PM AND HIS MINISTER SEEK TO APPEASE ENEMY WITHIN

Since October 7 last year, the Albanese Labor government has abandoned Israel, endangered the Australian Jewish population, empowered radical Islamists and diminished our national values in a way that imperils our future. We will pay a price for this weakness; it may not be immediate but it is unavoidable, and it will not be any easier to endure because Anthony Albanese can point to the likes of Canada or New Zealand as showing similar spinelessness.

It is worth recounting that I wrote those words on Tuesday night before waking to the news on the front page of The Australian that Foreign Minister Penny Wong had held out the grotesque and impossible reward of a Palestinian state in response to Hamas’s atrocity and the war it deliberately sparked. What was already an appalling performance by Labor, one that invited danger at home and abroad, has descended into inconceivable cowardice and treach-erous naivety.

On Wong’s logic it cannot be long before the IRA has Northern Ireland, the Tamil Tigers have Sri Lanka and Islamic State has Bel­gium. If we accede to the demands or pretexts of terrorist groups and their deadly attacks, we may as well close the door on democracy and Western liberal values.

Yet as blindingly obvious as this capitulation is to most observers, it is perhaps the least foolish aspect of Wong’s proposed Middle East solution. Does she actually believe that Islamist extremism can be appeased? That a Palestinian leadership capable of negotiating with Israel and uniting Gaza and the West Bank while keeping Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic State, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups at bay exists?

Is she not ashamed to offer such a carrot while 130 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, some dead, some alive, all defiled by Hamas in its underground labyrinth of evil? Where does Wong propose to draw the border? Who does she see as the governing authority? How could Israel accept this development? Would the Palestinian state be armed? How could it provide a security guarantee to Israel when Hamas appears to be the most popular organisation in the territories?

The truth is that a two-state solution – often more of a slogan or debating point than a real proposal – is further away now than it was on October 6, and Wong should know that. Her premature partition plan shows that Labor sees this issue only through politics, mainly domestic, failing to grasp the values at stake and the existential threat posed by Islamist extremism – not just to Israel but to the Western democracies including our own.

Wong and the Prime Minister failed to be unequivocal in their reaction six months ago when more Jews were killed than in any single day since the Holocaust in one of history’s most vile terrorist attacks, committed by a nihilist Islamist outfit against innocent Israeli civilians. Instead of responding with resolve to punish Hamas and ensure it could never perpetrate such atrocities again, Wong and Albanese immediately cautioned Israel over its efforts to defend itself. Wong tweeted within hours of the attack that “Australia urges the exercise of restraint”. And the Foreign Minister defended her approach two days later: “I think it is always the right thing for Australia to urge restraint and the protection of civilian lives.”

Of course, Albanese and Wong condemned Hamas and called for hostages to be released. But their bias immediately was weighted towards constraining Israel rather than eliminating Hamas. “And a real concern, of course,” the Prime Minister said on October 9, “an Israeli response”.

Australia’s position was that Israel should defend itself – but not too much. Which makes little sense, especially given what had happened and what is at stake.

This sort of heavily qualified support for Israel meant our government was reacting precisely as the evil puppet-meisters of Hamas hoped, putting pressure on the victim, Israel, rather than the perpetrators. Labor’s response was entirely political rather than values-based, immediately helping to legitimise the October 7 atrocity as another act of resistance in what is portrayed as a liberation struggle.

There were warnings that Israel’s response needed to be “proportionate”. What would be the proportionate response to murdering babies, slaughtering innocents, raping and butchering young women, murdering the elderly, and taking civilian hostages for torture, sadistic pleasure and sick bargaining? On October 6 there was a ceasefire, and only Hamas was breaking it. On October 7 Hamas committed the most egregious war crimes, deliberately condemning the people of Gaza to deadly repercussions.

Yet the Albanese government, like so many leftist organisations and most of the Western liberal media, has been a willing dupe for this familiar tactic of the Islamist extremists. The terrorists claim victimhood, blaming one great Satan or another, then slaughter innocents and use any retribution to amplify their victimhood status. Words or actions from the West that confirm this victim status serve only to advance the terrorist goals. This demonises Israel, helps to enrage Palestinian and Muslim supporters, and aids in the recruitment of more martyrs.

The last thing sensible nations should do is feed this victim narrative. On October 6 the people of Gaza ran their own affairs under the Hamas leadership they elected, and they were in receipt of billions of dollars in aid that could have returned the Gaza Strip to a place of prosperity and peace but instead was used to build tunnels and terror networks.

The monsters of Hamas want a two-state solution like they want religious diversity, sexual liberation and democracy. Peace is the antithesis of their extremist ideal, and their endless jihad uses Palestinian civilian lives as just another weapon. They want a Palestinian homeland but only without Israel or Jews. Until then, they wish only to foment violence, chaos and resentment.

Then along comes a “useful idiot” like Wong, proffering a new land of milk and honey as a way to wean them off jihad. Seriously.

Wong is realistic enough to specifically state that Hamas can play no role in this fanciful future Palestinian state. Yet she specifically calls on Israel to abandon its plans to invade Rafah and eliminate Hamas – she wants a ceasefire that would keep Hamas in place at the same time she declares Hamas should have no role in the future of the Palestinians.

How do you suggest Hamas be removed, minister? Should we perhaps just ask them to move on? Hamas must be defeated. There can be no negotiation. How can Israel negotiate with an organisation committed to its elimination and the extermination of Jews? How do you meet that halfway?

Wong and Albanese misapprehend the visceral forces at play, they labour under a misguided belief that the vile ambitions of Hamas and other Islamist groups can be accommodated through transactional politicking. They fall for the propaganda, mistaking the ambit claims for, say, a Palestinian state or a ceasefire as the true goals of the terror groups.

By behaving as if Hamas and others can be assuaged, they only encourage such despicable behaviour and invite more extremism. Weakness is provocative – Osama bin Laden understood this but Albanese and Wong do not.

The night after the October 7 atrocities a crowd gathered at Lakemba in Sydney to celebrate. “I’m smiling, and I’m happy,” Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun yelled, to cheers from his fellow Australians. “I’m elated, it’s a day of courage, a day of pride, a day of victory, this is the day we’ve been waiting for.”

At the same time in Israel families were being told of the fate of their children and loved ones, crews were picking through the carnage of broken homes and bodies in southern Israel, and hostages were being tortured and raped. The following night another crowd turned up at the Sydney Opera House and chanted, “Gas the Jews” or “Where’s the Jews?” and “Shame, shame Israel” and “Shame, shame Australia”.

In response, our authorities and politicians did nothing. Not a single person was arrested (except two men with Israeli flags dragged away by police for courting trouble) and no one has been charged over these flagrant examples of hate speech, intimidation and violent threats.

Instead we have welcomed hundreds of refugees from Gaza, brought to Australia in such quick time that security checks could have been only cursory. With increasing incidents of anti-Semitism raising their ugly and dangerous head, including intimidating rallies in the heart of Jewish communities, politicians such as Wong and Albanese have offered only meek condemnation. They have usually felt obliged to placate Islamists by mentioning Islamophobia in the same breath, even though any retaliation against Muslim communities is mainly an imagined scourge in this country.

It is disturbing enough to think we have fellow citizens in this country who can celebrate while innocent people lie slaughtered and young women are being raped and tortured as trophy hostages.

Try to imagine how Jewish Australians must feel – imperilled and deserted in their own country.

That our police and politicians have done nothing but tut-tut is an unforgivable failure of leadership. Albanese must wear most of the blame – to stand against such despicable assaults on our national values must be the top priority of any prime minister. But he has been dumbstruck and culpable.

A real leader would have challenged law enforcement authorities to deal with this open threat to our way of life. If laws were inadequate, a real leader would have sought changes. A real leader would have railed against this behaviour in the strongest and most uncompromising terms. A real leader would have been a regular at Shabbat dinners these past six months. A real leader would have called a summit of Muslim community leaders to discuss ways to combat extremism. A real leader would have offered Israel full support in combating Hamas.

Instead, we have mutterings about Islamophobia and Wong talking about a Palestinian homeland as a gift that might lead to peace and the end of extremism.

If it were not so tragic and dangerous it would be laughable.

In the US state of Michigan last week Muslim groups came together to chant “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”. Activist Tarek Bazzi slammed the US for funding Israel’s “atrocities” and said: “The chant ‘Death to Israel’ has become the most logical chant shouted across the world today.”

Imam Usama Abdul Ghani said: “Israel is ISIS, Israel are Nazis, they are fascists, they are racists.”

This is the enemy within. We have the same elements here. We do not confront them. We do not condemn them. We do not seek to control or reform them.

Instead, Wong and Albanese seek to appease them with the improbable promise of a Palestinian homeland, which would not satisfy them anyway. We face an ongoing vicious threat to our values and democracy.

It has killed Australians before in Bali, in Afghanistan, at Paramatta, in Sydney’s Martin Place and in London. But Wong and Albanese seek to pretend it away. We should be worried. Our government is doing nothing except making it worse