Commentary by ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin originally published in The Daily Telegraph on 7 January 2024.

Will Australia once again treat Israelis like democratic allies fighting the embodiment of evil rather than, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, an enemy?

The Attorney-General is embarking on a peace­keep­ing mission to Israel on behalf of the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment, though it is difficult to ascertain who he is aiming to pacify.

The Government’s response to the October 7 atro­cit­ies has included pushing for the creation of a Palestini­an state, refusing to rule out arresting the Israeli Prime Minister at the behest of an inter­na­tion­al tribunal, and making it difficult for Israeli tourists to visit Australia by drowning their applic­a­tions in pro­cessing delays and addi­tion­al paperwork.

At the very least, the visit will afford the Gov­ern­ment an oppor­tun­ity to atone for the hurt caused by the Foreign Minister’s refusal to visit the sites of the October 7 invasion and atro­cit­ies.

The Attorney-General will be moved by his visit. It is impossible to stand in places where families were tortured and burned alive and feel nothing.

He will have the oppor­tun­ity to see the beauty of the Nova Festival site and the idyllic agri­cul­tur­al villages forever defiled by rape, slaughter and innocents dragged off like medieval trophies of war.

He will grasp what Israel is fighting for and what it is fighting against.

In the south, he will meet genuine heroes who single­han­dedly fought off the ter­ror­ists and saved countless lives doing so.

He should meet wounded soldiers, who are humble, steely, the salt of the earth.

All this will help him under­stand why the removal of Hamas, once and for all, and the lib­er­a­tion of the hostages it still holds, including babies and ailing seniors, is the moral imper­at­ive of our time.

He will also field questions from incred­u­lous Israelis along the lines of “what the hell is going on in Australia? They’re burning syn­agogues and cars there now?”

The question is whether any of this will lead to a policy reset and mean­ing­ful action.

Whether Australia will once again treat Israelis like demo­crat­ic allies fighting the embod­i­ment of evil rather than, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, an enemy. Whether it will compel the Gov­ern­ment to abandon its con­front­a­tion with Israel at the United Nations and to say clearly and strongly, as it should have along: “Hamas must let the hostages go and lay down its arms and the war ends tomorrow.”

Or will they continue on their current path which will for the first time in Aus­trali­an history force Jewish Aus­trali­ans to consider on election day, which party will do more to keep our families safe from violent Jew-hatred and which party will treat Israel like a pariah or like a friend?