Peta Credlin: Why police must act if anti-Israel protests degenerate into orgies of hate speech
As a free nation, we simply cannot continue to allow our streets to be controlled, and people’s lives to be disrupted, by thuggish activists who hate our country, writes Peta Credlin.
Opinion
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It is a sad reflection on our nation that as we mark the anniversary of the October 7 atrocity that falls tomorrow, more Australians are likely to march in the street to celebrate the terrorists than to mourn its victims. I don’t believe they represent the majority of us, but unless we add our voices to the condemnation of their callous, depraved actions, this cancer inside our country will continue to grow.
Because the appalling truth about modern Australia, revealed by the mass protests against Israel planned for today and tomorrow, is that too many of our citizens no longer value liberal democracy and can’t adequately distinguish between the attacks of terrorists and the legitimate self-defence of a country under existential threat.
There are three factors at work here: Large numbers of poorly integrated recent migrants from the Middle East who’ve brought their hatreds with them; a generation of young people brainwashed into seeing western civilisation as inherently oppressive and Israel as an outpost of “white privilege” and “settler colonialism”; and weak leadership from a Prime Minister who has never stopped being a hard-left student activist and is now frightened of upsetting Islamist voters in western Sydney.
The past year has taught us much about our country and about the world, most of it disheartening. Key in this has been the exposure of enclaves in Sydney and Melbourne where people take our hospitality but reject our values. The appalling sermons in some mosques that inspire new generations to hate others based on religion have no place in this country. Worryingly too, the large number of people with an Australian passport who, for all intents and purposes, live overseas, often on our welfare system, Australians of conviction or convenience? But don’t let that obscure the view from experts that much of this hatred on our streets is homegrown.
On Friday, all the nation’s police forces issued a joint statement that there will be zero tolerance for illegal behaviour or violence at pro-Palestinian protests. They declared that “there are offences that prohibit behaviour that incites, or advocates violence or hatred based on race and religion, including the display of prohibited symbols”. The strong, if belated joint police statement went on: “it is also a serious offence to counsel, promote, encourage, urge, instruct or praise terrorism”.
Sure, a strong (if belated) statement but let’s see police do something to actually enforce these laws. Almost immediately though, that strong sentiment was undercut, with NSW Police approving a Hizb ut-Tahrir protest for Monday, even though this is a banned terrorist group in the UK, because there appeared to be “goodwill” from the organisers.
Should the anti-Israel protests degenerate into the orgies of hate speech and intimidation routinely on display over the past year, the police must do more than they have to date. How is it they could break up freedom protests during the pandemic, using rubber bullets and tear gas, but with terrorist sympathisers, they barely arrest anyone? Indeed, as we saw last year, they even gave them a police escort to the steps of the Opera House where the sails were bathed in the colours of the Israeli flag to mourn 1200 dead?
As a free nation, we simply cannot continue to allow our streets to be controlled, and people’s lives to be disrupted, by thuggish activists who hate our country. On Friday, it was revealed that one of the leaders of recent anti-Israel riots in Melbourne was an Iranian national who describes Australia as a “pathetic tyrannical terrorist regime”. It’s beyond weak that this individual has not already had his visa cancelled and been deported. Just as the Israelis have declared “never again” to the proponents of a new Holocaust, we need to proclaim “ENOUGH!” to everyone showing contempt for our country.
The Albanese government has not once opened its mouth on Israel, since October 7, other than to demand the de-escalation and ceasefires that would expose the Middle East’s only liberal democracy to yet more danger.
The last 12 months have well and truly exposed the West’s folly and moral confusion. In this fight, there is a right and a wrong. As Australians who love this country, we need to speak up in our communities even if we don’t march in the streets like they do and ensure that the strength of the silent majority is felt.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: NUCLEAR ENERGY IS CLEANER AND CHEAPER
Largely buried by a media that peddles climate alarmism was a key report from the US Department of Energy – yes, from Joe Biden’s officials – debunking the myth that renewables are the cheapest form of emissions-free electricity. The US report completely contradicts Chris Bowen’s constant assertion that the CSIRO’s “levelized cost of electricity” proves that emissions free nuclear power is much more expensive than firmed renewables.
The US report states that “levelized cost of electricity does not capture the full benefits of nuclear as a clean, firm resource. These include the value of an 80-year operating asset, the value of firm generation to provide power during key periods of grid need or when other variable resources are not generating, and the value of clean electricity relative to carbon emitting resources”.
Using modelling based on the experience of California, the report says that the cost, per megawatt-hour of renewables and storage ONLY, ranges from $129 to $150 – while the cost of renewables and storage WITH nuclear is just $80 to $94. In other words, using nuclear makes electricity 37 per cent less expensive.
It was always absurd of the Albanese government to insist that nuclear power is cost-efficient at sea (in our nuclear-powered subs) but prohibitively expensive on land. Now that this authoritative costing has emerged from Biden’s America, its clear that green ideology is the only thing stopping us from repealing the ban on civil nuclear power.
Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm
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Originally published as Peta Credlin: Why police must act if anti-Israel protests degenerate into orgies of hate speech
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