The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions

Get The AJN Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” — George Orwell

That single sentence explains much of what we are seeing in the world today. A generation untethered from historical truth has been taught to see Israel not as a miracle of national rebirth, but as a colonial project; to view Jews not as survivors of centuries of persecution, but as oppressors; and to treat civilised values—like democracy, law, and pluralism—as negotiable luxuries rather than the foundations of a free society. The consequences of this lie are no longer theoretical. They are playing out in our streets.
Last weekend, Melbourne became the latest city to fall under the shadow of this perverse moral inversion. A so-called “Free Palestine” march flooded the CBD with chants of “From the river to the sea”—a slogan that plainly calls for the eradication of Israel. Protesters proudly displayed the terrorist emblem of the paragliding Hamas fighter. Jewish Australians, who have long lived peacefully and contributed richly to our nation, were warned to avoid certain neighbourhoods for their own safety. The media’s response? Tepid, timid, and telling. Violence, intimidation, and the glorification of terror are no longer even considered newsworthy—so long as they are dressed in the garments of “activism.”
Thomas Sowell reminds us: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” Yet for decades, the West has clung to utopian fantasies of peace in the Middle East—fictions maintained at the expense of hard truths. Billions in aid have poured into Gaza, often via UNRWA, under the guise of humanitarian relief. The result? Not peace. Not prosperity. But terror tunnels, rocket arsenals, and the ideological radicalisation of an entire generation. UNRWA schools still teach children to glorify “martyrs” and deny Israel’s right to exist.

This is not compassion. It is complicity.

Albert Camus warned: “The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.” We now see that tyranny cloaked in activism is no less dangerous than that cloaked in uniforms. Hamas, a terrorist organisation with an explicitly antisemitic charter and a proven record of using civilians as human shields, is excused in Western discourse as a “resistance movement.” Meanwhile, Israel—a liberal democracy under siege—is vilified for defending itself.

Even the once-vaunted “two-state solution” has become a tragic case study in good intentions gone awry. The Oslo Accords were met not with peace, but with waves of suicide bombings. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza brought not coexistence, but the rise of Hamas and thousands of rockets fired at civilians. And yet, Western diplomats and academics keep repeating the same mantras—mistaking their own inertia for moral clarity.
Milton Friedman observed: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” This is a mistake the West makes again and again. On campuses awash with critical theory and postcolonial grievance, students chant slogans they scarcely understand. Jewish students are harassed, silenced, and threatened. University administrators—so vocal about inclusion when it suits them—are paralysed by cowardice when the targets are Jewish.

The effects are global. Antisemitism is no longer fringe—it is fashionable. It masquerades as solidarity and speaks the language of liberation. But it is hatred, plain and simple. And it is directed not only at Israel, but at the Jewish diaspora—and, by extension, at the very values Jews have long helped uphold.

Golda Meir famously said: “Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.” That remains tragically true. But peace will also come only when the West begins to love the truth more than it fears discomfort; when we remember the difference between resistance and terrorism; when we stop rewarding grievance and start rewarding responsibility.

The Jewish people—both in Israel and across the diaspora—have stood for centuries as guardians of civilisation. They have gifted the world unparalleled contributions in ethics, medicine, law, science, and the arts. In return, they have been scapegoated, expelled, and massacred. Today, they face a newer, more insidious threat: a world in which victimhood is currency, truth is disposable, and moral cowardice is fashionable.

This is not just about Israel. The demonisation of Israel is a dress rehearsal for a broader civilisational collapse. A society that cannot distinguish between a democracy defending itself and a death cult hiding behind civilians is not morally serious. And a civilisation that punishes its defenders while lionising its destroyers is writing its own suicide note.

But it is not too late. We can rediscover the clarity of our convictions. We can still speak truth, even when it is unfashionable. We can stand with the Jewish people—not only because they need us, but because we need them. To defend Israel is to defend the West. And to defend the West, we must confront the perverse and unintended consequences of our own indulgent illusions.

Note: This article incorporates recent events in Melbourne, including the Nakba Day rally on 18 May 2025. The image above—taken by an unnamed protest participant and circulated publicly—shows activists at the demonstration holding a banner reading “Jews in Solidarity, Palestine Will Be Free,” in front of Melbourne’s State Library. Such images, however sincere, speak to the moral confusion of our time: some in the diaspora now unknowingly break bread with those who would cheer their demise.

Colonel Michael Scott CSC is the CEO and Founder of The 2023 Foundation, a charity focused on combatting antisemitism and fostering peaceful coexistence.