Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

What a tangled web we weave when we don’t know what we believe. Watching our Prime Minister do verbal cartwheels would be funny if it didn’t have such serious consequences.

Senator Fatima Payman made clear her support is for a terrorist organisation. Finally, the Prime Minister took action.

But this saga is obviously not over yet. Where is the unequivocal statement about where the government and/or Labor Party, stands on this issue? We hear whimpering about Labor solidarity, but not about the issues that Senator Payman is espousing.

If you don’t know what you believe, it will manifest in indecision, flip-flops and messy inconsistencies.

In the brilliant video “Never Again”,

Our Prime Minister says:

“We’ve seen young kids at Sydney University being taught slogans ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” You set up a tent to send a message to the Israeli government about Gaza. How has that any prospect of advancing a cause?

What we are seeing isn’t any intellectual engagement or discourse. What we are seeing is a promotion of simplistic slogans and in some case a promotion of hate, and there is no place for that whatsoever in Australia.”

To which Josh Frydenberg respectfully countered:

“So your words are very strong there, but we need to go to the next step and ensure it is a safe place, Prime Minister.”

“It does need to be a safe space.”

Am I missing something here?  If the Prime Minister believes our universities, our citizens, our nation ‘need to be a safe space’ what leadership has he shown? What action has he taken? He took no action to prevent an appeasement agreement with the protestors, detrimental to the university’s autonomy.

Strong Leadership Needed

Right now, Australia needs a strong leader to speak unequivocally in support of Jewish citizens in this country who are living in fear, and whose businesses are being trashed. Children are fearful of going to school. Jewish citizens are being consistently targeted. Antisemitism is nothing new, but the rise across the world, and particularly in Australia, appears to be going unchecked.

Do we just stand by as our sacred war memorials are desecrated, parliamentary offices are vandalised, and public spaces become unsafe?

Why are the police and council officers left to clean up the mess and remain silent?

A line has been crossed. Yes, we want to protect the right to demonstrate for a cause, and to protect freedom of speech, but when that demonstration is disgorging hatred, incitement to violence and trashing our public spaces, it is time to act.

We have the laws in place — they just need to be enforced. The protesting leaders are easily identified. They must be brought to account.

The Die was Cast on 9 October

Failure to act from the first day, after the disgusting display on the Opera House steps, has emboldened the demonstrators and left us bereft of decisive action.

The demonstrators were pre-warned of the Hamas attack; otherwise, how could they have been so well-organised?  The spontaneous eruption across campuses around the world suggests an orchestrated propaganda war.

One has to wonder where our intelligence was on this matter. Why has it been allowed to get so out of hand?

Mixed Messages from Our Leaders

Instead, we’ve heard mixed messages calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the fact that Israeli hostages are still being held by an internationally declared terrorist organisation. Is Israel supposed to abandon its innocent civilians? Would any other country be expected not to pursue every possible means to recover its citizens after such diabolical and heinous crimes?

In addition, there are calls for a Palestinian state. At the very time Israel is fighting for its survival, our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister call for recognition of Palestine. This only emboldens Hamas to continue holding the hostages and using their own people as human shields.

The Palestinians have no credible leader, and all agree Hamas cannot be in control. Surely, it is fanciful to expect “reformation of the Palestinian leadership” when, since 2005, instead of cooperating with international agencies to develop a safe haven for their people, they created over 500 km of terror tunnels and carried out a genocidal massacre of their neighbour.

In addition, Hamas and its parent, Iran, have stated unequivocally that they are determined to “eliminate Israel”.

The Truth Matters

No one denies this is a complex and intractable problem. How our leaders react makes a difference to the way the issues impact our everyday lives. The underlying beliefs our leaders hold will provide the lens through which they see and respond to what is happening.

If their lens focuses on placating potentially hostile voters and shoring up their power base, then their response will shift to accommodate the views of their perceived supporters.

What we believe informs the values we hold. It is incumbent on our leaders to ensure the information they are basing their pronouncements and policies on, is from trustworthy sources.

The truth matters. Repeating propaganda because you are too lazy to check the facts for yourself is no excuse if you are holding high office.

This was the appeal Josh Frydenberg made to the Prime Minister. It was as if he was screaming at him: “You have the power to do something about this. We beg you to do it.”

Josh Frydenberg was speaking from personal experience, as a Jewish man who is currently experiencing antisemitism first-hand. He is living it. He was face to face with a leader who could have spoken out, taken decisive action and made a difference.

Sadly, this appeal appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Since our leadership fails to lead, it is incumbent on each of us to take whatever action we can to seek the truth, speak the truth and live the truth. We can be so grateful we live in a democracy where we are free to express ourselves to our representatives, so I urge you: write, call, visit your local member and make your views known.

Maybe there is still hope. As Edmund Burke reminds us: “Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.”

___

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.