The ceasefire in Gaza seems to be holding and world leaders are pivoting to the question of Gaza’s future. If they are serious about preventing the next instalment of Gaza’s wars, it’s essential that they don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.
Already, a conference on Gaza’s future was held in Egypt. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was not invited despite Labor’s laughable assertion that its actions played a major role in securing the war’s end.
One thing is certain: there will be plenty of Australian taxpayer dollars heading to Gaza. The Albanese Government has already provided $150 million since October 7, and the end of the war is likely to see the spigots open further.
Providing aid without a change in attitude and behaviour in Gaza would be a monumental mistake and lay the groundwork for the next Gaza war.
Since Israel withdrew every Jew from Gaza in 2005, the small strip has launched five major wars against the Jewish State. After each war, generous Western leaders showed up with their chequebooks, shielding Gazans from the consequences of their actions and setting the stage for the next round.
It’s true that after the defeat of the Germans and Japanese in WWII, the victorious West (mainly America) provided vast sums to rebuild these nations. Both were transformed from aggressive nations bent on domination to thriving democracies.
But for that to happen, the people of Germany and Japan needed to internalise that they and their supremacist ideologies were totally defeated. Both nations were required to surrender unconditionally. America ensured that there was no fantasy of a resurrected German Reich or Imperial Japan. Those responsible for the war were put on trial or purged and both countries endured a lengthy occupation.
Gaza was not required to surrender unconditionally. Instead, Hamas was allowed to negotiate where Israel would withdraw to. Hundreds of murderers were released to secure the freedom of the Israeli hostages. Instead of being put on trial, the remaining leadership of Hamas is hosted in luxury hotels in Qatar and Turkey. None of this helps Gazans internalise their defeat and makes future conflict more likely.
After WWII, the Allies recognised that the younger generations were crucial to preventing the return of war. Both Germany and Japan had their school textbooks rewritten and teachers with Nazi ties were removed.
Without significant changes to the education system in Gaza, no amount of Western money will bring peace. Schools are named after suicide bombers and young children are taught to hate Jews and worship violence.
If students once again learn maths problems asking them to calculate how many ‘martyrs’ were killed, what hope is there for the future?
The tragedy of Gaza is not just material, it’s moral. A society that glorifies murder and rewards martyrdom cannot produce peace. Changing that culture is the real work of reconstruction, but it requires courage and honesty from world leaders.
“Hundreds of murderers were released to secure the freedom of the Israeli hostages.”
A chief contributor to radicalising Gazan children and prolonging the conflict is UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. 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 solved. 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. Despite revelations that numerous UNRWA employees took part in atrocities on October 7, the Albanese Government restored funding after just a short pause.
With the devastation Israel unleashed on the Iranian-led Shia axis, it poses much less of a threat today. In its place has stepped a fundamentalist Sunni alliance led by Qatar and Turkey. They fund and support Muslim-brotherhood linked groups worldwide, including Hamas. Both Qatar and Turkey’s leaders have established strong relations with President Trump taking advantage of the his administration’s good intentions. They expect to play a major role in administering the enormous contracts for the rehabilitation of the devastated territory. For Gaza to succeed, it is imperative that these two nations don’t get their claws in.
On top of practical steps to exclude bad actors from the rebuilding process, it is crucial that the mindset in Gaza changes. This will be a more formidable challenge. The Middle East conflict has been fuelled by the false belief that the Jewish State is not here to stay. Concepts which fuel waves of violence include the fake ‘right of return’ into Israel for millions of descendants of Arabs who once lived there and the idea that the land of Israel will be split in order to create a ‘State of Palestine’. Western nations including Australia should play a leadership role in consigning these ideas to the dustbin.
At least publicly, the West insists that Hamas will play no role in governing Gaza. It is just as important to ensure that it isn’t replaced with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Often likened to ‘terrorists in suits’, the PA has long fuelled terrorism with their ‘pay for slay’ policies which reward terrorists based on the number of Jews that they kill. The PA is led by Mahmoud Abbas, a corrupt, Holocaust-denying 90-year-old who is now in the 21st year of the four-year term he was elected to serve. The PA represents the past, and it would be a retrograde move to return them to Gaza. It is an embarrassment that their representative is welcome in Canberra enjoying cocktails with the diplomatic and political set.
In 2005, Israel expelled every Jew from Gaza and turned the land over to the Arabs. This was a major experiment in how the Palestinian Arabs would govern themselves. Gazans promptly elected the terrorist organisation Hamas which had spent the past decade blowing up buses and cafes. Another experiment is now beginning in Gaza. Gazans are being given a second chance to learn from their mistakes. More importantly, the world is being given a second chance to do things differently.
The Allies did a phenomenal job and both Japan and Germany are among the leaders of the free world today. Unfortunately, history is littered with less successful examples where societies emerge from war only to find themselves in the same position after a short period.
The world must not repeat past mistakes in Gaza.
Australia’s actions to date have not been encouraging, except to Hamas, which has praised Labor’s recognition of a so-called Palestinian State. While this ‘state’ doesn’t have borders, a central government or meet the requirements of a state, thanks to a few foolish Western leaders, it now has an Independence Day – October 7, 2023.
Rather than rushing to give away taxpayer funds, the Albanese Government should pay heed to a few important lessons and not make the same mistakes in Gaza. Australia should demand meaningful changes to Gaza’s education system and insist that countries like Qatar and Turkey stop sheltering Hamas and are unable to drag the region towards another war.
As Australians, we have a moral duty not to enable evil, even unintentionally. Real compassion sometimes means saying no until change is real, not just promised.
The most meaningful contribution Australia could make toward peace in the Middle East would be to make it clear that we will not continue rebuilding Gaza after every war it initiates. Taking that stance would ultimately save lives on both sides and relieve pressure on our own budget, thereby freeing funds to address Australia’s cost-of-living challenges.
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