Israel is a Test of Hearts
The response to the indiscriminate slaughter of Jews at the weekend reveals a great depth of ugliness
I sometimes think Israel has been placed on earth by God as a kind of test for the rest of humanity.
The response of people to the suffering of the Jews always reveals people’s hearts.
And, sadly, the reaction from some Australians to the barbaric terror attack on Israel at the weekend has revealed a great deal of ugliness.
The Australian government announced that the Opera House would be lit up in the colours of Israel as a sign of solidarity with Israel, a tiny nation that lost 700 souls in a day.
I know of Israeli families greatly encouraged by this gesture. They had planned to take their children - children traumatised by reports from Israel - to see the Opera House as a way of reassuring them that Australia was a friendly and safe place.
But NSW police warned Jews not to attend the light show over safety concerns.
Australia: Let's light up the Opera House to show solitary with Jews slaughtered by Islamic extremists
Also Australia: It's not safe for Jews to come look at the Opera House lit up in their honour because of Islam extremists and their sympathisers here in Australia.
What our political class - through sloppy immigration policies, political correctness - have enabled in this country is unforgivable.
Jewish women and children are kidnapped, raped and murdered in the Middle East and Jewish Australians are unable to walk Sydney harbour for fear of a raucous mob celebrating.
Who are these people who watch the slaughter of innocents on television, and think to themselves: ‘Let’s identify with the assailants!’
The Australian Newspaper reported …
“The angry crowd, which had marched from Town Hall, yelled “f..k Israel" and “f..k the Jews” as the sails were lit in blue and white.”
No-one was arrested. But earlier in the day a man who dared to wave an Israeli flag at Town Hall was escorted away by police. Disturbing the peace, apparently.
So much much for Australia’s anti-vilification laws. Somehow “f..k Israel” is a benign ditty that is neither hateful nor threatening.
The Australian Newspaper continued …
“Allahu akbar” was also heard under the sails of the Opera House.
When 260 young people attending a music festival in Israel are murdered in cold blood and your response is to yell in the face of Australian Jews that 'this proves ‘Allah is the greatest’ … you are evil.
These are the people you support when you write “Free Palestine”, next to your pronouns in your social media bio!
Like I said, the subject of Israel has a way of revealing the hearts of people.
The NSW Greens advertised the anti-Israel march, tweeting details and encouraging people to be there.
As my Sky News Australia colleague James Morrow pointed out yesterday …
So if I’ve got Greens policy right, they want to keep music festival patrons safe from dodgy pingers but are fine with them being slaughtered by Hamas. Got it.
How is encouraging this different than encouraging a group of people to march in support of Al-Queda, or the Taliban, or ISIS? Can someone enlighten me?
And the NSW Greens are a registered Australian political party!
As my friend Australian Jewish Association president Dr David Adler pointed out …
David Adler President pointed out to me yesterday …
“It's also the equivalent of a rally in WWII to support the Nazis for killing Jews.”
Indeed.
Here we are 78 years after the end of the Holocaust and once agains thuggish killers, dressed in black, are pulling Jewish elderly, women, and children out of their homes and executing them, and then throwing their bodies into the street.
The Greens have no problem encouraging the celebration of dead Jews. They didn’t like gestures of grief however.
Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, tweeted that plans by the Australian Government to light up monuments in solidarity with Israel were “a disgrace”.
She tweeted …
“One colonial government supporting another. What a disgrace.”
When you tweet that it is a disgrace to grieve with families who have lost loved ones in an indiscriminate terror attack, you have shown your heart for what it is.
Decolonized Pakistan is nice this time of year. I wonder if Pauline Hanson is still willing to drive Ms Faruqi to the airport. If Pauline is busy, I’m available. But I digress.
Not only is Faruqi wrong to call Israel a “colonial government” - it’s not - but she is reckless in linking the events in Israel to Australia.
Her message seems to be that Jews had it coming since their government is a colonial power and, by the way, the Australian Government is also a colonial power.
This comes dangerously close to inciting terror attacks here in Australia.
The only way anyone can vote for the Australian Greens is by being completely ignorant about the Australian Greens.
In response to an assertion by Deputy Prime Minister that the Hamas attack on Israel was “unprovoked”, Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong tweeted …
Unprovoked?! This is a disgraceful statement from Defence Minister Richard Marles. It is also appalling that tonight the Opera House will be lit up in support of Israel - what about all of the Palestinian lives lost since occupation?
Not appalled by terrorists going door to door, slaughtering Jewish women and children in their own homes. Appalled that the Australian Government would show sympathy.
As for her claim that the attack was provoked and thereby justified, tell me again how German tourist Sharni Louk - kidnapped, stripped naked, beaten to death and spat upon as her corpse was paraded through Palestine on the back of a ute - was asking for it?
Jenny Leong helpfully informs her Twitter followers that her pronouns are she/her. She wouldn’t last five minutes in Gaza.
Former Greens senator, Lidia Thorpe tweeted:
“I stand with Palestine”
Well of course she does. Thorpe would stand with anyone - even with Hamas - rather than with Australia.
She tweeted a map of Israel that purports to show the gradual take over of Palestinian land by Israel since the 1940s.
Weird how Senator Thorpe loves to talk about indigeneity going back thousands of years, except for when it comes to the Jews when suddenly she can go no further back than about 75 years.
Jews are not colonisers as Faruqi tweeted or as Thorpe implies. The Jewish civilization began in Israel, thousands of years ago. The assertion that Jews are colonisers is illiterate and absurd.
She too tweeted that the deliberate slaughter - not of Israeli soldiers but of Israeli citizens including babies - was provoked and, by implication, therefore somehow justified.
Like I said, a person’s reaction to the suffering of the Jews reveals the condition of their heart like no ECG scan can.
Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr’s take on the weekend’s slaughter was telling. He tweeted …
“Israel has a right to defend itself from attacks. Hamas has won a tactical success. Will be very short lived. It will draw disproportionately huge retaliation directed at civilians and indifferent to children.”
So Carr condemns Israel’s retaliation that had not happened at the time of his tweet and that he imagined would be directed at civilians and children, while failing to condemn the attack that had actually happened against Israel and that was blatantly directed at civilians and children.
And speaking of proportionality, why is it that Israel is the only country that can be attacked and is then lectured by the rest of the world on how thorough its response can be?
I haven’t seen Carr tweet urging the Ukraine to be proportionate in its response to the Russian invasion.
Hosts of The Project asked Israel’s former Ambassador to Australia Mark Sofer …
“What is a proportionate response here?”
The former ambassador didn’t miss with his reply …
“Well I don’t know what a proportionate response is for the massacre of 350 people at least, at lease I say because there are still hundreds languishing in hospital, many of them fatally wounded.”
Hosts of The Project didn’t offer their idea of a proportionate response to the indiscriminate mass kidnapping, rape and murder of women and children. Funny that.
But back to Bob Carr. He is right that Israel will respond and that they will respond hard. He neglects to mention a couple of pertinent points.
First, the Israeli military is the only military in the world that warns civilians before they attack, giving time for non-combatants to get out of the way. And second, Hamas use the the Palestinian people as human shields.
Ben Shapiro made a great point about whatever is to come, tweeting …
“Raping, mutilating, kidnapping -- all of these are war crimes. So is hiding behind civilians. Every ounce of blood spilled in Gaza is on Hamas and its Iranian paymasters. Every single ounce.”
Our foreign minister Penny Wong tweeted …
“Australia unequivocally condemns the attacks on Israel by Hamas including indiscriminate rocket fire on cities and civilians. We call for these attacks to stop and recognise Israel’s right to defend itself.”
So far so good. And then the politician who just weeks ago led the Labor Party in declaring the West Bank and Gaza “Occupied Palestinian territories” and Israeli settlements as “illegal” added …
Australia urges the exercise of restraint and protection of civilian lives.”
The Labor Party urges restraint? From whom?
Cartoonist Johannes Leak nailed it …
Wong’s ALP policy - recognising the State of Palestine which is controlled by terrorist organisation Hamas and funded by the terrorist state of Iran - only serves to embolden attacks on Israel and to embolden hatred of Jews here in Australia.
God famously told Abraham:
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
I can’t help but think the Jews are a measuring stick or a test, if you will, that reveals the true nature of people.
Sadly, the events of the weekend reveal there is a great deal of evil in this world, and a great many people eager to swim in it.
I am so glad you wrote that article James. There are a couple of things that concern me over that disgusting show of hatred last night in Sydney (and apparently, to a lesser degree in other states), is that our Government has opened the door to allow so many Moslem people in and among them Hamas sympathisers who hate the Jews. I wonder why they aren't being deported back to where they came from if they hate this country so much. Upon entering this country migrants need tro know this country was colonised on the stance of Judeo/Christian beliefs and if they don't like it, don't come here. But, like Israel, we are a generous country and do allow them to come here. I know we are no longer a Judeo/Christian country because Australia has tossed God on the scrap heap by and large, but there are still many Christians here who stand with Israel and are grieved with what is happening. Israel is God's timepiece and we can see just where we are along that line - not far to go now folks! However, the grief, pain and suffering is horrendous. There are Christians among the Palestinians as well and they also are suffering, but dividing Israel is a very bad idea. There is a huge amount of land available to the Arabs yet they want to destroy the Apple of God's eye - indeed this is a spiritual battle
If the a A F P have not photographed these extremist terrorist groups in australia and studied them to see if they can be expelled from australia, we have a serious terrorist problem here.
This needs to be dealt with swiftly.