Peace and prosperity in Palestine

On Friday, 13 November 2015, in a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris at the international football match at the Stade de France, in crowded cafes and restaurants, and at a concert in the Bataclan theatre hundreds of people were killed and injured.

Eight years later, on Saturday, 7 October 2023, Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, and terrorised people in their homes on kibbutz and at a rock concert in southern Israel. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 1140 were killed and another 240 were taken hostage.

It has taken a while for the evidence of that pogrom to be gathered. But the story of gang rapes and physical mutilation of women and babies by Hamas terrorists has now been documented by the New York Times.

'Screams without words': How Hamas Weaponised Sexual Violence on Oct.7.

NYTimes Dec. 28, 2023. It is an horrific story.

These are events that should be seared on our memories. There are others too. These are not isolated events. They are the actions of people who do not share our values. They are the actions of people who are dangerous to be in our midst.

Hamas does not believe that Israel has a right to exist. Its intention is to eliminate Israel entirely – 'from the river to the sea'. Since October 7, Hamas has fired over 10,000 rockets into Israel.

In response to the barbaric Al-Aqsa Flood attack, Israel has declared war on Hamas believing that it needs to remove them from power in order to ensure its own long-term survival.

Significantly, Hamas has done nothing to protect Palestinian citizens from this foreseeable response. Palestinians have no access to the security of the 500 kilometres of tunnels, and the supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines stored there. These are solely for the Hamas elite.

The consequence of the war is a humanitarian crisis. Much of Gaza has been laid waste. 1.9 million people have been displaced. The UN has called for a ceasefire.

The deficiency of the UN ceasefire proposal, agreed to by the Australian government on Wednesday, 13 December, is that it does not address the threat of a repeat of the Al-Aqsa Flood pogrom and similar aggressions. Australia should not be a party to the United Nations' partisan condemnations of Israel.

It would be better if the UN were to persuade Hamas to surrender. But that is unlikely. The war will continue until Hamas' political and military structures are dismantled and Gaza is made safe from booby-trapped tunnels and unexploded ordnance.