A truce won’t appease activists

A truce won’t appease activists

Commentary from co-CEO Alex Ryvchin originally published in The Daily Telegraph on 11 October 2025.

Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7 was intended to change the world.

The ter­ror­ists cal­cu­lated that if their attack was spec­tac­u­lar in its barbarity, the Arab and Islamic world would rally behind them, societies would become mired in protest and division, forcing gov­ern­ments to adopt policies of appease­ment.

For two years, it looked like Hamas’ strategy was working.

But Trump and Netanyahu had other ideas. While western gov­ern­ments lined up to hand Palestini­ans a state, Israel completed the final bat­tle­field man­oeuvres to encircle Hamas, sent a sharp warning to Qatar in the form of a hit on Hamas officials in Doha, while Trump mobilised US dip­lo­mat­ic and economic power to win over the world to his peace plan, Arab states included.

With its patrons and allies in Tehran and Beirut humi­li­ated via exploding pagers, assas­sin­ated leaders and a smoul­der­ing nuclear program, Hamas faced the ines­cap­able fact that it is friend­less and defeated, and finally capit­u­lated.

The wearied people of Israel and Gaza can now con­tem­plate a future beyond a wretched cycle of terrorism and reprisal.

But while Hamas has accepted peace, the last holdouts are anti-Israel activists in Australia and the western world. They have vowed to continue. How else will they feel relevant other than by costing tax­pay­mil­lions, taking police away from fighting crime, and soaking our society with a violent ideology than can be directed at Jews one day and turned against western values, the next. While peace may not stop the protests or undo two years of antisemitic pro­pa­ganda, it ensures all things are revealed.

Who supports war and who wants peace. Who takes pride in the Aus­trali­an flag and who holds it only to set it on fire.

Who wants to give Palestini­ans peace and prosper­ity. And who is happy to see them die just to have slogans to chant.

Commentary by co-CEO Peter Wertheim, originally published in the Australian Financial Review on 7 April 2026.

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