JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has approved plans for Operation Gideon’s Chariot II to conquer Gaza City as Australia’s prime minister responds to sharp criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Gaza military operation will involve five Israel Defense Forces divisions, call-up of as many as 60,000 reserves. The initial phase has already begun. The IDF will be encouraging Gaza City residents to move south to safe zones.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded on Tuesday to a scathing letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The focus of the war of words is Australia’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state.
In a letter written on Sunday, Netanyahu told Albanese that calling for a Palestinian state pours “fuel on this antisemitic fire” and “rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas’s refusal to free the hostages”, and “emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.”
Netanyahu concluded, “It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement.” He also called Albanese a weak politician who had betrayed Israel.
Israeli leaders were further angered when Australia banned Knesset member Simcha Rothman from coming to Israel just hours before he was scheduled to speak there. Rothman has strongly supported an Israeli path to victory over Hamas and other terrorist entities. He is prohibited from entering Australia for three years.
Albanese and Netanyahu spoke after the prime minister’s letter, and Albanese brushed off the criticism.
The Australian leader noted, “What I say is that Israel, of course, increasingly, there is global concern because people want to see an end to the cycle of violence that we have seen for far too long. That is what Australians want to see as well.”
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles insists they are following the U.K., France, and Canada in recognizing a Palestinian state.
He stated, “So we are very much within the mainstream of the international community, which has always supported a two-state solution, and in that context, what we want to see is, in this moment, dialogue between nations, and that’s why we regard this as a very disappointing and unjustified reaction.”
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As these countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state, veteran journalist David Bedein, who has followed the Palestinian Authority for three decades, published a list of questions these nations should consider:
- Will the planned Palestinian state abolish the Palestinian Charter, which mandates the destruction of Israel?
- Will the planned Palestinian state revoke the law that guarantees salaries to anyone who murders a Jew? (the so-called Palestinian “pay to slay” policy)
- Will the planned Palestinian state eliminate educational materials that glorify the murder of Jews?
Palestinian Media Watch reported on Tuesday that Fatah, the political arm of the Palestinian Authority, hosted a summer camp for young boys and girls with the goal to create a generation that will “continue the path of the martyrs and prisoners,” referring to terrorists who have killed Israelis and planned terror attacks.
