Andrew Bolt: Anthony Albanese never understood what Israel was dealing with

One year after Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel to slaughter 1200 Jews, rape women and behead men, it’s clear that Anthony Albanese never understood what Israel was dealing with.

It’s so clear – one year after Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel to slaughter 1200 Jews, rape women and behead men – that Anthony Albanese never understood what Israel was dealing with.

Our Prime Minister’s failure of leadership is now made even clearer by a stunning poll of Palestinians, showing Israel is right and Albanese wrong: war does work.

But first, how to explain Albanese’s weakness?

Just two days after the October 7 massacre, Albanese told Israel to restrain itself: “There should always be restraint.”

How presumptuous. In Israel, corpses were still being dragged from homes torched by the terrorists. Reservists at Israel’s Shura army base were still trying to identify Jewish women who’d had their faces – and vaginas – shot to a pulp.

Israel had not yet sent a soldier into Gaza to hunt down the monsters who’d also taken 251 hostages.

Yet here was Albanese apparently trying to negotiate some imaginary halfway point between good and evil.

This initial response has become his government’s mindless template ever since. Even when Iran last Tuesday fired 181 missiles at Israel, Albanese warned Israel against making its attackers pay, demanding “de-escalation”: “There does at some point need to be a diplomatic solution.”

Yes, Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong say, “Israel has a right to defend itself”, yet they’ve never supported any specific action Israel has taken to do just that.

I’ve struggled to understand why. At first I assumed they were simply trying to placate Muslim voters in western Sydney.

But that amoral political calculus no longer makes sense. Any votes Labor could lose on the Left to the anti-Semitic Greens must today be outnumbered by the votes Labor is losing in the middle, as shocked Australians see pro-Palestinian extremists here waving terrorist flags and chanting for the death of Jews and Israel.

Why do Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong stick to their anti-Israel script?

So why do Albanese and Wong stick to their anti-Israel script?

But then I remember how unemotional they seemed in their response to October 7.

Wong, in her only visit to Israel since the massacre, refused to even visit the sites of the slaughter, such as Kibbutz Be’eri or the Nova festival field where hundreds of young music lovers were murdered. Albanese wouldn’t go to Israel at all.

Neither seem to have watched the 45 minutes of video Israel compiled from bodycam footage shot by the Hamas terrorists as they killed Jews and hacked off heads.

I think I know why.

I’ve been to those sites. I’ve watched as much of that video as I could stand. Both would tell Albanese this attack was no mere “uprising” by oppressed people demanding peace. This was an act of genocide by jihadists who loathe Jews.

Albanese wouldn’t want to confront that reality.

Back as a student activist, son of a single mother in a housing commission flat, he was already campaigning for Palestinian “rights” against an evil capitalist Israel.

Does Albanese really want to admit he’s been a fool, especially lately, calling for Israel to use “diplomacy” in dealing with Jew-hating terrorists who want it destroyed?

In the Middle East, as Israel knows, it’s force that gets you respect. And safety.

Take this new poll I mentioned.

In December, the respected Arab World For Research and Development, based in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, polled in the West Bank and Gaza and found 75 per cent of Palestinians supported the October 7 massacre, 90 per cent wanted no co-existence with Israel, and 76 per cent backed Hamas.

Shocking, but what a difference a war has made – a war Israel is winning.

Albanese and Wong say Israel has a right to defend itself yet they’ve never supported any specific action Israel has taken to do just that. Picture: Hilary Wardhaugh

This same Arab World For Research and Development now claims support for the October 7 massacre has dropped to 67 per cent although a third of those supporters admit the attack was “flawed” or involved “heinous or criminal acts”.

Most striking is that 80 per cent of Palestinians polled now want – albeit grudgingly – a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel, and just 8 per cent said they’d vote for Hamas.

Obviously, this poll shows Israel still cannot hope for Palestinians to love it, but if it can’t be loved, let it be feared.

Is Albanese watching?

Had Israel listened to him and not fought back, it would not have destroyed Hamas, crippled Hezbollah and humiliated Iran’s ayatollahs.

It would not be feared, and Palestinians would not today say they can live with an Israeli state after all.

Can Albanese now support Israel in its war for survival? Or will he still give comfort to evil?