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Aussies Favor Howard Over Costello

The Australian public overwhelmingly supports Prime Minister John Howard over his Liberal Party comrade Peter Costello in the wake of a scandal which revealed an alleged handover agreement between Howard and Costello reached in 1994, before Mr. Howard had even entered office. In that agreement, witnessed by former Liberal Party parliamentarian Ian MacLachlan, Howard apparently agreed to hand over the leadership of the Liberal Party (and by connection and popularity, the prime minister?s office) to Costello after a term and half or two full terms. By the way, in Australia, the Liberal Party is actually conservative in nature.

What the Australian public does not support is the lackluster response of Canberra to the crisis in the Middle East. While one could likely write dozens of articles on what the odds would be that European nations and Australia and America would all have around 25,000 or so nationals each in Lebanon, those Australians trapped in Lebanon since the start of a war between the Islamic terror group Hezbollah (which controls southern Lebanon and has members serving in the Lebanese government) and Israel have not seen the sort of dramatic ?rescues? that Britons, other Europeans, and the United States citizens have been privileged to receive.

Australian defense officials stated that Israel had not agreed to a lull in offensive operations in order to get Australian or Australian-Lebanese dual citizens out, as Jerusalem had already warned those residing or visiting southern Lebanon to leave certain areas. Israel made those warnings in order to minimize civilian casualties, but that didn?t prevent seven Canadians dying earlier this week in Israeli air strikes. Israel apologized to Canada?s prime minister Harper, who has come out in favor of Israel?s self-defense policy in the wake of Hezbollah missile attacks and kidnappings.