Politicians, influencers refuse to condemn Hamas; has the world lost its marbles?

Call me old fashioned, but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck.

I don’t need to see any more evidence, whether it be of massacred partygoers, babies in ovens or women dragged into the back of vehicles, to know that Hamas is nothing more than a terrorist organisation committed to the destruction of Israel and genocide against the Jewish people.

Amid this savagery, it has baffled me to see a chorus of B-list celebrities lining up to lend their enthusiastic support to Hamas. Are we really entering an era of such callous hatred that individuals cannot even be given a few days to mourn after an atrocity just because they are Israeli?

As the world was still trying to comprehend the breadth of the attacks, adult “entertainer” Mia Khalifa openly expressed her support for Hamas, even offering her professional advice on how the group can better film their brutal and indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

“Can someone please tell the freedom fighters in Palestine to flip their phones and film horizontal,” she Tweeted. Shhh … no one tell Khalifa how Hamas and their confraternal Islamist allies would react to her career choice.

On the right, doyen of the manosphere Andrew Tate in an interview with Piers Morgan explained that Hamas were a kneejerk reaction to Israeli policy. When challenged, he merely brushed off any counter accusations stating that anyone who disagreed were being lied to by the propaganda machine.

And of course who could forget Jeremy Corbyn, flanked by his sidekick Red Len McCluskey, who refused to answer Morgan on whether they believed Hamas was a terror organisation some 15 times. Neither Corbyn nor McCluskey could also provide a reasoned answer as to why the London Remembrance Day march was well attended by Islamist protesters. These two men drove the Tory party into minority government in 2017.

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Clearly, the West has entered an era in which extreme dialogue has become mainstream, and the stakes for our democracy have never been so high.

Israel had not even responded to the attacks before the far left, far right, and diaspora communities were whipped into a frenzy, swarming the Sydney Opera House chanting “gas the Jews” and “death to the Jews”.

But the examples do not end there.

Just last week, Australian school children walked out of class for the “School Strike for Palestine,” chanting “Allahu Akbar” as they rallied outside of Victoria’s State Library. As reported in the media, some students openly expressed their support for Hamas, and stated that Israel should not exist.

Meanwhile, Islamic fundamentalists have begun operating in Australia with increasing vigour. Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group banned in countries across the globe but openly operating in Australia, posted videos to their Instagram account rallying outside of embassies belonging to Islamic countries and encouraging them to invade Israel.

The group was probed by police in 2021 after a rally where attendees chanted “Destroy the Jews”.

Not to be outdone, in mid-October, Nazis paraded through Melbourne’s Flinders Street train station making Nazi salutes, chanting, and even asking a commuter if he was Jewish.

So what does this mean?

These sustained attacks on Australia’s Jewish community and the Israeli state are not empty words or overtures to the Palestinian cause. This movement has transversed social activism to become targeted hate.

Day after day, headlines in Australia are detailing, with scary regularity, the bullying, harassment, and violent intimidation directed towards the Australian Jewish community. I fear, like many others, that this trend will become increasingly hostile and mainstream.

Lawmakers, influencers, and trendsetters in the West have demonstrated that they are unable to delineate between supporting Palestinian statehood – a fair and defensible political position – with condemning Hamas, an organisation so repugnant that it has been banned in several Middle Eastern states.

As we approach what one hopes is a long-lasting and peaceful ceasefire, just look a the list of violent prisoners demanded by Hamas in their prisoner-for-hostage trade.

Those being released by Israel include Marah Bakeer and Nourhan Awad, both convicted of stabbing Israelis, as well as Mohammad dar-Darwish who was charged with throwing a petrol bomb at Israeli soldiers.

Those hostages released by Hamas include Abigail mor Idan, a young girl who turned four in captivity, and sisters Dafna Elyakim, 15, and Ela Elyakim, eight. Their only 'crime' was to be born Israeli.

So long as Australia has senators like Mehreen Faruqi tweeting “one colonial government supporting another” when the federal government dared to extend solidarity with Israel on the days following Hamas’ evil attack, violent discourse will continue to become mainstream.

As people hesitate to call Hamas a terror organisation, all I can say is that the world has truly lost its marbles.