As a nation, why is a minority, including some of our elected representatives, condoning pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel rallies? Most Australians are not activists; we do not want to become involved in politics and the more controversial, the less likely we are to want to speak out, to attract vitriol, and to avoid placing a target (so to speak) either on our backs or on our loved ones.

But it is imperative that we do speak up in support of good and not allow what is obviously anti-Semitic vitriol go unchecked. The Holocaust is an example of what can happen if good people turn a blind eye and fail to speak out against evil.

To the horror of the humane in our society, we have witnessed the murder of 1,400 innocent civilians and the capture of more than 220 taken hostage after thousands of Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border from Gaza by land, sea, and air. It was news which was disappointingly, but gleefully and exuberantly, received by a substantial number of pro-Palestinian/anti-Jewish religious leaders and supporters in Australia.

Such reaction has been followed by chants of, ‘Gas the Jews!’ from a hostile and violent mob in front of the Sydney Opera House along with the unrelenting rant, ‘Allahu Akbar! Get the (expletive) Jews wiped out!’

The tirade of abuse by these anti-Jewish supporters of Hamas terror against Israeli civilians are sentiments hauntingly reminiscent of hatred stirred up against Jews in Germany before the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered, mostly in gas chambers within concentration camps a mere 70 years ago.

Now that authorities have warned anti-Israel rally organisers to tone down the rhetoric, they instead chant and display signs using coded genocidal language like, ‘Free Palestine!’ and ‘From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free!’ (The river being the River Jordan and the sea being the Mediterranean.) The change of language is evident, but the message is still the same and that is to drive out all Jews from Israel. Hamas goes further to call for the killing of all Jews everywhere. It is no wonder Jews across the world, including in Australia, are frightened for their safety.

There is no moral equivalence between what has happened to Israelis and what is now happening in Gaza.

Hamas, without warning, callously murdered innocent men, women, children, and the unborn with actions too barbaric and unspeakable to mention here. In contrast, Israel gave notice to the civilian population in Gaza to leave areas around military installations, allowing ample time to escape before a ground invasion and air strikes to eradicate extremists in Gaza with as few civilian causalities as possible, in spite of losing the element of surprise in doing so. Hamas prevents many of its population from seeking refuge, using them as human shields to exploit its population as fuel in its propaganda machine. Hamas disregards the safety and security of its citizens by attacking Israel, taking hostages, continuing to provoke Israel with rocket fire, and putting its citizens in harm’s way by preventing innocent Gazan civilians from escaping from the imminent threat of a military response from Israel.

In addition to the above, Hamas exaggerates the number of civilian casualties, and does things such as falsely blaming Israel for bombing a hospital when in fact an independently verified Islamist Jihadi misfired rocket fell into the hospital’s carpark causing a relatively minor explosion of unexpended rocket fuel, damaging a number of cars, certainly not causing 471 deaths as Hamas claimed.

Further, talk of the colonial occupation of Gaza is simply untrue. Gaza is not occupied territory as pro-Palestinians would have us believe. Hamas has governed Gaza independently since June 2007 after an agreement brokered by Egypt. Gaza is not under Israeli occupation and any Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsular were subsequently destroyed.

The atrocities of the Hamas terrorist government of Gaza is in no way comparable to Israel’s response, nor are Hamas’s actions justifiable. Israel has every right to defend itself against unprovoked attack and this includes neutralising the threat of further attacks from Hamas. Those calling for de-escalation and ceasefire may be able to come up with an acceptable alternative solution to repatriate hostages to Israel and install a humanitarian-focused government in Gaza, willing to live in peace with Israel without the need for any military intervention – if so, please speak up, otherwise stop fuelling further hatred of Jews. To de-escalate and ceasefire would be tantamount to enabling Hamas to exact cruelty on Israeli civilians without consequence – the cycle of violence would continue with Israel powerless to defend itself from further aggression.

When scenes of riotous behaviour and threats toward Israel and Jews are occurring on our streets, one may be forgiven for thinking that some immigrants have imported hatred and grievances. The despicable chants of a mob whipped into a frenzy by those who should know better are symptoms of a deep-seated and ingrained hatred of Jews. A large portion of these supporters come from the Islamic faith and are supported by Marxist-indoctrinated academics and a handful of left-leaning politicians. For the latter, their political and philosophical ideas would not be entertained for more than five minutes in Gaza, in stark contrast to the tolerance of Israeli society.

It is about time we call a spade a spade instead of, as former Prime Minister John Howard put it, pussy-footing around.

When terrorism is involved, who seems often to be involved? Is it the Jewish community? Clearly not. When innocent people are killed by suicide bombers and stabbings, which section of the community is usually involved? Is it the Jewish community? Clearly not. Which part of our community is most frightened? Is it the Jewish community? Clearly yes. Just take an honest look at the behaviour of Israeli mourners at their rallies versus the general behaviour of pro-Palestinian supporters at their rallies – which is calmer? Which is more respectful?

Covid protests were stamped out brutally with police dispersing peaceful protests using tear gas and rubber bullets, yet Black Lives Matter protests, against public health orders, were allowed to proceed with police taking the knee in support. Further, disgraceful pro-Palestinian protests were allowed to proceed even without permission in one case, while the only person apprehended at the time was a man of Jewish faith wanting to mourn the slaughter of innocent Israeli citizens.

What double standards have pervaded our democratic society when mobs are favoured over the peaceful citizenry? It’s about time this hypocrisy stopped.

What about Israel’s right to exist? Do supporters of Hamas have a point in declaring that Israel should cease to exist? Indeed, Palestinians want a Palestine, free of Jews, as reflected in the mantra: ‘From the river to the sea…’ etc. This is not a whimsical notion or a passing fad by few ‘crazies’. We need to take the words of extremism seriously before it becomes mainstream.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Hamas leader, June 10, 2003, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, Jerusalem Post said:

‘By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine. We will fight them with all the strength we have. This is our land, not the Jews… You will have no security except outside the homeland Palestine… We have Allah on our side, and we have the sons of the Arab and Islamic nation on our side.’

Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, as reported by Future News TV, June 15, 2010, said:

‘Our plan for this stage is to liberate any inch of Palestinian land, and to establish a state on it. Our ultimate plan is [to have] Palestine in its entirety. I say this loud and clear so that nobody will accuse me of employing political tactics. We will not recognise the Israeli enemy.’

Sheikh Dr Ahmad Bahar, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, April 20, 2007; as reported by Palestinian Media Watch, April 23, 2007 said:

‘This is Islam … our nation was tested by the cancerous lump, that is the Jews, in the heart of the Arab nation… Be certain that America is on its way to utter destruction, America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan, America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated in Lebanon and Palestine… Make us victorious over the community of infidels… Allah, take the Jews and their allies, Allah, take the Americans and their allies… Allah, annihilate them completely and do not leave anyone of them.’

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, calling for a resumption of suicide attacks on Gaza radio, December 27, 2008 said:

‘Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood.’

But, do the Palestinians really have ultimate right to all of Palestine, which includes Israel? Let us look into some of the recorded history of the Middle East both from both religious (after all, this is ultimately a religious war) and secular perspectives.

Abraham (of the Bible), who lived in Canaan (around 2000 BCE) in the Hebron region of what is today southern Israel, had two sons, Ishmael whose descendants are today’s Arabs and Isaac (his son Jacob became known as Israel, inheritor of the promises made to Abraham. God said to Abraham: ‘I will give to you and to your descendants after you … all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.’ (Gen17:8) This promise was passed down through birthright from Abraham through the Isaac lineage. Isaac’s descendants were the Hebrew tribes of which Judah was one, its religion being Judaism. (Note: The term ‘Jew’ refers to the people whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham.)

Upon the Exodus of the captive Hebrews from Egypt (around 1450 BCE), the Bible explains that God led His chosen people to ‘the promised land’ to Canaan as a possession as He had promised Abraham. The Israelites, due to their rebelliousness against God’s commands, were driven out of their lands first by the Assyrians and later by the Babylonians. The descendants of Judah finally being able to return to their homeland during the time of King Cyrus of Persia in 536 BCE. In 70 CE, following a Jewish rebellion against Roman occupation, the Roman army besieged and destroyed Jerusalem, killing 1.1 million, enslaving 97 000, with many others escaping to cities such as Alexandria, Egypt. Following the Holocaust of the second world war, the UN passed a resolution in 1947 to partition Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, thus creating a homeland for displaced Jews. From history, it appears that Jews, legally and as descendants of the promises made to Abraham and also having originally possessed the land of Palestine for thousands of years, do have a claim to exist in Palestine.

Israel is happy to co-exist in peace with its neighbours; it is the Palestinians who are determined to rid the Palestinian region of all Jews, even to the extent of calling for a jihad – a bloody battle to exterminate Jews. They believe that Allah supports a jihad against Jews.

Further, this attitude of hate toward Jews is ingrained in the Palestinian population as a whole – they voted in Hamas to lead them and openly supported this terrorist regime. We should not be deceived by the toning down of the rhetoric during angry protests across the globe – it would be naïve to believe their intent somehow changed between one protest and the next.

They may not be using words like ‘kill’ or ‘gas’ after being warned, but many see ‘Free Palestine’ mantra as code for a call to jihad, something which should repulse all humanitarians and send chills down the spines of peace-loving people. I needs to be recognised and condemned by authorities.

Anti-Semitic behaviour needs to be called out. Ought we tolerate borderline anti-Semitic behaviour from our politicians, academics, and others? It is difficult to argue in the affirmative, yet this is what we are seeing playing out on our streets, in our universities, in our boardrooms and in our parliaments.

Let us not turn a blind eye to the evils confronting us. Indifference is precisely how the Jews came to be subjects of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany during the second world war. Every effort must be mustered to avoid this from being a legacy for Australia.

As it stands, the multicultural experiment appears to have failed, with this blessed land being left all the poorer and crippled by Woke ideology, leaving it a mere shadow of its potential. Let us cherish our freedoms, many of which we take for granted. Let us fight metaphorically in our speech to uphold the values so many before us died to protect.

Finally, let us not repeat the mistakes of Europe in the lead-up to the second world war. We would do well to keep the following well-known quote by then Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison taken from his 2013 speech on respect for colleagues.

‘The standard we walk past is the standard we accept…’

We are all Australian; we are one and we are free as the National Anthem tells us. Above all else, this must be etched in the psyche of every member of our society, no matter when we joined Team Australia. It means treating others as we would have them treat us. It means having the courage to protect our democratic freedoms, calling out injustices as we find them, speaking up even when it is uncomfortable to do so. It means having the right to live our lives in complete peace and harmony. Each of us has the right to exist, each of us vital for enriching the fabric of our society. However, we must all play a part in ensuring that this happens, to make a conscious decision to live with tolerance of our neighbour … and to deter errant behaviour where it is found without rationalisation or justification. But first, it is incumbent on each and every one of us to learn the lessons of history, to heed them; to do otherwise is to repeat past mistakes to our detriment and peril.

Where do you stand? Does Israel have the right to defend itself, to end the cycle of attacks on its sovereignty against a foe hell-bent on sacrificing the lives of its citizens in a flagrant attempt to broaden conflict in the region in order to destroy Israel – a one-state solution in which Hamas and Iran are in control? These are easy questions, questions that must be faced and addressed sooner rather than later if Israel, and indeed the West, is to survive … the solution, not so easy.