If we can’t answer, who will?

This past week, I responded publicly to a dangerously misguided statement made by Dr Sophie Scamps, the Independent MP for Mackellar.

In Parliament, she called on Australia to recognise a Palestinian state, framing her argument around the suffering of civilians in Gaza, ignoring both the context and the consequences.

Her remarks aren’t just wrong. They’re embarrassingly ignorant and dangerously performative.

In one breath, she condemns Hamas’ October 7 massacre. In the next, she parrots their propaganda, blames Israel for a war Hamas started, and calls for a diplomatic reward while terrorists still hold hostages and embed themselves in civilian areas. That isn’t leadership—it’s moral theatre with catastrophic implications.

After I posted my response, I began receiving messages. From friends. From colleagues. From people in our own community. And the questions they asked weren’t hostile—they were sincere, thoughtful, and personal:

“But isn’t this just about peace?”
“Don’t Palestinians deserve a homeland?”
“Isn’t recognition about human rights?”

They weren’t debating me. They were turning to me. And others.

And that’s exactly why this moment matters.

Her call to “recognise Palestine now” is not a solution. It’s a surrender to simplicity. It ignores that Hamas still controls Gaza. It ignores that Fatah hasn’t held elections in nearly two decades. It ignores that the Palestinian leadership is deeply divided, violently corrupt, and actively working against peace.

Let’s not forget: the Palestinian Authority was established 30 years ago. Since then, it has embraced jihadist terrorism, suppressed freedoms, and indoctrinated hate into generations of children through its official education and cultural systems. It has overseen mass corruption and the chronic misuse of international aid. They haven’t held an election in 20 years. So let’s be honest: would a Palestinian Arab state—the first ever in history—be a democratic, peaceful, forward-looking nation at peace with itself and its neighbours?

You already know the answer.

But what hit me most this week wasn’t Sophie Scamps’ statement—it was how many people simply didn’t know how to respond to it. How many people reached out, not with outrage, but with genuine confusion. That’s a sign we’re not doing enough. It’s a sign that the facts aren’t getting through. And that’s not their failure. That’s on us.

We need to be ready—not just emotionally, but intellectually. We need to answer not with slogans, but with facts. It needs to become instinct. Muscle memory.

Because if we don’t answer, someone else will. And they already are.

The conversations that matter aren’t only happening in Parliament. They’re happening in WhatsApp chats. In schoolyards. Around dinner tables. In quiet, private messages asking, “Can you help me understand?”

This is the job now. Mine. Yours. Ours.

If we care about truth, if we care about peace, if we care about justice, we must be prepared to speak up. We must know our history, understand the context, and be ready to respond every single time the narrative is hijacked by ignorance dressed as virtue.

Because they’re asking us personally.

And we need to be ready.

Michael Gencher is the Executive Director, StandWithUs Australia