Throughout history the lesson remains the same: there can be no peace with neighbours that want you dead.

We wake up this morning not knowing how many have died in the opening hours of the world’s newest war.

What we do know is that at 6:30am on Saturday, Hamas – the Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist Palestinian militant group internationally recognised as a terror organisation – launched an unexpected attack on Israel.

It was swift, bloody, and has shocked the world with its success.

Dubbed, ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’, thousands of rockets were launched, with many avoiding the Iron Dome defence system, striking urban areas. Hamas broke through border fences and sent armed military groups in to abduct and murder as many people as possible, including civilians. Hostages have been taken.

The purpose of this action is one of terror.

Hamas’ invasion was launched on multiple fronts which included paragliders and boats while inciting an uprising from within where people loyal to Hamas turned on their neighbours once the command was given.

People began dying quickly, with disturbing videos and reports pouring onto Twitter – bypassing the press entirely.

In response, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had little choice but to declare war against the invading force that was already moving through the streets, butchering citizens.

‘We are at war,’ he said. ‘The enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known. We are in a war and we will win it.’

These words were echoed by Major General Ghasan Alyan, who said that Hamas had ‘opened the gates of hell’.

Hamas’ commander in Gaza, Mohammed Dief, replied this morning:

‘The age of the enemy’s aggression without a response is over. I call on Palestinians everywhere in the West Bank and within the Green Line to launch an attack without restraint. Go to all the streets. I call on Muslims everywhere to launch an attack.’

From this point on, international forces are expected to largely keep their mouths shut. Political leaders know that once war starts, the rules of the game shift. Hamas has the element of surprise, but Israel is well-armed. What transpires next is likely to be a blood bath.

Having started a war, Hamas is looking around for friends, begging Islamic and Arab nations to view this as a Holy War. Iran – recently gifted $6 billion by the Biden regime in the US – has cheered the violence on.

On that point, Biden is facing enormous criticism.

Former President Trump and one of the front-runners to win the next US Presidential election, said:

‘These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force. Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration. We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again.’

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott posted on Twitter, ‘America’s weakness is blood in the water for bad actors, but this is worse than that. We didn’t just invite this aggression, we paid for it. Iran is the biggest funder of Hamas. This is the Biden $6 billion ransom payment at work.’

‘This is what happens when [Biden] projects weakness on the world stage, kowtows to the mullahs in Iran with a $6 billion ransom, and leaders in the Republican Party signal American retreat as Leader of the Free World,’ added former Vice President Mike Pence.

We are going to see the phrase, ‘Biden’s $6 billion ransom payment’ a lot over the coming months as it is adopted cynically into a campaign slogan for the Presidency.

As for peace – we won’t see that for a while. The Washington Post is carrying the headline, Hamas Just Torched Biden’s Deal to Remake the Middle East.

Terror group Hezbollah was quoted this morning calling these events a ‘heroic operation on a grand scale’. Other Islamic Jihad groups from Palestine were quick to join the fighting saying ‘we are part of this battle, our fighters are fighting side-by-side’ with Hamas.

All the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process could do was to describe events as a ‘dangerous precipice’ and urge parties to ‘pull back from the brink’.

They are words whispered from an ivory tower.

With hostages taken, buildings burning, and dead littering the street – the situation has entered a state of revenge, survival, and all-out war.

Hamas has used the language of an invading ‘kill-and-replace’ force akin to ancient times, while Israel has made it clear that this is ‘not an operation, not a round, but a war’.

Australian Foreign Minister has Penny Wong has released a statement:

‘We call for these attacks to stop and recognise Israel’s right to defend itself. Australia urges the exercise of restraint and protection of civilian lives.’

Remorse and regret are going to be a difficult sell for the Labor Party who – like all left-leaning movements in this country – have long been soft on Hamas.

In August of this year, Minister Wong announced that Australia was ‘proposing to adopt the term Occupied Palestinian Territories’ for the West Bank and Gaza. Much like labelling Taiwan as part of the CCP regime, these subtle changes to language add up to the undermining of international security. They are a signal of diminishing support – a way that nations are isolated. For lack of a better word, it signifies ‘weakness’ and weakness is the crack through which open war bursts forth.

As Justin Amler said of Minister Wong’s decision on August 14, ‘For the Australian government to suddenly assign itself the ability to confer a legal status of a long-disputed area of land halfway around the world smacks of ill-informed virtue signalling, rather than serious policymaking.’

Labor’s position is that the areas now under attack are ‘occupied’. How does it intend to square this circle? Does it support the re-taking of ‘occupied’ territory by force, or does it support the military defence mounted by the ‘illegal occupiers’ against the ‘rightful owners’?

There is no way out of this one for Minister Wong except to make whispered and meaningless pleas for peace while Labor’s position remains in low-key support of the underlying concept driving Hamas: illegal occupation.

Earlier in the year, Minister Wong said:

‘The Australian government is strengthening its opposition to settlements by affirming they are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace. This is consistent with the position of past governments, reflects legal advice and UN Security Council resolutions which determine that the settlements ‘have no legal validity and constitute a violation of international law’ … Australia is proposing to adopt or will be adopting or returning to the term Occupied Palestinian Territories … in adopting the term, we are clarifying that the West Bank including East Jerusalem and Gaza were occupied by Israel following the 1967 war and that the occupation continues and reaffirms our commitment to a negotiated two state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state co-exist.’

The naivety of our leaders when it comes to matters of religious conflict is breathtaking. History teaches us that peace cannot be brokered with a regime this desires the extinction of its neighbour – the murder of its men, the rape of its women, and erasure of its nation. That fundamental view is incompatible with peace and always was. The only peace reached under these circumstances is when the murderous regime finds itself on the edge of annihilation. Then and only then, it will broker a peace for its survival – bide its time – and restart the story. It is not a ‘peace’ as we understand it.

As for the world, its leaders have had a similar revelation to Minister Wong. They call for an end to violence. They call for peace talks. They pretend to be ‘deeply shocked’ at one of the most obvious and inevitable turns of events in modern times. The weakest regimes of all manage only to express ‘solidarity’.

‘Solidarity’ is like that unsigned ‘Get Well’ card sent by companies that want to sell you things.

‘Terrorism and violence solve nothing,’ said the European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell.

It’s a strange and untrue statement. Humans often solve problems with violence. This is the reason war exists.

The reality that violence solves problems is the problem that no one is prepared to say out loud. Israel silenced Hamas once with violence, it seems they may do so again. A failed and enormously weakened Hamas without any resources or will left to fight brings peace to the region.

The world is a tinderbox, with potential flashpoints scattered across the map which have the potential to lure superpowers into the next devastating conflict. Taiwan is one. North Korea another. The border between India and Pakistan. Ukraine and Russia… A hot war in the Middle East buoyed by Islamic chants of Holy War between factions of the faith could lead to more than a regional disaster. The hesitation of rhetoric from world leaders is the first sign that things are getting very serious for humanity. Our existential crisis is not a fractional and imperceptible change in temperature, it is the boiling point of civilisation.

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