Benjamin Netanyahu’s Zionists regime has been emboldened by Trump's support, allowing him to push forward with his genocidal plans for Gaza to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible.

27 August 2025

ALAN HAYES

 

STUNT and distraction encapsulates Donald Trump – creating yet another political charade to serve his own interests and distract from his failures. Yet the circus of inane remarks and flurry of executive orders continue, unabated – giving false credence to a ceasefire in the Ukraine and in the Middle East.

 

Following the meeting with Putin, Trump posted on Truth Social that it was positive outcome, despite agreeing with the Russian gangster that the Ukraine would have to cede some of its territory. This raises the question: whose side is Trump really on?

 

There is no doubt that Trump sides with ‘warmongers’ and condones their actions, including the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Earlier this year, Trump said he “will take over” and “own” Gaza after an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

 

Trump’s statement on his Gaza plans came while he was addressing a news conference at the White House, in February this year, with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Trump went on to say “the bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations and they are absolutely unbreakable.

 

“I’m confident that, under our leadership, the cherished alliance between our two countries will soon be stronger than ever.”

 

It would be difficult to accept that Trump is not Islamophobic; his rhetoric, since his first inauguration clearly supports his hostility towards Muslim people. He has repeatedly called for surveillance of American Muslims and mosques and reiterated that there should be a Muslim registry – there is "absolutely no choice" but to shut down U.S. mosques he went on to say.

 

Trump’s support, by default, of Israel’s murder of Palestinians leaves no hesitation in accepting that Netanyahu has been emboldened by Trump to continue the genocide - accusing those countries who seek a two-state solution, in particular Australia, as being cowardly and pandering to the Hamas regime. But it is still not easy to understand exactly what Netanyahu’s position is on countries recognising the Palestinian state he has spent his political career seeking to thwart. He insists, agreeing with Trump, that recognition is “irrelevant”.

 

But while Netanyahu may well claim that recognition of Palestine is “irrelevant”, the very thought of recognition by western countries of a two-state solution has him froth-mouthed with fury.

 

The irony, of course, is that while Netanyahu carries on like a spoiled brat, Australia is neither in the Middle East nor is there any formal alliance, strong relations or historical ties with Israel. Yet Netanyahu carries on as if Australia has a ‘set-in-stone’ obligation to support Israel’s act of genocide and ethnic cleansing – tweeting personal abuse at Anthony Albanese ,and appearing on Sharri Markson's Sky News program last Thursday to once again hurl more abuse at Albanese as well as dispatching one of his abusive form letters to Australia (France received one as well).

 

“I’m sure he [Albanese] has a reputable record as a public servant, but I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters,” the Israeli PM told Markson.

 

Netanyahu also claimed: “We are on the verge of completing this war… when that happens, I think we will have tremendous opportunities to expand the peace. We will win.”

 

The broadcaster reports the Israeli leader said he would order the military into Gaza even if Hamas agreed to a last-minute ceasefire deal. “We’re gonna do that [go into Gaza] anyway. There was never a question that we’re going to get Hamas out of there. I think President Trump put it best, he says Hamas has to disappear from Gaza. It’s like leaving the SS in Germany. You know, you clear out most of Germany, but you leave out Berlin with the SS and the Nazi core there,” he said.

 

Netanyahu didn’t stop with the ‘barbs’, declaring Australia risked being engulfed in a “tsunami of anti-Semitism”. This was despite direct pleas for him to calm down from Australia's top Jewish community leaders. But Netanyahu — whom one would think had a country to run, a genocide to preside over and a campaign of ethnic cleansing to coordinate — has made it his number-one priority to personally attack Albanese and harangue Australia.

 

But during the Sky News interview it became blatantly obvious that Netanyahu had one single agenda – to convince the viewing audience that Israel was fighting the war of Western civilisation against the barbarians in Gaza.

 

So, does “fighting the war” mean starving children to death, turning the provision of food aid into a bloodsport for foreign mercenaries, using drone strikes to kill aid workers, killing journalists to prevent coverage of atrocities, bombing and sniping civilians sheltering in tent encampments, and ethnically cleansing regions to accommodate colonies?

 

Netanyahu’s ‘dummy spit’ on Sky News did nothing more than prove that he is a thin-skinned, genocidal maniac.

 

The casualties of war

 

Last week it was reported Israel was calling up 60,000 reservists ahead of its planned ground offensive to capture and occupy Gaza City. Israel’s allies have condemned the plan, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning it “can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war”.

 

Yet the suffering and loss of human life is inconsequential to the State of Israel and its racist, right wing politicians. It’s ‘all guns blazing’, despite the International Committee of the Red Cross warning that an intensification of hostilities and further displacement of Palestinians “risk worsening an already catastrophic situation” for the 2.1 million people in Gaza. The United Nations has previously warned Netanyahu's plan to take control of all of Gaza, which is in defiance of global pressure on Israel to end the conflict, would have “catastrophic consequences”.

 

As the Grapevine has previously reported, Ramesh Rajasingham, the coordination director of the UN's humanitarian office OCHA, said that the situation in Gaza had developed into full-blown starvation, declaring: “This is no longer a looming hunger crisis — this is starvation, pure and simple.”

 

It has also been reported that the health ministry in Gaza said another eight people, including three children, had died of starvation and malnutrition in the 24 hours prior to Netanyahu’s froth-mouthed verbal diarrhoea on Sky News, taking the total starvation deaths to 235, including 106 children, since the war began.

 

The health ministry in Gaza has also confirmed that as of last week at least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign in response to the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

 

Conflating the condemnation

 

Netanyahu told Sky News that pro-Palestine protesters should be “counteracted”, claiming: “[Protesters] should be defied by the leaders. And yet we see — not in America, I'm happy to say, because President Trump is standing strong — but in Europe, one country after another succumbing to them, condemning Israel”; then claiming that protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza was not an act of anti-Semitism.

 

Yet not surprisingly, the Coalition has weighed in to support Netanyahu’s genocidal regime and has become extremely vocal about revoking recognition of a Palestinian state if elected in three years.

 

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the government's announcement to recognise a Palestinian State disrespects the United States because "any peace that happens in this region will be brokered by the US".

 

Ley’s comments leave little doubt that the Coalition is still entrenched in the extreme right-wing politics of Trump’s MAGA  doctrine, believing that by opposing the two state system will earn them the ‘brownie points’ necessary to win an election in three years time. But, not surprisingly,  it has the same familiar ring of failure that Peter Dutton, with Sussan Ley in tow, previously faced. For those of you who may not recall, Dutton and Ley doubled down on a call to cancel visas of suspected anti-Semitic protesters or those individuals who were protesting against the atrocities being committed by Israel, by conflating the issue, despite the head of Australia’s spy agency warning that “inflamed language” may fuel community tensions.

 

The Palestinian Action Group, at the time, labelled Dutton’s comments “a shocking attack on democratic rights”. “People have a right to protest against the war crimes and apartheid policies of the Israeli state.”

 

Neha Madhok, the national director of the racial justice organisation, Democracy in Colour, also said at the time that “threatening pro-Palestinian protesters with deportation” was “outrageous, [and] anti-democratic”.

 

“We all have the right to protest in this country, and the simple act of holding an opinion that is pro-Palestine is in no way grounds for deportation or visa cancellation.”

 

It came as no surprise that Dutton’s and Ley’s ploy failed, losing them future votes for an election win. Yet the Coalition is once again conflating anti-Semitism with anyone objecting to Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing.

 

It’s time for the truth

 

It seems that the pro Zionist movement will go to any lengths to suppress the truth about the slaughtering of Palestinians – claiming that objecting to the atrocities being committed by the Israeli Government is anti-Semitic.

 

Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th-century Europe to establish and support a Jewish homeland through the colonisation of Palestine, a region corresponding to the Land of Israel in Judaism and central to Jewish history. Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible.

 

As the Grapevine has previously reported there is no place and no excuse for anti-Semitism in Australian, yet the Netanyahu regime continues to fuel the fire of anti-Semitism by conflating the political ideals of Zionism to justify its ethnic cleansing.

 

Protesting against Israel’s apartheid policies has struck at the very heart of all Australians, including those of Jewish faith, because Netanyahu’s actions are nothing more than a barbarous attack on humanity. Yet the conflating of Zionism and anti-Semitism is still being played out in Australia, in an attempt to dilute the obliteration of an entire race of people.

 

Even the United Nations Special Committee, Amnesty International, and other experts, agree that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza against the Palestinians during its ongoing invasion and bombardment as part of the Gaza war. A fact that the Federal Government’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, Jillian Segal, has tried to suppress in her new punitive plan - a blatant attempt to surveil public institutions and the media. But even more concerning is her strategy to mobilise the widely contested International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. An individual or institution could face anti-Semitism charges for teaching about Israeli apartheid, or the series of Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel, or Israel’s plans to forcibly move Gaza’s population into camps, or the calls to exterminate Palestinians that reverberate in the Israeli press and the Knesset.

 

Segal has already publicly expressed the view that pro-Palestine protests should be banned from city centres altogether.

 

Amnesty International Australia criticised Segal's remarks in a statement, saying protests were an "essential and protected outlet for Australians to freely express their views".

 

"To characterise these demonstrations as 'intimidatory' is not only misleading but dangerous. It delegitimises the voices of those calling for justice in Gaza and beyond.

 

"Criticism of state actions is not hate — it is the exercise of freedom of expression, a right that must be safeguarded, not suppressed."

 

As the Grapevine reported – A Chilling Wakeup Call – using ‘Codes of conduct' are weapons to silence dissent; the Bendigo Writers Festival is only the latest example of a quasi-legal plan to stifle legitimate protest and free speech.

 

Critics have raised concerns that the Segal plan does not allow individuals at public institutions or in the media to “engage in legitimate debate about different forms of state organisation in relation to Israel and Palestine”. Yet the Albanese Government stands firm on recognising a two state solution, despite our support being politically unpalatable for the Netanyahu Government.

 

Canberra’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state, drawing Israel’s ire at Australia's PM, came after 22 months of eroding support for Israel, as showcased by the huge - Plea for Humanity - protest march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 6 August.

 

Images of malnourished children in Gaza — which were widely disseminated, in some cases omitting crucial details about the subjects’ medical conditions — have also hardened the resolve of lawmakers, said Charles Miller, a lecturer in international relations at the Australian National University.

 

“I think they have changed an awful lot of minds among policymakers in Australia, as they have in other countries,” he said.

 

But the ire of the world won't stop! Last Sunday mass pro-Palestine protests around the country, which yet again surged in numbers in the wake of the declaration of “an ‘entirely man-made’” famine in Gaza City by The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

 

Brisbane saw its largest rally in the history of the protests, with organisers estimating the crowd at around 50,000, while rally organisers in Sydney and Melbourne said their cities amassed crowds of 100,000 each.

 

Greens leader Larissa Waters and ousted former MP Max Chandler-Mather addressed the crowd in Brisbane. Chandler-Mather told a crowd in the city’s Queens Gardens “Labor and the Liberal Party are relying on the fact that you will lose hope. They will do everything they can to demobilise this movement for peace. We cannot let them win.”

 

Waters told media at the rally that she was confident the sustained pressure of continued large-scale protests would force the Labor government to increase sanctions against Israel.

 

“I think after the Sydney march just a couple of weeks ago, which saw the government change position, I’m really hopeful that with the amazing turnout today across the country the government will feel the pressure,” she said.

 

In Gaza, Israel has stepped up its offensive as the IDF plans its ground invasion of Gaza City — the largest urban area in Palestine, which saw 64 people killed, including people in a refugee camp in the city of Jabalia, in extensive bombing by Israeli tanks and planes on Sunday, .

 

The condemnation of the world, the condemnation by Australians, about the ongoing atrocities being committed by Israel – which Netanyahu continues to deny – leaves the Albanese Government no other choice than to enforce heavy sanctions against Israel and to remove Jillian Segal from her special anti-Semitic envoy position; she must be stood down.

 

Conflating criticism of Israel with racism and hate speech is not only wrong, it is downright dangerous.

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