Leaders wave white flag in terror propaganda war

October 7 has changed everything, even here in Australia. Social cohesion is under threat and anti-Semitism is undisguised.

Demonstrators pictures of Hassan Nasrallah, the late leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, at a protest rally in Sydney. Picture: AFP

About a dozen years ago on a train between Sydney and its eastern suburbs, I noticed a young Muslim couple (identified by her hijab) chatting amiably on the same bench seat as a young Jewish couple (identified by his yarmulke). It was a snippet of life that filled me with a sense of pride and gratitude for our easygoing antipodean melting pot.

I was far from naive; this precious harmony hit home precisely because I was familiar with the counterpoint, having been to Iraq, Iran, Israel, the West Bank, the Israel-Lebanon border, Jordan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and other hotspots.

From visiting terrorist crime scenes in Bali and Jakarta, to dealing with terror victims in London, Istanbul and the Middle East, and being involved in counter-terrorism briefings and policymaking at home, I was more aware than most about the metastasising threats. But it always seemed that in this country we were doing OK.

OCTOBER 7: A YEAR ON

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The October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel shocked the world. In this gripping first-hand account, Amir Tibon describes how his family’s safety hung in the balance for hours.

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Raw footage, running for about 45 minutes, captures the unspeakable horror of October 7: innocent people being murdered, beheaded, hunted down, raped, kicked, bashed, burnt alive. Here’s what Australia’s leaders had to say when I asked if they had seen it.

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In my life I never imagined a situation where the government of a free, functioning democracy such as Australia would be unable to tell right from wrong. Would be so comfortable walking in step with the wicked, unable to take a stand against evil.

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This war on the ‘villa in the jungle’ was launched to test a thesis. It has been disproven at a very high cost.

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Without a homeland, their community was at the mercy of monarchs, popes and prime ministers. For the writer, tracing the history of Sephardic Jews in Europe was to walk in the forever-moving footsteps of his forebears.

In Sydney, I have come to know Jewish Australians and members of the Muslim community and became familiar with the suburbs where their cultures are obvious. I have even become used to seeing armed guards at the Jewish schools and synagogues I walk by, but even with my experience of the methods, motivations and actions of Islamist terrorism I often wondered if this was overreach.

Not any longer. Our melting pot has become a pressure cooker where coexistence is fraught; security has been bolstered.

This year I have spoken to Jewish mothers traumatised about sending their children to schools that could be targeted – overt security is the least they need. Some students have abandoned uniforms for fear of being identified as Jewish.

At Jewish schools I have heard teenagers speak of their fears. Australian children, living in the luckiest of lands, scarred by an evil threat, their childhoods burdened by unspeakable hatred finding its way to our shores.

October 7 has changed everything, even here in Australia. Social cohesion is under threat and anti-Semitism is undisguised.

Now when I see a man shopping in a yarmulke, I see proud defiance and unshakeable courage. Many Jewish Australians, understandably, accept discretion as the better part of valour and switch to baseball caps, leaving Jewish jewellery at home. My happy train carriage vignette seems like a blameless memory from another land.

On Saturday night, October 7, and deep into Sunday, October 8, thousands of Jewish Australians were frantically gathering all the news they could from Israel, checking in on loved ones, and dealing with shock and disgust as details became clear.

At the same time, on a Sydney street in Lakemba dozens of Muslim Australians cheered Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun as he proclaimed, “I’m smiling and I’m happy, I’m elated, it’s a day of courage, it’s a day of happiness, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory, this is the day we’ve been waiting for.” The crowd, which included women and children, shouted back, “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.” In a nearby suburb, fireworks lit up the street. Our fellow Australians celebrated the brutal slaying of 1200 Israelis.

Aside from an unborn baby that could not be saved after its pregnant mother was shot dead, the youngest person slaughtered was 10-month-old Mila Cohen; 12 of the victims were children aged under 10. At the Nova music festival, 360 young adults were slaughtered; dozens of women were raped and tortured beforehand.

And 250 people – including 32-year-old mother Shiri Bibas, her nine-month-old baby Kfir and four-year-old Ariel – were taken hostage.

Shiri Bibas with her youngest son Kfir.

Yet on October 9, while his horror show was playing out in Israel (and there had yet been no military response from Israel) hundreds of Palestinian Australians gathered in Sydney’s CBD to protest, and they marched to the Opera House where the sails were to be lit in the colours of the Israeli flag as a mark of respect. Instead, Jewish Australians were warned away and the crowd chanted what sounded to many like “Gas the Jews” but which police later claimed was “Where’s the Jews?” They also chanted, “Shame, shame, Australia”.

Shame it was. Deep shame.

For many, these events fundamentally change how we think about our country. We have seen some of our compatriots celebrate the slaughter of innocents and cheer for more.

With this hatred fomented among us, there is a schism in our once reassuring cohesion. We have seen intimidating forays by anti-Israel protesters into Jewish communities, protesters flying the flags of Islamist terrorist outfits and the veneration of the murderous former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Hate preachers have spewed Jew-hating bile at mosques. And, astonishingly, over the year there have been no arrests; our politicians and authorities have stood idly by. (Outrage this week has prompted investigations into the display of terrorist symbols.)

Jewish Australians have been terrified by death threats and dismayed by the inaction of governments and law enforcement authorities. Some say they would feel more secure in Israel.

Our country will not be the same again. Our leaders have let down our citizens and abandoned our values. Anthony Albanese is exposed as an invertebrate, shrinking before our eyes. He gormlessly echoes UN talking points that give comfort only to the terrorists. The Prime Minister shows no moral clarity or strategic purpose – every day since October 7, our country has become weaker and more vulnerable, and our citizens more divided.

When those Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel from Gaza a year ago, they would not have believed their depravity could prove so successful.

They have filled the streets of Western capitals with anti-Israel protesters, divided communities, and seen leftist politicians around the world place pressure on the victims, on Israel.

The ignorant dupes of the Western media/political class have swallowed the terrorist propaganda, framing the atrocity as part of a liberation struggle that aspires to a peaceful settlement. It was, of course, the opposite.

The aim is not to win peace but to perpetuate conflict. A two-state solution is the last thing Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran would ever accept. Their aim is to make Israel a pariah globally, advancing their long-term goal of eradicating the country and its people from the river to the sea. A precondition for that is to cut off Israel’s support from the West.

They play a long game.

Hamas staged an attack so foul it was bound to trigger a war in Gaza and then its tactics guaranteed civilian casualties. For Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, thousands of dead Palestinians are a small price to pay if they can use them to turn international opinion against Israel.

The spineless calls for ceasefires from the UN, US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and others including Albanese can only benefit the terrorist players. If Israel had heeded these calls last week, Nasrallah would still be leading Hezbollah with more of his leadership and weaponry in place.

Yet the BBC, ABC, British Labour Party, US Democrats and ALP all pretend this is about Palestinian aspiration to statehood.

I have no doubt that many, if not most, Palestinians aspire to some sort of resolution, to peace. But that is not the aim of Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran. And that was not the aim of October 7.

Israel is fighting on every front, anti-Israel protests are global, diplomatic pressure on Israel is building and its allies are losing patience. Division and mistrust between Muslim, Jewish and other populations are growing around the world.

Look at all that and you see the goals of October 7 fulfilled.

The only way to turn it around is to defeat the Islamist extremist groups. And to corral Iran, blocking its nihilist plots.

The best allies in that fight might be the Sunni powers of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. But so far the West is not even having the right debate; it is preoccupied with Palestinian aspirations rather than Iranian malfeasance.

On the eve of the first anniversary, appallingly, 101 hostages remain unaccounted for – we know some are alive, perhaps dozens, hidden in tunnels beneath Gaza. Are the Bibas boys, Ariel and Kfir, now five and nearly two, still alive, held by Hamas? And their mother and father?

The only protests we should see on Monday are against the atrocity and the perpetrators and demanding the release of all hostages who are the living testaments to unspeakable depravity. The October 7 abomination was a crime against humanity, and it has tragically exposed a lack of humanity the world over – even here, in our blessed corner of the world.