As though infected by a chronic illness, news of unending death and destruction in Gaza and on the West Bank leaves millions feeling frustrated, angry, despairing and powerless.

Most federal politicians probably feel the same, though they have the chance to craft a humanitarian role for government but only if they perceive advocacy for peace as a political priority.

Obstacles to Australian politicians becoming sophisticated advocates for peace will have to be overcome. A first obstacle concerns the robot-like repetition that Australia is only a “middle power”, a fatalistic way of thinking which limits the mind and constrains vision.

A second obstacle is the unthinking, absurdly deferential statement, “Israel has a right to defend itself”. On other people’s lands in defiance of international law, it has no such right.

Reassured by the US, the might is right threats of Israel have meant building more settlements, using the most lethal arms, developing famine as a weapon of war and eliminating Palestinians. Realistic talk about peace means speaking frankly about such thuggery and thereby fostering policies to resist.

A rehabilitation, rebuilding plan

In alliance with trade unions, with the medical profession, with human rights-based NGOs and in careful consultation with Palestinians, Australia can develop and share a plan for repairing lives and rebuilding on Palestinian lands. Australia does not need UN or US permission to do that. Such a plan might not be adopted immediately or even in the longer term but, unless it is crafted, any thinking about intervention to save Palestinians and their country would be still born.

In other dire circumstances, as in Cambodia after the Pol Pot genocide, plans for rehabilitation and rebuilding depended not on hopes for a comprehensive, overnight achievement but on small victories as when small groups received medical attention previously denied, as in a small school being reopened. When conundrums about peace with justice were addressed, learning started and the possibilities seemed endless.

Redefining ‘Hamas’ and ‘Israel’

Pondering peace benefits can be done by redefining concepts usually taken for granted. Hamas, for example, is Israel’s never-ending scapegoat for never-ending slaughter in Gaza, and is even used to explain terrorism in the West Bank.

Hamas was largely but not the only participant in the slaughter in October 2023, but for decades, long before that fundamentalist group appeared as a political party in 2003, tens of thousands of Palestinians had been murdered by Israeli terrorist gangs and the IDF. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine has been underway at least since 1948, a history so easily ignored.

Thinking about peace with justice requires the media and political elites to acknowledge history and to resist the deceitful Israeli claims that all the violence, every war crime can be explained by one word: “Hamas”.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs insists that Israel is a close friend and ally of Australia. Really?

Speaking frankly about peace requires a change in that perception. To whom is Australia a friend? How is a racist, apartheid state, designed for people of only one religion, now run by a government influenced by religious zealots, a friend? It would be more realistic to acknowledge that the Israeli prime minister is wanted for war crimes.

Instead of Australia quibbling whether it ever dispatched parts for F-35 fighter planes to Israel, it could make a constructive contribution to peace by imposing an arms embargo affecting all arms manufacturers and dealers. In the long run, that would be a constructive way to treat Israel as a friend.

Challenging liars

An earlier insistence, that thinking about peace depends on speaking frankly about violence, also means that apologists for war are not allowed to tell lies and that the media be discouraged from giving oxygen to those who make false claims.

A tendency to lie has reached new depths in Israeli spokespersons’ mind-boggling assertions that there is no famine in Gaza. As though schooled by the witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, even the Israeli ambassador to Australia has joined this chorus: ignore the pictures of emaciated children, beware or was it “be aware”, there is no famine.

Let’s concentrate for a minute on the behaviour of the major Israeli spokesperson, David Mencer, who is employed to dramatise Israel’s virtues. He is proud to do so but now plays a nauseous Orwellian role. In lugubrious, holier-than-thou style, he explains, there is no famine, that if by chance there is a food shortage, Hamas, or even the non-existent UN are to blame. “It’s not me sir,” said the bully of little children in the playground, “It is anyone but me.”

Being frank about peace requires sufficient insight and guts to call out the David Mencers. The pictures are telling and require comment. A plump, apparently overfed, well-upholstered, elegantly suited Mencer intones about food and drink. If telling lies is a virtue, then it’s obvious the people of Gaza can be, may even be, well-fed. The mismatch between corpulent Mencer and emaciated children must have dawned on at least a few peacemakers.

Courage, that crucial ingredient

A life-enhancing opportunity for Australia to develop a reputation as advocates for peace with justice requires courage to defy convention, to break the usual political boundaries. In response to alleged antisemitic events in Australia, a warmongering Israeli prime minister tells Australia what to do. Does any leader immediately tell him to clear off?

In response to President Trump’s promises to create a Mediterranean riviera from the ruins of Gaza, few leaders scorn and repudiate the man’s greed and total disdain for even the most basic of human rights.

Courage as part of the peace repertoire requires that peacemaking politicians will not for one minute be intimidated by threats and lies. They have to challenge the pretence that genocide does not exist, that famine is a figment of the imagination nation, that civilians in Gaza have never been targeted, hospitals never systematically destroyed.

Courage for peace goes beyond questions about abuses by Israel and the US. Regarding a future for all Palestinians, caution amounting to cowardice affects the Australian Government. Although obliged by an ALP 2018 conference resolution to recognise the state of Palestine, a prevaricating prime minister and foreign minister adopt their man-and-woman-for-all-seasons role. They look backwards or sideways, appear to stand for everything and nothing. John Menadue, a highly significant Australian citizen, says he has been a member of the Australian Labor Party for more than 70 years but has never been so ashamed. On Palestine, he judges, “The only thing to be said in Labor’s favour is that they are not as bad as the Liberals.”

Only a modicum of courage is required to follow the example of 150 other nations and recognise Palestine. Being serious about peace with justice requires just a small risk to take that step.

Faced with violence, derision of international law and momentum behind the arms trade, advocacy of peace is an obvious antidote. Australia can recover its reputation as a country prominent in building institutions for peace and as encouraging advocates for human rights on a world stage.

But that recovery depends on resisting Israeli thuggery, speaking frankly about justice, redefining the language of peace, calling out liars, finding the courage to break boundaries, to be inspired by the ideals of a common humanity.

Palestine cries for those ideals to be re-excavated, pursued and achieved.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.