Evil begets evil.
All human experience, all our religious teachings, our myths and legends and the deepest voices of our conscience tell us so. It’s an iron law and it will never change.
Please remember this when the brainwashers point their propaganda hoses at your head. People with many different motivations and agendas have long used moments of intense public pain to promote their points of view and achieve their goals. When you hear them now, in voices of reason or outrage, expounding their long-prepared talking points, please stop and think before you let yourself be stampeded into agreement or consent.
The space where pain and sadness swirl in the wake of shock is where propaganda does its dirty work.
I had been in Sydney the day of the Bondi massacre but was unaware of it. Later that night, when I heard of the shootings, I froze with horror and momentary disbelief. I felt sick and struggled to sleep, thinking about the families wounded by this terrible thing. And then, behind that roiling horror in my heart and mind, I felt another dread stirring: the knowledge that this appalling event would immediately be harnessed by vultures of propaganda to push destructive agendas.
It didn’t take long, of course. This was an intentional attack against Jewish people. And while I don’t know precisely what triggered the gunmen it didn’t take more than a moment for well-prepared extremists in our midst to predictably declare that this thing happened because Australian governments had permitted their citizens to protest against Israel’s genocide in occupied Palestine. The atrocious leader of Israel’s extremist right-wing government declared on cue that the Australian Government had invited the attack by officially recognising Palestine. All this strategically stupid rubbish was and is being channeled and amplified as a matter of policy by the Murdoch media and the drooling opportunists of Australian far-right politics.
What do these people want? First, they want governments to agree that any criticism of the actions of the government of Israel is antisemitic and therefore subject to suppression and potential punishment. Second, they want discussion of Israel’s genocide in occupied Palestine and Israel’s expansionist agenda in the Middle East to be restricted. Third, they want the idea of Palestine and the aspirations of the Palestinian people to be erased from public discourse. Fourth (and this is a new one to me) some of them appear to want an armed vigilante force to operate at public events involving Jewish people. The Community Security Group (CSG) operates in NSW and Victoria, and its mission is to protect “Jewish life and Jewish way of life in our local community”.
None of these demands is reasonable, and our governments should not bend to them. It is extremely disappointing – but I regret to say, unsurprising – that Prime Minister Albanese appears to be capitulating most cravenly under this pressure. It is also disappointing – but entirely in character – that NSW Premier Chris Minns has leapt to his default conclusion that the correct response is to further criminalise dissent and protest. I hope there will be enough pushback from those who value democracy to persuade these elected leaders not to surrender completely to extremist demands.
What should happen? First, it should be acknowledged that the genocide in occupied Palestine has caused many people to feel intense pain and anger, especially since it has been carried out with such viciousness, such impunity and with such complicity from many other governments. In that context it is not really surprising that some radicalised people might take extreme and terrible actions. Evil begets evil. When the actions of Hamas on October 7, 2023 prompted Israel to perpetrate its genocide in Gaza many commentators remarked that Hamas should have anticipated the reaction. Of course that made sense. Everybody knows that evil begets evil. When the cycle starts it does not run in one direction only. This is the human experience of millennia and only fools try to deny it. Committing atrocities invites atrocities in return.
Second, Australian governments should use the many, many laws and resources already at their disposal to protect their citizens and people within their borders – no matter who they are. If the NSW Government can afford to send ships, boats, horses, helicopters and scores of law enforcement personnel to Newcastle to “safeguard” coal ships. It clearly commands significant resources. The idea of allowing an armed vigilante group to operate in Australia is a terrible one and should not be countenanced, even for a moment.
Third, Australian governments should encourage the Israeli Government to consider the idea of a just peace with the remaining people of Palestine. If this was ever to be achieved then a deep running sore would be healed and Israel would be the chief beneficiary.
No doubt there are many other things Australian governments could do, without subjecting the fabric of its democracy to further damage. What they should not do is bend to the harmful agendas of the propagandists now bellowing their unreasonable demands while the country is deep in shock.