One day he found himself driving down a narrow lane and slowly came to the conclusion that he was hopelessly lost.

He saw an old man repairing a dry-stone wall and the tourist asked politely: “Can you tell me please, how to get back to Killiecrankie?”

STOPPED

The old man stopped, thought for a moment and replied: “Well, sir, if I were you, I wouldn’t have started from here.”

In Australia we share more with this American tourist than is apparent at first glimpse.

Most probably, the American tourist had been quietly enjoying himself until he realised he was lost and in need direction to get back to where he had come from, in his case, Killiecrankie.

When he asked for guidance, for help, he was left in no doubt that he faced a difficult task to reach his destination.

He was told he was starting from the wrong place and however unintentional, his predicament, was his fault.

The American wanted to know the “way back”. Unfortunately, we don’t have an old Irishman to help us get back to where we were before October 7, 2023. Back to our Australia back to our Killiecrankie.

More than forty years ago, the Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai – visiting Australia for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and after the Sydney Hilton bombing – called Australia a placid country.

Here in Western Australia we are double placid. What happens “over east” seems like another country.

And where I live down on the far south coast of WA, it’s placid squared; I have been known to call it Camelot.

Forty seven years on from when the Indian Prime Minister made his observation, whenever the mood takes me, at the push of a button, at the flick of a switch, like Aladdin, I have a magic carpet.

My magic carpet is Ultra-High Definition 4K television which instantly transports me to wherever I want to go in Australia and around the world; Washington, London, Paris, Rome or Qatar; everywhere in the world is mine.

Even down here in Camelot I share with the rest of the world what is happening and, often, as it happens.

The same people with the same placards – squawking and screaming their same blasphemous chants – now lead the world into 2026.

And they are on television all over the world; they have become an international movement.

“Globalise the Intifada. From the river to the sea Palestine shall be free.”

At last year’s Glastonbury, at what used to be a festival of love and peace, we were treated to a British punk-rap artist (I used the word advisedly) Bob Vylan getting the crowd to chant “death, death to the IDF”.

 When, on my magic carpet on October 7, 2023, I saw the first pictures of the slaughter of so many Jews by Hamas in Israel, I was stunned.

As the pictures became grim and then grimmer and then unbelievable; as reports came in of the sadistic brutality of Hamas; as “Allahu Ackbar” echoed around the world – and for Gods’ sake, here in my placid Australia.

The world slowly realised that Islam had started yet another religious war to eliminate Jews, to drive them from Israel, the chosen land, and eliminate them from their Killiecrankie.

In 1967, the Muslims started a Six Day War against Israel and were soundly beaten.

Between 1967-70 there was a War of Attrition between Israel and the Arab States. Again the Islamists did not prevail.

ATTACK

On October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt mounted a surprise attack on Israel on their Yom Kippur — the Jewish holy day of atonement.

Their strategy of surprise collapsed. Israel quickly mobilised; bloody battles ensued and the Syrian and Egyptian armed forces on land and in the air were soundly defeated; so they fled, tail between their legs, back to their Islamic theocratic extremism.

On October 7, 2023, when Hamas raided Israel and slaughtered more than 1200 Jews, it was the 50^th anniversary of that Yom Kippur War.

Not only did the world change that day in 2023, something profound happened to Australia, to our Killiecrankie, and to my Camelot.

The majority of Australians, those with an Anglo-Celtic heritage are not known for showing their emotions, especially in public.

Stoicism, patience and tolerance, a fair go, and having a “crack” (“having a go” for the uninitiated) are qualities of character we have always coveted.

Consequently, we are not a nation known for showing our emotions, especially in public.

Little did we realise that seemingly out of nowhere, that image of which we are proud, was about to be defiled, ruined and corrupted.

It happened like this: On October 8, 2023, just one day after the atrocities in Israel, courtesy of the ABC, I was on my magic carpet.

I arrived at Lakemba, a suburb of Sydney.

A crowd of males of all ages from school age to old, many wearing in what was later identified as a Keffiyeh scarf; a symbol of Palestinian resistance and solidarity, were being addressed by one of their religious leaders, a Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun.

“I’m smiling and I am happy.” The sheik shouted and the crowd shouted “Allahu Akbar!”

He continued, “I’m elated, it’s a day of courage, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory. This is the day I have been waiting for.” And the crowd roared Allahu Akbar!

“Seventy-five years of occupation. Fifteen years of blockade. What happened yesterday was the first time our brothers and sisters broke through the largest prison on earth.” And the crowd became ecstatic and praised Allah and cheered

In front of my eyes and in my ears I saw and heard a religious leader, a Moslem in Australia, celebrating the slaughter by his brothers of more than 1200 Jewish men, women, children and babies.

Those vile celebrations went around the world in seconds and the free world observed Australia through a new lens.

I believe it was at that moment – and in the days following – that the scenery changed around our “placid” Australia.

We became distracted down the lanes and by-ways of a decency that had held this fundamentally Judeo-Christian, Anglo-Celtic nation in good stead for more than 200 years.

Within 24 hours, religious and overtly racial and religious kerosene was thrown on the fire that had been lit at Lakemba.

FLARES

As the NSW Government lit up the sails of the Sydney Opera House to show solidarity with the Jewish community, a thousand or so of the disciples of Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun gathered on the steps of the same building and set-off flares and burnt the flags of Australia and Israel — they chanted “Allahu Akbar”.

 Later, after complaints from the Jewish community, the police denied that the mob screamed “Gas the Jews”.  Claiming, instead, that the chant was “where’s the Jews”. The police have not denied that the mob screamed “F#ck the Jews”.

On that night, the assault on the generosity of Australia and its eclectic population was complete.

That night, the only person apprehended by NSW Police was a man carrying an Israeli flag; they just sat and watched the rest.

For months and years after that day in October 2023, as the Jews in their synagogue were fire bombed and had their property vandalised, the State and federal governments did nothing to help.

In desperation, the Jews employed armed guards to keep their children safe at school and their people safe at prayer.