There is nothing like the sound of ballistic missiles exploding just blocks away to remind you how lucky we are in the West.

As one of the first Australians evacuated from Tel Aviv, I can say with certainty that until you have run to bomb shelters in the middle of the night, you cannot understand what life is like as an Israeli.

Like many Australians, I had been a passive observer of Middle-Eastern events, viewing the conflict through the comfortable distance of news reports and social media.

I never grasped the complexity of the region until these past two weeks, which I spent on a cultural tour of Israel as a guest of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

The tour was due to culminate at Tel Aviv Pride, one of the largest such celebrations anywhere in the world, but the event never took place as regional tensions escalated that Thursday morning.

The next four nights were spent running to and from bomb shelters as Iranian ballistic missiles indiscriminately targeted civilians, including myself.

Although the celebrations were cancelled, throughout the tour I still managed to glimpse the country’s extraordinary diversity, and not just among LGBT communities.

Nowhere else in the world do Jews, Arabs, Christians and so many other religious and ethnic groups live together in peace.

As I walked the old streets of Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv promenades, I spoke with ordinary Israelis about their daily lives.

I visited the Nova music festival massacre site, spoke with survivors, and met parents whose children are still being held hostage in Gaza.

Their stories drive home a hard truth: Israel’s entire history is one of survival against those determined to annihilate it, from the Babylonians to Iran today, and its proxies, Hamas, Houthis, and Hezbollah.

For Israelis, survival is not an abstract concept – it is a daily concern.

It has become fashionable in Australia and the broader West to view everything through the lens of oppressor versus oppressed, with Israel inevitably cast as the oppressor. But when viewed through the lens of history, the Jewish people are the most persecuted people on the planet. For many, Israel is the only place they feel truly safe, despite being surrounded by neighbours who openly seek to erase them from existence.

While I was desperately trying to flee, many Jews were trying to return home, determined to be with their families in solidarity. Despite the existential danger, many Jews feel Israel is the only place where they can live without fear of harm from within their own community.

It’s no coincidence that almost every Jewish holiday is a celebration of not being killed.

The ideologies driving groups like Hamas and the Iranian regime do not just oppress their own people – they seek to erase anyone with different beliefs.

They represent everything antithetical to the values we cherish in the West: freedom, tolerance, democracy, and human rights.

I’m acutely aware that such forces would kill me for my own sexual orientation, which is why such forces should never be allowed to gain nuclear capabilities.

Yes, there are legitimate concerns about the plight of Palestinians, but many of those chanting inflammatory slogans could not find Israel or Gaza on a map, let alone explain which sea or river they are referencing.

From drip irrigation and cherry tomatoes to USB drives and Waze maps, Israel ranks among the top in the world for contributions to modern society. Indeed, the marvel of the Iron Dome saved my life during those four nights of attacks.

These innovations reflect the kind of problem-solving culture that thrives in free societies, yet today, Jews feel increasingly marginalised in the free societies they contribute to around the globe.

Israel is not just fighting for its own survival; it is on the front lines defending liberal democratic values against authoritarian forces that, if left unchecked, could threaten us all.

Israel is far from perfect – no democracy is.

I spoke to Israelis who despise Netanyahu with a passion, but in a region dominated by autocratic regimes and terrorist organisations, Israel stands as a beacon of pluralism, innovation, and freedom.

It resists the very forces – such as homophobia, misogyny and authoritarianism – that also oppress the Iranian and Palestinian people.

And it is thanks to Israel’s initiative that there is now a possibility of deposing one of these regimes.

While we in the West can afford to engage in comfortable moral positioning from our safe distance, Israelis do not have that luxury. They live with the daily reality that their neighbours want them dead, and until we truly understand that reality, our criticisms ring hollow.

I left for Israel as a casual observer; I returned as a witness.

The comfortable distance that once allowed me to treat this conflict as an intellectual exercise evaporated the moment the missiles began to fall.

In the bomb shelters of Tel Aviv, surrounded by families clutching their children, I understood something profound: freedom isn’t a given – it’s earned, defended, and sometimes paid for in blood.

Israel embodies that truth daily.

Its people wake up each morning and choose survival, choose democracy, choose hope in the face of those who would destroy all three.

In doing so, they don’t just defend themselves – they defend the very idea that diverse peoples can coexist, that innovation can flourish under pressure, and that democracy can survive even when surrounded by enemies.

That’s not just Israel’s fight. That’s humanity’s fight. And it’s one we cannot afford to lose.

Will Bennett returned on one of the first repatriation flights from Tel Aviv.