who wave terror flags could have had a harder time getting away with it if the government had listened to expert warnings about possible loopholes.
Police could not charge a man who held a Hamas flag at a Brisbane rally last month because he claimed not to know what he was holding, which there is a provision for under federal legislation passed in late 2023. Federally, the Coalition argued the “oversight” could have been identified if Labor hadn’t stifled debate on the legislation and opposed a review that would have taken place at the end of this year.
“It is absurd to suggest there could be an innocent reason for flying a Hamas flag at a pro-Palestine rally,” home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie said.
“This is a massive oversight by the Albanese government, who should immediately fix its botched legislation after it rammed it through parliament without proper scrutiny where this error could have been corrected.”
Initially, the law to criminalise hate symbols was solely to do with Nazi and Islamic State symbols, rather than all terror groups. It was only after dozens of expert submissions and sustained pressure from the Coalition the legislation was broadened and ultimately passed.
Even before that, concerns were raised the laws risked becoming purely symbolic.
Kath Gelber from the University of Queensland said the more complicated the law got, the more unenforceable it could become.
“When presented with a new social problem, federal governments have a propensity to pass a new law, and they pass them cumulatively without saying ‘OK, we’ll get rid of the one that pre-existed’, meaning the law gets more difficult,” she said.
“I’m in favour of stripping away the excess and targeting what is possible to enforce.”
Under the Queensland legislation it is a crime to display, distribute or publish a prohibited symbol that “might reasonably be expected to cause a member of the public to feel menaced, harassed, or offended”, unless the offender has a “reasonable excuse”.
A person would be let off if the symbol is displayed for a genuine educational, artistic, historical, legal, or religious reason; they did so “in the public interest”; or in opposition to the ideology.
The hurdle to prosecute an offender is higher with the federal law.
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UN Security Council condemns Israeli strikes on Qatar
Canberra Times / AAP | 12 September 2025
The United Nations Security Council has condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israeli ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations.
US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects US President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by the United Kingdom and France.
The widely condemned Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.
A Hamas official said on Thursday that the Israeli attack that targeted its leaders was an attempt to derail the ceasefire negotiations but would not change the Palestinian group’s terms for ending the war in the Gaza Strip.
In a televised address, Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said the strike was not only an attempt to assassinate the negotiating delegation but a deliberate blow to the entire process and a clear message rejecting any ceasefire deal.
He also accused Israel of targeting the mediation efforts of Qatar and Egypt.
“This attack was a blatant confirmation by Netanyahu and his criminal gang of their refusal to reach any agreement and their insistence on derailing all regional and international efforts aimed at halting the genocide,” Barhoum said.
However, the group has not officially announced it would close the door on future talks.
Barhoum said the strike targeted the group’s negotiating delegation while they were discussing a new ceasefire proposal delivered by the Qatari prime minister just a day earlier.
“At the moment of the terrorist attack, the negotiating delegation was in the process of discussing its response to the proposal,” he said.
Barhoum reaffirmed Hamas’ key demands: a full ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, a real prisoner-for-hostage exchange, humanitarian relief and reconstruction of the enclave.
Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would result in all of the hostages being released at once and Hamas surrendering.
Hamas said five of its members had been killed in the attack, including the son of Hamas’s exiled Gaza Strip chief and top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.
It was unclear whether al-Hayya or other top officials attended the funeral of those killed in the strike.
However, images distributed by Hamas showed at least two political leaders – Osama Hamdan and Izzat al-Rishq – present at the ceremony.
The funeral, held in the Qatari capital, was attended by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to Qatari state media.
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The nature of the enemy
Canberra Times | Letters | 12 September 2025
It’s no surprise that Gaza’s civil emergency service is claiming there are no safe areas outside of Gaza City. (“Israel ‘controls 40 per cent of Gaza City‘”, September 6) The civil emergency service is a Hamas entity, and Hamas is desperate to stop Gaza City’s residents from leaving the city so it can continue to use them as human shields.
It sets up roadblocks to stop residents from leaving and will fire on them if they do not comply. As has been shown repeatedly through this war, Hamas is more than willing to sacrifice the lives of its own people.
We must remember this is the nature of the enemy that Israel is fighting and stop blaming Israel for the casualties that Hamas causes.
Douglas Randell, Nicholls
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Senators say US is complicit in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza
Democrats Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley reach ‘inescapable conclusion’ after fact-finding trip to region
The Guardian |Joseph Gedeon | 12 September 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/democratic-senators-gaza-ethnic-cleansing
Two Democratic senators claim they have reached the “inescapable conclusion” that Israel is acting on a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza to force locals to leave, and they say the US is complicit.
Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, released their findings in a report on Thursday after returning from a congressional delegation to the Middle East where, they note, the destruction goes beyond bombs and bullets. They say they also found a systematic campaign to strangle humanitarian aid, which they call “using food as a weapon of war”.
“The Netanyahu government has gone far beyond targeting Hamas to imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza,” Van Hollen said at a Thursday press conference. “What they’re doing, and what we witnessed, is putting those goals into action.”
At least one hundred people have died from famine in Gaza, the United Nations said this week, citing the Gaza health ministry.
Relatives of one-and-a-half-year-old Palestinian Ayman Muhammad Abd al-Ghafur, who died from severe malnutrition, oxygen deprivation and muscle wasting, mourn as the body is taken from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Tuesday. Photograph: Abdallah Fs Alattar/Anadolu via Getty Images
The senators, who visited Egypt, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jordan, argue that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a deliberate strategy to ethnically cleanse the local population rather than collateral damage from the war against Hamas. Their report is titled The Netanyahu Government Is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. America is Complicit. The World Must Stop It.
During their visit to the Egyptian-Gaza border, they observed Rafah, the southern Gaza city – once home to 270,000 Palestinians – reduced to rubble. Van Hollen described how both lawmakers climbed an outside fire escape from the Egyptian side of the border to get a clear view of the destruction.
The lawmakers also met with former Israel Defense Forces soldiers who described participating in “systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure”. Their report noted first-hand accounts of “how this was a part of an intentional pattern of using explosives to blow up whole city blocks, houses, schools and other civilian sites”.
The senators documented arbitrary restrictions that have left aid groups unable to predict what will be denied entry. Jordanian officials told them that peanut butter, honey and dates had been suddenly banned from convoys, with entire trucks turned away for carrying a single restricted item. Each truck, the report says, is subject to a new $400 customs processing fee, and when the truck is not able to make it through the screening process, the $400 has to be paid again to join a later convoy. Because of those and other restrictions by the Israeli government, humanitarian aid coming in from Jordan was currently operating under 10% of its capacity, according to the report.
In Egypt, the senators report, the UN’s fleet of trucks have “sustained severe damage”, with United Nations organizations showing the senators video of their convoys coming under fire from the IDF, “a regular occurrence”. The senators also toured a warehouse run by the Egyptian Red Crescent and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) with goods that had been banned by Israel, including solar-powered water pumps, tents, wheelchairs and even spare parts for trucks under “dual-use” restrictions, according to the report.
At the Israeli port of Ashdod, WFP officials told the senators that 2,200 shipping containers of food – enough to feed everyone in Gaza for three weeks – sit delayed by screening procedures requiring each pallet to be checked individually.
Merkley described the strategy’s two components: “One is to destroy homes so that they cannot be returned to … That second strategy is to deprive Palestinians of essentials to live, food, water, medicine.”
Israel replaced the UN’s hundreds of distribution sites with just four aid points for 2 million people, three located only in southern Gaza. The senators heard accounts of malnourished mothers unable to walk miles to distribution sites while carrying children and then lift 40lb food boxes for the return journey. From 22 May to 31 July, 1,373 people were killed in the vicinity of these sites, according to the UN.
That Israel and the United States are calling plans for the mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza a “voluntary exodus” is one of the “most fraudulent, sinister, and twisted cover stories ever told”, the report reads.
“There is nothing voluntary about wanting to depart when your home is gone, when your agricultural fields are no longer accessible,” Van Hollen said at the press conference.
Both senators accused the US government of enabling the described ethnic cleansing. “We, the United States, are complicit in all of this,” Van Hollen said. “Because we’re providing taxpayer dollar support to the Netanyahu government to use weapons in Gaza.”
Sentiment in Congress with regards to longstanding US support for Israel has been slow moving, but it has been shifting. A recent Senate vote on arms sales to Israel saw 27 Democratic senators – more than half the caucus – oppose weapons transfers.
“The same values that made me a champion for Israel compel me to say what they are doing to the Palestinians, both in West Bank and in Gaza, is absolutely wrong,” said Merkley.
Both lawmakers called for immediate action to secure a ceasefire, noting that Israeli hostage families had told them Netanyahu “has prioritized his political survival over the survival of our loved ones”.
“The world has a moral and legal obligation to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing,” their report concludes. “Strong words alone will not be sufficient. The world must impose penalties and costs on those carrying out this plan.”
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Muslim groups call for rethink of approach to terrorism ahead of Islamophobia report
ABC| Sean Tarek Goodwin | 12 September 2025
- Muslim groups say rethinking religious discrimination and approaches to counterterrorism should be a top priority to address a spike in Islamophobic incidents.
- A long-awaited report by Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik is expected to be handed down today
- The ABC understands the recommendations will not go as far as those put forward by the special envoy for antisemitism, who called for the power to cut funding to public institutions that they deem not to be addressing the problem sufficiently.
Muslim groups say rethinking religious discrimination and approaches to counter-terrorism should be a top priority to address a spike in Islamophobic incidents, ahead of a report by the government’s special envoy on the issue.
The long-awaited report by Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik is expected to be handed down today, with recommendations for action by the government.
The ABC understands those recommendations will not go as far as those put forward by the special envoy for antisemitism, who called for the power to cut funding to public institutions that they deem not to be addressing the problem sufficiently.
Muslim groups have told the ABC they want to see the government take action on legal frameworks around Islamophobia and prevention through education and engagement.
Spike in Islamophobic incidents
Since October 7, 2023, there has been a 530 per cent increase in incidents reported to the Islamophobia Register Australia.
The register’s co-executive director, Nora Amath, said that it involved violence, verbal abuse, and intimidation, often targeting visibly Muslim women.
She said there has been a further spike in recent weeks after anti-immigration rallies, including a fake bomb allegedly being thrown into a mosque on the Gold Coast.
“We can say with some indication that the domestic flashpoint of the anti-immigration rally has provided the context in which these incidents of Islamophobia have spiked,” Ms Amath said.
Calls for legal protection and action to address ‘terrorist’ labels
Bilal Rauf is a senior advisor at the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) and a barrister.
Muslim groups, including the ANIC, have long advocated for religion to be included in anti-discrimination laws.
“For many people, their religious identity is fundamental to who they are and what they do, and yet, somewhat inexplicably, the law gives very little protection, and in our federal discrimination laws, there is no protection for it.”
Mr Rauf said the government had not given anti-Muslim hate the same response as hate directed at other communities.
“We’ve seen in respect of other communities, laws rushed very quickly, but in respect of Islamophobia or anti-Muslim sentiment, there’s been very little response or engagement.”
Bilal Rauf says, for many people, religious identity is “fundamental to who they are and what they do”. (ABC News: Sean Tarek Goodwin)
Another issue that has been raised by Muslim leaders is whether counter-terrorism laws are designed or applied in ways that disproportionately target Muslims, leading to stigma and Islamophobia.
Nora Amath said that could be seen in the fact that events involving Neo-Nazi or sovereign citizen groups have not been viewed through the prism of terrorism.
“The Muslim community feels there has been a double standard when it comes to how ‘terrorist’ is applied,” Ms Amath said.
“If it’s a young Muslim person who engages in violent acts, they are immediately deemed a terrorist; however, when a non-Muslim engages in a violent act, there are other confounding issues, whether it’s mental health or other reasons.”
Bilal Rauf said the government should tread carefully to ensure the approach to counterterrorism does not isolate Muslims.
“When there’s a myopic view of it, or one which has a disproportionate impact on some communities, it has the reverse effect, it actually drives further division,” Mr Rauf said.
“It drives people to become insular rather than working together, and that’s something that needs to be given careful thought.”
Gamel Kheir from the Lebanese Muslim Association agreed.
“That definition seems to be way more defined in targeting the Muslim extremism issue and leaving everything else as a separate issue altogether,” Mr Kheir said.
Better education and awareness of Muslim community
Gamel Kheir said the report focused on bringing Muslims and non-Muslims together.
Mohammad Atae Rabbi Hadi is a minister with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Australia and an Imam at a mosque south of Brisbane.
“There was a report in the past of a pig head being left behind here. This is something that we’ve had a chat with the envoy and the prime minister about as well,” Imam Hadi said.
He said more needs to be done to educate non-Muslims and demystify the community.
“I think more education can be provided to the wider Australian Muslim community in regard to Muslim beliefs and how, in actuality, Islamic practices don’t go against Australian values at all,” he said.
He also said the media had a role to play.
“The media could be more responsible in terms of not sensationalising Muslims, for example, and painting them as extremists.”
The ANIC, Islamophobia Register Australia, the Lebanese Muslim Association, and the Ahmaddiyya Muslim Community each told the ABC they have endorsed the special envoy’s report.
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