Austalian Albanese government’s Middle East policies have alienated both Jews and Muslims and contributed to a surge of anti-Semitism locally. As 2025 beckons, there is a simple move Australia could take that could help prevent the next instalment of Gaza’s wars and, unlike its Labor party’s current Middle East policies, won’t cost Australian taxpayers a cent. The rest of the West should follow. Before we can help, we need to understand how we got here. In 2005, Israel withdrew every last Jew – soldier and civilian – from Gaza. Despite its rich Jewish history, Gaza became judenrein – free of Jews – joining much of the region. Four months later Gazans responded by electing Hamas to rule them. At the time, the terrorist group was best known for its suicide bombing campaign on Israeli buses and cafes. Scene of Jerusalem bus bombing Nati Shohat/FLASH90 Gaza’s Jew-free status didn’t last long. In June 2006, Hamas terrorists tunnelled into Israel, kidnapping soldier Gilad Shalit and sparking the first Gaza-Israel war. It was followed by major conflicts in 2008, 2012 and 2014. There was a respite during the first Trump administration, with conflict resuming in 2021 and most devastatingly on October 7, 2023. Under Israeli rule, Gaza had become an agricultural powerhouse, supplying 15 per cent of Israel’s agricultural exports and 65 per cent of its greenhouse vegetables. The greenhouses were given to Gazans but quickly looted. Pipes were dug up and turned into crude missiles fired at Israel. The Jewish state was forced to invest billions, inventing the Iron Dome system to shoot down missiles. This whack-a-mole dynamic where Gazans weaponised everyday objects and Israel needed to find solutions tested the capabilities of both sides. Israel built a sophisticated fence to attempt to prevent infiltration. Tunnels from Gaza were stopped by Israeli anti-tunnel technology. Then came a wave of balloons and kites with explosives attached, causing large fires in Israel. Creative Gazans even inflated condoms for this purpose. After every conflict, Western leaders showed up with their chequebooks. Gaza has already been rebuilt several times this century. So how can Australia help end the endless cycle of Gaza wars? History’s most successful nation-rebuilding projects occurred in Germany and Japan after World War II. Both were transformed from aggressive nations bent on domination to thriving democracies. For that to happen, the people of Germany and Japan needed to internalise that they and their supremacist ideologies were totally defeated. There could be no fantasy of a resurrected German Reich or Imperial Japan. Similarly, the international community must declare the state of Palestine concept dead. The October 7 massacre buried that idea. Israel will never risk the creation of a state dedicated to its destruction on its border. The Palestinian Arabs have wasted the past century trying to destroy the Jewish homeland while Israel has gone from strength to strength. To prevent the next 100 years of war, they must understand the Jewish state is not going anywhere. They must internalise that terrorism and massacres will not be rewarded. The West must stop infantilising the Palestinian Arabs and shielding them from the consequences of their actions. There should be no rebuilding of Gaza until the society there commits to peaceful coexistence. Noa Argamani Screenshot Photo: A still taken from video of a woman identified as Noa Argamani as she is abducted by Palestinian Arab terrorists in southern Israel. The Palestinian Arabs are the globe’s largest per capita aid recipients. The West has turned them into the world’s perpetual welfare junkies. Western aid often has served as a money-making scheme, filling Swiss bank accounts for decades. Many have grown incredibly wealthy, including in Europe the widow of former Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat and the surviving Hamas leadership in Qatar. Lucrative aid contracts have created a culture of nepotism, not innovation. A chief contributor to prolonging the conflict is the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. No other people have a dedicated UN refugee agency and no UN agency has failed as badly in its mission. Every other refugee crisis from the 1940s has long been resolved. UNRWA textbooks have educated generations of Arab children to hate and imbued them with a false promise that they will return to Israel, a place most have never set foot in. UNRWA should be disbanded. There are moves in Israel and the US to make sure it is. After revelations that numerous UNRWA employees took part in atrocities on October 7, 2023, Australia suspended funding. Foolishly the Albanese government resumed funding, pledging tens of millions in taxpayer funds. Just last week Foreign Minister Penny Wong promised increased aid for Gaza. The greatest contribution Australia could make to resolving the Middle East conflict would be to make it clear that we won’t keep rebuilding Gaza after every failed war they launch. Such a stance would save lives in Gaza and Israel. It also would save money in the budget, freeing funds to help alleviate the cost-of-living crisis for Australians. Robert Gregory is chief executive of the Australian Jewish Association.
