admin
Australians woke up to horror on December 14 — a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach was turned into a scene of slaughter when gunmen opened fire on families and children, leaving scores dead and wounded and shattering the sense that Western streets are safe from Islamist terror. This was not random violence; authorities have treated it as a deliberate, antisemitic terror attack that targeted Jews celebrating their faith, and the images of heroic bystanders and bloodied children will haunt decent people for years.
Only a day earlier, American servicemembers were ambushed in Syria, where a lone ISIS gunman killed two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter in what CENTCOM called an attack on U.S. forces carrying out counterterrorism work — a stark reminder that the jihadist enemy is not gone, it is only metastasizing. President Trump and Pentagon officials have promised a strong response, and rightly so: when our boys are killed abroad, weakness is not an option and retaliation must be swift and decisive.
These twin attacks come at a dangerous moment after several Western governments moved in recent months to formally recognize a Palestinian state — a step taken by Australia, the UK, Canada and others in the name of diplomacy but warned by many as a reward to terror. Canberra’s decision to recognize statehood in September has already sparked fierce debate at home and abroad, and it is not hyperbole to say the timing and optics matter when radical Islamist groups pay attention to what the West signals.
Conservative leaders have been warning for months that unilateral recognition — divorced from security guarantees, borders, and the eradication of terrorist influence — hands a propaganda victory to violent extremists and strips leverage from Israel and its allies. Senior Republicans even penned open letters cautioning that recognition before real reforms and hostage returns could invite punitive measures and embolden attacks against Jewish communities overseas and at home. This is not cold diplomacy, it is a miscalculated concession at a time the world needs firmness.
Make no mistake: when Western capitals tweak the diplomatic playbook in favor of a statehood declaration while Hamas and similar groups continue to celebrate violence, they create incentives for more carnage, not less. Prime ministers and presidents who posture about “momentum for peace” while failing to hold Palestinian authorities to concrete anti-terror guarantees are flirting with catastrophic consequences for Jews abroad and for public safety within allied countries. The Bondi massacre proves that threats translate into slaughter when leaders reward postures over security.
On the security front, the nation that refuses to stand tough in the face of murderous ideologies will soon see those ideologies exported to its own streets; the Palmyra ambush and Bondi killings are wake-up calls. America must back Israel unequivocally, recalibrate alliances toward partners who prioritize counterterrorism over virtue-signaling, and push for real accountability before any further diplomatic rewards are handed to would-be state actors with terror ties.
This moment demands clarity from conservatives and courage from leaders: protect Jewish communities here and abroad, strengthen military and intelligence measures against ISIS and all Islamist terror networks, and reverse the rush to symbolic statehood that hands victories to enemies of civilization. Hardworking Americans expect their government to put security first, not to bow to fashionable foreign-policy experiments that risk more bloodshed; it’s time to act like it.
