By Mark Kenny

A version of this article was originally published by The Canberra Times.

Amid the cruelty and suffering in Gaza at present, there is also genuine bravery as Israeli hostages cling to life after six gruelling months and as millions of Palestinians persist somehow despite the bombardment.

In physical terms, Penny Wong's suggestion of flipping a paralysed paradigm to instead drive peace via Palestinian statehood is hardly brave at all.

Yet the Australian Foreign Minister's political and moral courage will be welcomed by all who dare to imagine an end to a cycle of unspeakable violence. And by those hoping to salvage from this disaster the remnants of universal human rights.

What Wong did on Tuesday evening at ANU, was brave in the context of an entrenched culture of complicity in which Western nations have turned a sclerotic eye to Israel's belligerent behaviour, never daring to speak out.

Immediately, the Coalition attacked the government claiming such a move is both premature and only rewards terrorism.

Its alternative? Nothing. Or rather, more of the same doleful repetition of Israel's vaunted right to defend itself however violently expressed - and however long it lasts?

In recent decades intractable 20th century conflicts that seemed impossibly dead-locked, have been unpicked. Think South African apartheid, and the Irish "troubles". Even the Cold War.

Yet the seven-decade conflict over Palestine has been institutionalised, logistically and militarily enabled by the most powerful alliance on earth.

Within the US, UK and Australia, the conflict's domestic rendering exhibits the righteous position-taking of other culture wars wherein the excruciating horrors of a real war are somehow abstracted, as if mere props in an argument.

What explains this base theatre of off-shore identity politics? It certainly isn't electoral heft. The 2021 census found fewer than 100,000 Australians subscribe to Judaism, or just 0.4 per cent of the population.

Yet when an Australian was among seven heroic aid workers deliberately targeted and murdered by IDF soldiers, the opposition could not bring itself to clearly express unqualified outrage for a national who was victim Israel's surfeit of prejudicial violence.

The opposition will depict Wong's cautious suggestion as a leftist betrayal of an ally, but three things are clear. Israel is an ally in name only. In practice the most volatile and aggressive government in its history is beyond reach and offers no credible path to peace.

Second, Wong has placed strict pre-conditions on any progress including the removal of Hamas, the release of all hostages, and the full recognition of Israel's right to exist within secure borders.

Third, she is echoing similar sentiments from the UK's Conservative Foreign Secretary David Cameron and other moves underway towards full UN membership.

The only cowardice here is among those who, in the face of a humanitarian catastrophe, would do nothing differently.

Mark Kenny is the Director of the ANU Australian Studies Institute and host of the Democracy Sausage podcast.