War to end all wars - lessons from history ignored

We will indeed remember them but few will heed that great epithet of history - that this be "The War to End all Wars".

Nowhere is this sentiment more painfully clear today as in the assault on the civilian population of Gaza.

We have moved on from the futility of war and the loss of millions of mostly young men in the trenches of Europe's finest fields.

We are now in the business of watching from afar as modern day military machines take out entire neighbourhoods.

Women, men, children and newborn babies are now the incidental targets of these brave architects of terror.

Does it really make a difference whether civilians are terrorised by elected governments or self-appointed militants? Whether they are allies or enemies?

More than 4000 children have been slaughtered in four weeks because we are told that terrorists may have been hiding near them. Hospitals, schools, apartment blocks, ambulances and even churches have been hit because ... a terrorist might be hiding there too.

There is a name for this, it's called a war crime and if it continues it may even amount to an attempted genocide.

To cut food, water, fuel and medicines before pulverizing civilian neighbourhoods is unconscionable to the vast majority of the world's population and their respective governments of all persuasions.

It is obvious to almost everyone it seems except the AUKUS partners, Australia, the UK and the United States, representing the bastion of English speaking democracies and leaders of the free world who have suddenly developed an acute and selective case of laryngitis having lost their collective voice.

Whilst condemning, rightfully, the Hamas atrocities committed in Israel, they have not condemned the Israeli regime for the civilian slaughter in Gaza. In fact the United States has sent down a couple of aircraft carriers to give them a hand and Australia, as at the time of writing, has not withdrawn military assistance to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) by way of defence contracts.

How it is possible to recognise the right of an illegal occupying force such as the IDF to 'defend itself' but not recognise and defend the rights of thousands of children to live?

Tell me again how we and our allies stand for an international "rules based order" when the first chance we get we prop up a regime that's not only breaking those international rules but is threatening long-term peace and stability and risking a catastrophic broader conflict in the Middle East.

This goes beyond a question of double standards. It goes to the heart of our humanity and our inalienable rights and values that all human beings are born equal.

That a child's life in Gaza has the same value as a child in Tel Aviv or New York or here in Australia. No child is born a terrorist but every child in a war zone becomes a victim of terror.

Following the second world war, the president of the NSW Teachers Federation Sam Lewis put it this way when he quoted UNESCO in declaring that, "all wars are fought against children".

Lewis and his generation had what we call lived experience on these issues, which is to say they lived through the worst of it.

For many of us, particularly from migrant backgrounds, it is deeply personal. When your parents tell you their stories of the war, occupation and collective punishment of communities whose villages were burnt to the ground and civilians executed in revenge and retaliation by the occupying forces, it is not something you can easily forget.

It is also the first thing you think about when you see the images of carnage and human devastation on our screens every day.

To say that peace in the Middle East can be achieved simply with a United Nations resolution and a few thoughts and prayers is on the naive side of history.

To stoke the fires of indignation and injustice on the other hand and side with the powerful against the powerless is to sow the seeds of enduring hatred and resentment of the West and ensure that the cycle of violence continues into the future.

All wars eventually come to an end. This one should never have started.

We cannot wait until the combatants have achieved their military objectives before we allow the children to live. There is only one immediate solution and that is for a ceasefire. Now.