Israel undermines support as it focuses on optics over actions

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the interception of the flotilla but said Itamar Ben-Gvir's treatment of the activists was "not in line with Israel's values and norms". (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst) Link copiedShareShare articlePolitics is never at its optimal when it reaches the "yes but whatever our side did, the other side was worse" stage. Unfortunately, that's long been a recurring theme in the mire that is the Middle East. For the last two-and-a-half years, that has been a particularly cursed and complex theme, particularly in terms of the way the rest of the world has perceived events. The undoubted horrors of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 were greeted with shock, anger and grief. But as the sheer scale of Israel's response in Gaza continued to grow — the scale of the killing, the extent of the destruction, the apparent targeting of aid workers and journalists — the moral "balance" was repeatedly challenged and rebalanced. Defenders of the actions of the Israeli government and the Israeli Defence Force would insist that any criticism was blind to what Hamas had done. In the past couple of weeks, there has been a new battleground of accusations and counter-accusations. Just as an Israeli investigation into the security failings of October 7 was released — and, with it, horrific reports of what happened to Israeli prisoners of Hamas — an opinion piece in the New York Times detailed equally horrific allegations about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in the hands of Israel. A storm of protest erupted over the New York Times piece, challenging the allegations it published. But as many pointed out the time, the protests held outside the newspaper's offices in New York were targeted at the fact the newspaper had run the story, not the disturbing underlying allegations. The fact that, on both sides, the allegations involved sordid accounts of gross sexual assault gave the stories a particularly horrific tone. But as anyone who has seen pictures of Israeli hostages released from Gaza or those of Palestinian prisoners (like veteran journalist Ali al-Samoudi) knows, the maltreatment has been shocking in much more mundane ways, linked to beatings and starvation. And now, this week, the issue of the treatment of prisoners held by Israel has been on display after the IDF detained more than 400 members of an international flotilla seeking to take aid to Gaza. Israel's government has condemned the behaviour of its national security minister after he released video of him taunting activists — but the government exists, in part, because of him. In an age when the US has repeatedly blown up vessels off Venezuela, the legal niceties of detaining foreign citizens in international waters seems a bit petty but should always be noted. As ANU international law expert Professor Don Rothwell notes, the IDF claims the interdiction was to enforce Israel's longstanding maritime blockade of Gaza, which in turn it says is a legitimate act of naval warfare during an armed conflict such as that of the US and Iran. Along with many other countries, Australia now recognises Palestine as an international state, but since Israel doesn't recognise Palestine, its actions in Gaza aren't recognised as an international armed conflict between two states. Therefore, Rothwell notes "any attempt to enforce the blockade off the coast of Cyprus has no legal basis under international law". Rothwell points out that "for Australia, interference with the freedom of navigation has been a constant concern in the South China Sea, and more recently in the Strait of Hormuz". "It should likewise be a cause for concern in the Mediterranean." But freedom of navigation is one of those (rather important) arguments that's been lost in recent times. What also seems lost, particularly in Israel, is the significance of its actions, as compared to the way its actions are seen. Far-right Israeli minister for national security Itamar Ben-Gvir released footage on Wednesday in which he is seen taunting activists from the intercepted Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israel, which immediately sparked an international outcry. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun) Far-right Israeli minister for national security Itamar Ben-Gvir released footage on Wednesday in which he is seen taunting activists from the Gaza flotilla intercepted by Israel, which immediately sparked an international outcry. Dozens of activists can be seen being forced to kneel on the ground, face down, with their hands tied behind them, at an Ashdod port facility where they were being processed ahead of their likely deportation. A female activist shouting "Free Palestine" is grabbed by the head and shoved to the ground by officers who drag her out of Ben-Gvir's way as he tours the facility. Ben-Gvir is seen waving a large Israeli flag and shouting in Hebrew: "Welcome to Israel! We are in charge here!" He is also heard urging guards at the facility "not [to] be bothered

Israel undermines support as it focuses on optics over actions

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