Jewish official says warnings ignored before deadly Hanukkah terror attack

Following the deadly terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, senior socialite Dionne Taylor says the saddest truth is that violence does not come without warning.

“We are completely disappointed by our government,” Taylor, communications manager for the Australia/Israel Council on Jewish Affairs, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. “We warned them that this snowball effect was going to happen and it was only a matter of time before someone was killed.”

The attack occurred during a public Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, leaving at least 15 people dead and dozens injured, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. Australian officials described the attack as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.

Police said the suspected attackers were a father and his adult son. While the father died at the scene, his son was shot by the police and taken to the hospital.

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Taylor, who lives a 10-minute walk from Bondi Beach, said the attack was not an isolated act of violence but the culmination of years of rising antisemitism that authorities have failed to counter.

“It started with hate speech,” he said. “Then graffiti. Then public demonstrations. Then firebombing synagogues, kindergartens, people’s homes, people’s cars. Now murder.”

He said Jewish leaders and community representatives had repeatedly sounded the alarm to state and federal officials, warning that inaction would lead to bloodshed. Taylor noted official presentations and a detailed report prepared by Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism; He said this was accepted by the government but was never implemented.

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After the shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on December 14, 2025, a citizen leaves the scene with his child wrapped in an emergency blanket. Two gunmen dressed in black fired several shots at Sydney’s world-famous Bondi Beach, causing at least 10 injuries and three deaths and sparking mass panic on Sunday evening. (Photo: George Chan/Getty Images)

Instead, Taylor said, the Jewish community received what he called empty assurances. “We’re getting one-liners that antisemitism has no place in Australia,” he said. “But these are empty promises. No action has been taken.”

Taylor said failure to act had wider consequences for Australian society as a whole.

“There have been a number of situations in Australia that have led to a complete erosion of social cohesion, a lax immigration policy, accepting too many refugees from the wrong places, the rise of radical Islamism and a fundamentally shrewd government that doesn’t really help or support the Jewish community and other communities,” Taylor said. “So although this attack is an attack targeting the Jewish community, it is actually an attack targeting the whole of Australia.”

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People walk as police officers stand guard on the street after a shooting incident at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on December 14, 2025. (Jeremy Piper/AAP via Reuters)

He noted that Bondi Beach is one of the country’s most iconic and densely populated public spaces, attracting tourists and locals from around the world. “The people sitting on the beach last night weren’t just there for the Hanukkah festival,” Taylor said. “Yes, those who were shot were festivalgoers, but there are hundreds of thousands of people sitting on that beach on a Sunday afternoon. It’s summer. It’s exactly what’s described as the happy place on earth.”

“But it’s not like that anymore,” he added. “We are broken. Our country is ruined.”

The victims included a 10-year-old girl who later died from her injuries and a Holocaust survivor who sought refuge in Australia decades ago, Taylor said.

“Australia’s home [one of] “They are the largest community of Holocaust survivors,” he said. “They came here in search of peace, security and a better life. “And now one of them has become a victim of terrorism here.”

The violence also affected Taylor’s organization closely. He said Arsen Ostrovsky, newly appointed to AIJAC’s Sydney office, was shot at the festival and remains hospitalized.

“He returned to Australia just two weeks ago with his wife and children,” Taylor said. “After October 7, he was freed from reporting in Israel, and now he has become a victim of the same bloodshed here.”

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Emergency workers carry a person on a stretcher following a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, December 14, 2025. (Mark Baker/AP Photo)

Australian leaders condemned the attack and vowed to review security and counter-terrorism measures. Police presence was increased around synagogues and Jewish institutions, and Hanukkah events across the country were canceled.

Taylor said the trauma led to painful conversations in her own home about whether Australia was a safe place to raise a Jewish family.

“After October 7, many people made plans to make aliyah to Israel,” he said. “We discussed this as a family. We decided that our life is better here. Now we ask ourselves, how is our life here better?”

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Police teams take security measures at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday following a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community on the first night of Hanukkah. (Claudio Galdames A/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He said the support from non-Jewish Australians had been overwhelming, with people queuing to donate blood and offering to help. Still, he warned that the government must act decisively.

“I hope this is a huge wake-up call for our current government,” Taylor said. “This is an attack on the whole of Australia. So they’ve lost 15 citizens in one day and they’re powerless to stop it. So if they can’t make changes and improvements to not only protect the Jewish community but also to protect the broader Australian community from terrorism, then they need to do that. And I believe they know they need to do that. I just don’t think they know how.”