The result of the Hamas atrocities of 7 October has dominated our media for the last month. Not so much, the atrocities themselves. They have now been largely consigned to the mainstream media 24-hour cycle trash bin. I have four questions for our media outlets. Here is the first.

In 2022 I attended CPAC in Sydney.  When I arrived at about 8.00am on the Saturday morning, there were at least 30 police officers in attendance, worried that this group of ‘far-right activists’ would, by their mere presence, provoke a violent reaction from sensitive victims from the left. As it turned out, there was a small protest faction but Nigel Farage dealt with them pretty comfortably. Nonetheless, CPAC was presented with an invoice for services rendered by NSW Police to keep the peace. Free speech is alive in NSW, but it is not gratis.

On 15 October 2023, I again had the privilege of observing our boys and girls in blue keeping the peace. I was staying at the Hyde Park Inn in Sydney and had returned from a shopping trip just in time to see the pre-approved pro-Palestinian march in full swing. As it happened, the march was quite peaceful, and you wouldn’t need to be Einstein to figure out why. It was reported that 800 police were required to monitor this event. I can believe it. Apart from all the police manning every street junction within a bull’s roar, there was a police officer every 10 metres either side of the road, all marching to keep pace with the protestors.

How much did that police presence cost? A small fortune, I imagine. So are the organisers of the, at least, four pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney recently – and the ones being planned for the future – being similarly invoiced for the massive cost of keeping the peace at these events? If free speech is not gratis for conservatives, why should it be so for supporters of a depraved regime in the Middle East?

Where is the mainstream media commentator or, better still, NSW opposition MP prepared to ask the same question? How long is it intended that these protests be indulged?  Until, ‘from the river to the sea’, Palestine is free? Does it not strike anyone that this self-indulgence on the part of pro-Palestinian activists should not be at the expense of the long-suffering taxpayer? As regards free speech, it is the role of the police to uphold it. Not to roll out a red carpet for it.

Here is my second question. Not content with waving their Palestine flags during protests these anti-Semitic activists and their useful idiots have taken to flying the Palestinian flag, alongside the Australian flag, in public places, such as Federation Square in Melbourne, and outside public buildings, such as the Canterbury-Bankstown council offices. This has rightly attracted criticism, and is most hurtful for Jewish Australians. But they, and we, need not put up with it, if only someone in authority had the cojones to enforce proper flag protocol. On learning that Tony Burke supported the flying of the Palestinian flag by that local council I submitted this comment to the Australian:

‘Cabinet Minister Tony Burke has refused to repudiate claims of genocide and apartheid by the Israeli government, condemning the “siege” on Gaza and backing the flying of the Palestinian flag by a council in his electorate. The decision by Canterbury-Bankstown Council to fly the Palestinian flag alongside the National Flag is in breach of Australian government flag protocol which states: “The Australian Government’s policy in relation to the flying of other nations’ flags is to fly only the official flags of nations recognised by Australia”. Palestine is not a nation recognised by Australia. What is the point of having a National Flag if it can be demeaned at will, not by protestors, but by elected and paid officials?’

For some obscure reason, this comment was rejected. So let me ask, why has the government not insisted these flags be removed from official flag stations?

Much of the anti-Israel rhetoric centres around Israel’s right to exist, the denial of which thus delegitimises the right of Israel to defend itself. As to this question, we can argue about the significance of the undeniable physical and spiritual connection of the Jews to the Holy Land since biblical times.  We can argue about the rights of the Zionist movement to migrate Jews into Palestine in order to establish a homeland in the middle of what had, for centuries, been been an exclusively Muslim enclave. (As an aside, objections to Jews ‘colonising’ Palestine following the Holocaust and overwhelming the local population, seem a little hypocritical considering the waves of Muslims now flooding into every country in Europe and universally changing them for the worse. Are they colonising Europe? Jews created an oasis in Israel. These Muslim ‘refugees’ are building self-imposed ghettos.) But, these considerations are irrelevant in today’s world. Israel’s right to exist hinges overwhelmingly on the fact that it does exist – an internationally recognised, vibrant, diverse and successful modern democracy.  Not perfect by any means, but which country is? Nonetheless it is an exemplar for all its neighbours.

The Star of David flag is the official flag of a country which we do recognise and which, additionally, is an important ally.  Apart from a brief burst of courage from NSW Premier Chris Minns, who authorised the lighting of the Sydney Opera House in Israeli colours, where is the government or council prepared to acknowledge the suffering of the Jewish people by flying the Israeli flag?

Here is my third question.

This whole campaign began when Palestinian supporters were allowed to gather at the Sydney Opera House to celebrate – yes, celebrate – the slaughter of over 1,000 innocent men, women, children and babies. Not as collateral casualties in a military operation but as designated targets of a terrorist attack. That was sickening. I find it hard to think of anything that, in 75 years on this earth, has outraged me as much as that spectacle. And the sight of one courageous Jewish man being arrested for attempting to display the Israeli flag. And the video footage of a couple of Jewish kids being threatened with death for the same crime.

Two days after the Sydney protest, I visited the Jewish Museum in Sydney as a guest of my niece who works there. I had expected it to be sombre and depressing. Instead, I found it bright and uplifting. It does not deal only with the Diaspora and Holocaust, but also presents the story of Jews in Australia. Their contribution to this country dates back to the First Fleet, which contained quite a number of Jewish convicts, many of whom later became successful businesspeople and community leaders. As have their descendants ever since.

But what struck me most, as an ex-military man, was the entrance, which is dominated by a plinth bearing the name John Monash behind which is a beautiful black marble wall of remembrance bearing the names of all those Jews who gave their lives for Australia.

What comparable contribution can these blow-ins from Bankstown possibly claim?

If you have not been to the Museum, I urge you to go. I guarantee you will enjoy the experience but, more importantly, you will give great encouragement to some fellow Australians who are feeling very hurt and vulnerable right now.

What have Jewish Australians done to deserve to feel threatened in their own country? Where no one dare display the Star of David but the Palestinian flag is given free rein?And my fourth question? Why am I the only one asking these questions?