‘NEVER AGAIN MUST MEAN NEVER AGAIN’: Fmr Australian PM Scott Morrison visits Israel, tours site of Oct. 7 atrocities, insists world must ‘stand with Israel’ against ISIS-like genocide

KFAR AZZA – Few world leaders were more pro-Israel than Scott Morrison when he served as prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022.

And for me, it was encouraging to see Morrison arrive in Israel on Sunday to see the sites of Hamas atrocities for himself.

To be a voice for “moral clarity” in defense of Israel.

And to push back against the wave of anti-Israel, antisemitic attacks that are currently sweeping the world in the weeks after Hamas terrorists butchered and slaughtered more than 1,400 Israelis and foreign civilians.

Morrison insisted that the post-Holocaust vow “Never Again” must actually mean “Never Again.”

World leaders, he said, “must stand with Israel” in every possible way against the ISIS-like savagery and genocide perpetrated by Hamas.

Hamas must be completely vanquished.

And only then can a peaceful, stable, post-Hamas world be created in the Gaza Strip.

Morrison, 55, was invited by Knesset Member Danny Danon, who previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.

The two men were joined Boris Johnson, who was one of Israel’s most loyal friends when he served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022.

At 59, Johnson remains a widely popular and influential figure throughout Great Britain and the world.

I first met with Morrison and Johnson in Jerusalem while they visited with young Israeli soldiers that hold dual British-Israeli citizenship and dual Aussie-Israeli citizenship.

The two former premiers listened to the stories of what these IDF combat troops have been facing, answered their questions, and then asked questions of their own.

Afterwards, the two men met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

We then headed in armored cars to Kfar Azza, an Israeli agricultural community located right on the Gaza border, joined by a group of some 40 Israeli and international correspondents, cameramen and sound technicians.

Only 400 Israelis lived in Kfar Azza before October 7.

But on the day of the massacre, at least 52 were murdered by Hamas terrorists.

Many more were wounded.

At least 20 are missing and believed to have been taken hostage inside the Gaza Strip.

“You can’t help but be overwhelmed by the sense that [the ground that] we’re standing on was, a month ago, a place of innocence,” Morrison, visibly shaken by the atrocities that he witnessed. “And now it has been desecrated beyond comprehension.”

“And, as Boris just said, what we’re seeing now a month on is exactly what I think Hamas – the terrorists – wanted to see, that Israel could be potentially isolated, and that cannot be.”

“We said, ‘Never Again’ – we mean, ‘Never Again.’”

“And if you mean, ‘Never Again,’ then you cannot stand for this to go unaddressed.”

With the almost non-stop explosions of IDF artillery and mortar rounds being fired at Hamas positions in Gaza, shattering the otherwise beautiful sunny day, Morrison made a special point of noting the exemplary training and moral standards by which the IDF operates.

“We must stand with Israel to make sure that they can now do what they need to do, and do it in the way that they’ve been trained to do it,” Morrison insisted.

“We met with young soldiers today. We saw their faces. We heard their stories. They’re not the faces of terrorists.”

The soldiers of the IDF “are governed by their rules” of warfare, and “governed by their training,” he noted, which is to target the enemy and do everything possible to protect innocent civilians.

But the Hamas terrorists “who came through this place, wreaked an evil beyond comprehension cannot be compared.”

Several times, Morrison was asked what a post-Hamas Gaza Strip should look like and whether he still supports a “two-state solution.”

“In Australia, we've always supported a two-state solution, but you need someone to run an effective other state,” he replied.

“There needs to be a competency and a capability to do that, so people can live behind borders in peace and security.”

The people of Gaza should have good “schools and hospitals and roads and all of these things.”

“But instead, what we've seen in Gaza is the money that's supposed to go for that has gone to building rockets and firing them and finding ways around fences and building tunnels to launch attacks,” Morrison said.

“That is, that is not effective statecraft or it's not effective management of states.

So, he said, whatever comes next in Gaza “has to be competent and capable.”

“I think there's a big challenge. I mean, one of the things that's been interesting and we’ll continue to discuss here is, 'What is the next step?'”

“Yes, go root out Hamas. You cannot have a stable and peaceful Israel when you when you have terrorists on your borders doing what they did on October 7. That is not peace.”

“But what you also need – to look towards what then after. And that has to require some competent, stable state.”

The big question, Morrison said, is, “Where is it going to come from? Who can do it?”

“You can't have peace until you've achieved an end to the threat of further atrocities.”

“I'm sure that it will be done with the maximum possible regard to civilian casualties and protecting the innocent,” Morrison said, while adding, “It's got to be done.”