Australia’s symbolic actions on Palestine may not change the course of the conflict, but they matter deeply at home.

As Gaza reshapes public perception and fractures national cohesion, aligning foreign policy with Australian values becomes an urgent domestic imperative.

Australia imposing sanctions on individual Israeli ministers, or recognising a Palestinian state, will make little, if any, difference to the outlook facing Palestinians. It will not bring an immediate ceasefire to Gaza. It will not eradicate the scourge of Hamas that has cruelly destroyed what little hope there might have been of achieving a two-state solution. It will not add significantly to the limited weight Palestinians already have in international bodies.

But these are necessary steps to affirm our values, and to address the fracturing of Australian society that Gaza has caused. The fundamental drivers of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians — at its most basic a contest over identity and land — are impervious to change.

Short of a regional cataclysm, demographic realities — two populations, each of about seven million who are destined to live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean — will not look much different a decade from now.

The search for a two-state solution will continue. The alternative, at least in theory — a single state providing equality for all at the expense of the identity of Israel as a Jewish state — will not exist in the foreseeable future.

The contours of the conflict will remain determined by the fact that one side — Israel — enjoys overwhelmingly superior military capability.

The Palestinian side will enjoy only the limited protection afforded by longstanding international recognition of its right to self-determination and statehood. Horror at the genocide being........

© Pearls and Irritations