EDITORIAL: Bloody toll of the failure to tackle anti-Semitism
For most Australians, the carnage at Bondi on Sunday afternoon was unthinkable. Unthinkable.
The sound of gunshots piercing the sleepy calm of early summer is something that is simply not part of our reality. There is no terrorism here. Not in Australia.
Australian Jews were under no such illusion.
Their lives have been affected by anxiety for over two years; their eyes were wide open to the creeping tide of anti-Semitism that surrounded them.
They saw their synagogues bombed. Cars were set on fire, houses were scrawled with disgusting graffiti.
They expressed fears that we were sleepwalking our way to tragedy. They implored authorities to take these fears seriously.
They were assured that they were safe.
On Sunday, this wave overflowed as they had warned.
15 innocent people died, including a 10-year-old girl. Those who gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, one of the holiest dates on the Jewish calendar, made easy choices.
We have a dangerous culture of silence that allows Jew hatred
This is what Australian Jews have feared since the moment they watched in horror as ghouls were allowed to gather on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to rejoice over the deaths of 1,200 Israelis in the wake of the October 7 massacre.
Our leaders evasive rather than condemn hatred. References to anti-Semitism had to be referenced to Islamophobia in the next breath because they were trying to appease those who could only view such things from a hostile perspective.
In their calls for “restraint” on our long-time ally Israel, which is trying to defend itself against the existential threat posed by Hamas, our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have drawn a false equivalence between liberal democracy and a group of radical Islamic terrorists.
The recognition of Palestinian sovereignty in September – the direct reward for the bloody actions of these terrorists – was Australia’s disregard for the deepest suffering of Jews and the final humiliation.
In the vacuum left by this failure of leadership, a culture of silence took root that allowed Jew hatred.
It has fueled the most disgusting antisemitism, which sees little girls as targets of destruction.
Those of us who are not part of the Jewish community cannot pretend to fully understand their suffering today. Not just for this injury, but also for the countless other indignities they endure as their sense of belonging is eroded by a collective indifference to their plight.
Our leaders were quick to tell Australian Jews that this was an attack on us all, that their suffering was the suffering of the nation. So where were those same Australian Jews screaming for help in the months and years leading up to these atrocities?
In Deuteronomy, the common last book of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament, the prophet Moses tells the Israelites that evil is a choice. So is kindness.
On Sunday, amidst the pain and chaos, many ordinary Australians chose goodness over overwhelming evil.
Beachgoers sprang into action to provide first aid and CPR to victims who were still wet from the surf. Even though gunshots were heard behind them, lifeguards continued to rescue distressed swimmers from the waves.
And most surprising of all, 43-year-old tobacco shop owner Ahmed al-Ahmad, who saved countless lives with his extraordinary courage in disarming one of the gunmen, at great risk to his own.
Our choices, and more importantly, the choices of our leaders, have brought us to this point. Now we must choose a way out.
