Shame on us all as we choose ignorance and blindness

August 6, 2026

Increasingly I reject terror/ist/ism to describe Hamas and the events of 7 October, brutal though they were. So a thousand thanks to John Menadue for writing about terrorists and terrorism. It’s indeed a racist response to “brown” countries opposing being plundered by the West, largely the US. Regarding Israel, terror and its variants don’t apply because the US is complicit in genocide in order to keep Israel as a base for its wars in the area. As an aside, we should note that the US is turning Australia into its military base in the south west Pacific region. As well as costing Australia billions now, how long will that remain a peaceful enterprise?

But of that terror/ist/ism descriptor … It’s an excuse to be lazy. It prejudges people and situations as bad, even evil, without bothering about history and context. How many of our politicians know, or care, what life was like in Gaza on 6 October, not only in 2023 but on that date any time in the preceding century? Very few, I venture to say and almost as many remain as ignorant today. Instead, we unquestioningly follow the US as approaching 100,000 Gazans are murdered, to our shame.