Trump triumphs as hostages freed while peace-haters howl

President Donald J. Trump, the deal-maker extraordinaire.

In a stunning diplomatic coup, the remaining living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have finally been released, marking an important step towards de-escalating the Middle East’s interminable conflict. And who do we have to thank? None other than President Donald J. Trump, the deal-maker extraordinaire. 

Instead of welcoming the hostages’ freedom and the nascent peace deal, they’re decrying it as a ‘betrayal’ of the Palestinian cause. Ludicrous doesn’t begin to cover it.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy knows who the biggest hero of the day is: Donald Trump. Like or loathe him, only someone with the titanic self-belief and aggressive personality of Trump could drive both Hamas and Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu into a ceasefire and hostage release deal that could actually hold. Not that the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activists will ever accept their bête noir has delivered what they have always claimed to have wanted since the atrocities of 7 October. Well, stuff ‘em.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Trump triumphs as hostages freed while peace-haters howl.

Amid the celebrations in Tel Aviv and sighs of relief worldwide, a bizarre chorus of dissent echoes from Australia.

Australia’s pro-Palestinian activists, the perennial marchers with their keffiyehs and chants of, ‘From the river to the sea!’ are enraged.

Article |… pic.twitter.com/KsVfBJElrT

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) October 13, 2025

Time for a rethink of car manufacturing in Australia

Andrew Hastie is right, we should build things again.

Amid the post-Cold War euphoria from the 1990s onward, globalisation’s architects like Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and even John Howard, preached the ‘commercial peace’ thesis. Open borders, supply chains snaking across continents, and WTO rules would bind nations in mutual prosperity, rendering war obsolete. Australia, ever the eager disciple, signed free trade pacts from Singapore to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), slashing tariffs and welcoming Chinese investment in our ports and mines.

It worked, economically. GDP boomed, jobs flowed, and our ‘mixed economy’, or the pragmatic blend of coordinated and competitive capitalism that Stilwell had so deftly mapped out, thrived.

But geopolitics has a rude habit of upending theory.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Time for a rethink of car manufacturing in Australia.

MICHAEL DE PERCY | "Andrew Hastie’s recent call to resurrect Australia’s car-making industry is far from radical."

Hastie, one of the few Liberals demonstrating any sense of policy and whose China warnings deserve applause, argues for reviving Holden and Ford assembly lines to… pic.twitter.com/THyT040O0j

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) October 11, 2025

Are we really that gullible?

The media is spinning narratives. When threats are made, it matters to the press who makes them.

If Britain is the harbinger, Australia is the echo chamber, amplifying elite delusions while the rest of us foot the bill.

But if rising cost of electricity is a slow-burn outrage, the media’s selective outrage on security threats is a full-throated farce. Consider the horror that unfolded in Manchester on October 2, during Yom Kippur no less.

Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old who was reported to be on bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape, allegedly rammed his car into worshippers outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue, then stabbed a security guard to death.

Two Jewish lives snuffed out in minutes of terror.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Are we really that gullible?

When threats are made, it matters to the press who makes them.

Some stories are elevated, even inflated. Others are buried or nudged quietly out of sight with inconvenient details omitted.

It is the difference between front-page outrage and an anonymised footnote.

Article |… pic.twitter.com/tQmNuWQPRB

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) October 6, 2025