Andrew Dickens: The aftermath of Bondi

Yesterday was a sad, morose day reflecting on the Jewish deaths and their horror, made worse by a never-ending stream of video coverage from every angle. Never has a massacre been as documented and then distributed. The power of citizens with broadcast studios in their phones. The uncensored images spread by the very social media that Australia banned for the under 16s this past week.  And we saw the victims - dead, dying, and being given CPR. In their summer shorts and flip flops ready for a day of family fun by the sea. They looked like us. Because they are us.  Meanwhile the father and son looked unremarkable. Portly. Fat on the life of comfort Australia gave them and yet they did what they did. The face of evil is so often banal.  Second: are you now realising that Winston Peters knew what he was talking about when he refused to back a state of Palestine? I was one of the few who agreed - there is no state, there is no governing authority or governance legitimacy. But underneath it all there was no indication that Palestinians want peace. His concern was Hamas was still armed, and recognition could push Hamas towards a more hardened position. So, in the wake of the killings there was a Jewish bloke interviewed in front of the dead and the dying and he let rip.  He talked about October 7th. He talked about Hamas' atrocities and then he railed about Albanese and all the other states and statesman who then sent money to Gaza and made virtue signalling noises about state recognition, and lo and behold what do we see? An empowered people with a big grudge still adopting a hardened position. Benjamin Netanyahu wrote to Anthony Albanese in August, warning that the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire … emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.” Was he wrong?  Apparently, we have a peace process. Obviously, it’s not working.   Apparently the end game for the end of violence is a two-state solution, but can we really see these two people co-existing any time soon?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.