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Rescuing hostages amid the Israel Defense Forces’ trial by media

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Australia's relationship with Israel is unnecessarily strained [Source: Deposit Photos]

My article with Andrew Fox and Sascha Dov Bachmann in The Spectator Australia, Rescuing hostages amid the Israel Defence Forces’ trial by mediaRescuing hostages amid the Israel Defence Forces’ trial by media.

Over the weekend, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) pulled off a daring daylight raid to rescue four hostages held by Hamas from two different locations in Gaza. The hostages were held in civilian houses near a busy marketplace in Nuseirat in central Gaza.

From what we know, after freeing the hostages, an IDF extraction vehicle broke down and drew fire from dozens of Hamas fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

The IDF returned fire using jets and helicopters, surged ground troops into the area, and cleared a safe extraction route. The result was four Israeli hostages from the Nova festival massacre were rescued, and one senior Israeli special forces officer was killed, along with a significant number of Hamas terrorists and Palestinian civilians, including women and children.

After Israel’s tactical success, civilian casualty figures in Gaza become the focus of the international media and the basis for condemnation.

Writing in the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes had this to say:

When it comes to Israel rescuing her hostages from the barbaric hands of Hamas, she has to do it with two hands tied behind her back. Not only does she have to contend with the rallying of ignorant activists for Hamas, but she must also do everything kosher and above board, under the microscopic scrutiny of a global media and journalists who seemingly loathe the very existence of the Jewish state, and will exploit any excess or slip-up against her. Sascha Bachmann, Michael de Percy and Andrew Fox make this point: ‘If Australian hostages were taken by a terrorist group, we would rightly expect the Australian Defence Force to do everything possible to bring the hostages home safe’. Why shouldn’t the IDF plan to do the same, and its commitment to keep collateral loss of life to a minimum be accepted and respected?

North Korea trash politics sky-high while our pollies are distracted

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Guard Post at YP-Do, 3 June 2024

From Baengnyeongdo, South Korea: Here at what the Americans call PY-Do in the Yellow Sea, we are closer to North Korea’s capital than we are to the South’s capital, Seoul. PY-Do is an ‘island outpost at freedom’s frontier’. It is home to over 4,000 South Koreans and exists in an administrative afterthought of the Korean Armistice Agreement in an area known as the Northwest Islands.

The United Nations Command (UNC) established a Northern Limit Line (NLL) in 1953 at a time when the North’s navy was barely existent. In effect, South Korea stays below the NLL while North Korea does not recognise it. The five Northwest Islands, of which PY-Do and Yeonpyeongdo (YP-do) are a part, remain a flashpoint for hostilities between the two nations.

PY-Do is the site of annual South Korean and US military drills designed to ‘bolster their readiness against North Korean nuclear threats’. Technically, North and South Korea remain at war, but general hostilities ceased in 1953. The threat of tit-for-tat skirmishes, however, is ever-present.

Writing in the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say about my article:

I was chatting to Michael de Percy before Speccie TV the other day and he was telling me all about his trip in South Korea. ‘You should be our foreign correspondent!’ I unfairly badgered him on air. Michael was kind enough to dutifully reply with an excellent story of what it’s like in the demilitarised zone. He writes: ‘It is confronting and gives one a sense of gratitude for the lifestyles we enjoy in the West. But it also makes me realise how important it is that we actively defend our way of life and celebrate the achievements of the West.’

My latest in The Spectator Australia, North Korea trash politics sky-high while our pollies are distractedNorth Korea trash politics sky-high while our pollies are distracted.

Anti-Israel stance emboldens anti-Semitism

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Sydney University Pro-Palestinian Encampmment 24 April 2024. Photo: Bookish Worm [CC BY 4.0] 

Students and their hangers-on at the pro-Palestinian ‘glamping’ protest camps at our Group of 8 (G8) universities reveal an underlying falsehood that has grabbed the hearts and minds of our young people. This is a deliberate strategy of Hamas, the proscribed terrorist organisation that is a puppet of Iran, to weaken not only the support for Israel’s fight for survival since October 7 last year but also the West in general. Our young people have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the cognitive warfare that is intensifying as terrorists’ confidence grows as a direct result of student protests in the West.

Writing in the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say:

Michael de Percy and Sascha Dov Bachmann express their frustration with the behaviour and messaging of top Western universities when it comes to protests. They argue that the openly anti-Israel stance taken by university management has empowered anti-Semitism amongst the student body.

Writing in the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes had this to say:

Closer to home, Michael de Percy and Sascha Dov Bachmann make the simple but telling point: being reflexively anti-Israel emboldens anti-semitism. If only those attacking Israel and her people at every turn, and denying her right to exist, would at least have the decency to denounce the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, demand those who planned and executed them be rooted out and dealt with, and call for the release of all Israeli hostages as a precondition to any Gaza ceasefire. But no.

My latest in The Spectator Australia with Professor Sascha Dov Bachmann, Anti-Israel stance emboldens anti-Semitism.

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