Published: 3 June 2025
Last updated: 4 June 2025
Many Jews whether religious or not, believe in the idea of the messiah delivering for the Jewish people. The way some Jews campaigned at the recent federal election, it seemed they cast Peter Dutton, a vocal supporter of Israel, as that messiah, expecting he would become the new prime minister and cast out the "evil" Albanese Labor government.
Australian Jewish leadership, historically politically neutral virtually bet the house on Dutton winning, and a large and loud section of the Jewish community banked on them being right.
It was a dramatic failure: the Australian community rejected what the Liberals were selling, by a large margin.
The election campaign must be seen as a massive failure by the leadership of the Jewish community in political management, powered by what can only be described as an extraordinary level of arrogance.
The anti-Labor campaign
The events of the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel and the subsequent shocking rise in Jew hatred in Australia has of course had a massive and profound impact on all of our community. The dismay and the anger directed toward the government has been felt by Jews of all political persuasions.
Let’s be clear, the government warranted strong criticism. The Jewish community has justifiably felt shaken to the core by the rise in antisemitism in Australia. Many Jews now question our place in this society.
For the first time ever, many Jewish voters considered this the central and only issue in determining how they might choose to vote. By the end of 2024 and especially following the Adass synagogue fire-bombing in Melbourne a huge chunk of Jewish Labor voters was for the first time in their lives considering not voting Labor.
But throughout 2024 high profile individuals within the Jewish communal leadership became more and more shrill in attacking the government. Communal events that commemorated Oct 7 or addressed antisemitism deteriorated into partisan political activism, led by high profile Jews including former Liberal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and journalist Sharri Markson. Audiences escalated the fervour: at times it felt like we were at revivalist meetings.
It was one thing for example, for Senator James Patterson to criticise the government’s anti-Israel UN votes, or its response or lack thereof to rising malignant antisemitism here in Australia. It was quite another for Jewish leadership to promote the views of prominent but partisan Jews.
The messaging strayed from dealing as a community with the failure of government responses but in a way that kept the community ‘in the tent’. Instead it became a booster campaign for the Liberal Party, which within the community morphed into both a vicious and arrogant attitude, notably against Macnamara Federal MP Josh Burns.
The repulsive language from many in the Jewish community directed towards Burns in "private' conversations at shabbat and yomtov tables or Caulfield cafes was shameful and shocking.
This was not merely the expression of a view about whether he was fighting hard enough for the community, whether he was effective or not, or whether he was ultimately tarred with being part of the government. It was a tone and language that was despicable.
Misunderstanding tactical voting
What was surprising was the absolute failure of so many in the community to understand that the Liberals in Macnamara had no hope of winning the seat and that this was only ever a fight between Labor and the Greens.
The Jewish Labor vote could have moved en masse to the Liberals but if anything, it risked Burns finishing third and delivering the seat to the Greens which would have been a massive blow to the Jewish community let alone the wider community.
A Liberal win was always fanciful thinking in Macnamara yet almost no amount of explanation seemed to sway the thinking until the final two weeks of the campaign, when many Jewish voters returned to Labor.
The anti-Green campaign run by former Federal MP Michael Danby and former State MP Tony Lupton had a significant impact as did the open preference ticket run by the Burns campaign.
A perfect demonstration of this was a phone call I received from a long-standing Liberal voter friend with a sign for Liberal candidate Benson Saulo on his front lawn, who wanted to understand the voting dynamic. After accepting the thesis that Saulo could not win it was a question of deciding who he hated more - the Greens or Labor! He voted for Burns and put Saulo second Ultimately a lot of Jewish voters did the same.
A new messiah?
If the voters of Australia were shocked by the extent of the election result there is no doubt the Jewish community were gob smacked when it came to the results in Macnamara, where there was a 4.4% first preference swing towards Burns.
So here we are now, and the Liberals have been essentially wiped out in the metro areas of Australia and occupy only 18% of Federal Parliamentary seats.
Their new leader Sussan Ley is a former co-chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine,
Some Liberal-supporting Jews are enthusiastic to embrace her. While they continue to raise negative comments about Israel made by Labor’s Tanya Plibersek 20 years ago, they are keen to believe Ley’s claim that she is now a “staunch friend” of Israel.
Peter Dutton is gone, but we will be making another mistake if we embrace a new Liberal “messiah” with similar partisanship.
Comments6
Brian stagoll4 June at 01:04 am
Very useful analysis The same applied Wills for Peter Khalill, but from the green’s support for”Free Palestine”,with a vicious campaign of abuse, threats and defacings against Khalill .This backfired badly:civility and tolerance won for the ALP .Thanks Henry
Ian Ossher3 June at 10:57 am
The extent to which the Liberals, together with their Liberal funded Better Australia, Advance Australia and Australians for Prosperity, tarnished the election with their hate-filled vitriol against the incumbent member for Wentworth was nothing short of disgraceful. With Dutton weaponizing anti-semitism as a political tool to draw support for his Liberal candidate, failed nevertheless in its absence of policy and the antogonistic, ‘I will be in the cabinet’ candidate who lied and sneered her way through the election, stoking the fear and anxiety of many members of the Jewish community to behave shamefully whenever and wherever they could. There were many of us ‘other’ Jews simply stupefied, ashamed and gutted by this behaviour. The thrill of the Liberals being downgraded to a nothing party nevertheless is a Pyrrhic victory, the vitriol unabated, the shameless still unashamed. Fortunately for Wentworth, their member returns to Parliament, a friend still to all her constituents, a policy driven intellectual with the capacity for empathy and sympathy for all.
Rachel Sussman3 June at 08:20 am
With all respect to the author I have to differ.
I agree that some in the community felt so threatened by Labor’s behaviour ( and still do) that they treated some Labor MP inappropriately. This is not acceptable even if their dismay at those MP for not standing by their community and Israel could be understood. I felt same betrayal by some Labor MP.
This is where my agreement begins and ends.
Peter Dutton was not regarded as a ‘Messiha’ such an implication is offensive to all who supported him. Peter Dutton was regarded as the politician that stood by Israel and the Jewish community unlike his counterpart – Mr Albanese – who failed miserably ( and is still failing) on both accounts. This was a fact.
The Jewish leadership did nothing wrong by openly expressing the community’s feelings and by standing by Mr Dutton.
You do not support someone because you know they are going to win. You support them because of what they stand for and you do your best to contribute towards a hopeful win.
The fact that Liberal lost, does not imply that leaders within the Jewish community and members of the community failed. It simply implied the will of the majority of Australians whether it is or is not also our will.
Personally I hope that in the future, we as a community and our leaders will fight likewise to protect ourselves and will not be detered nor guided simply by the fact that we may lose.
Aaron Dodd3 June at 08:12 am
Excellent summation by Henry Pinskier. Quality journalism.
Corinbe3 June at 07:40 am
Great article. A massive mistake by the community not reading the room. Expectations not met by Labour? So work with the party to aid understanding, and stop putting leaders between a rock and a hard place.
Simon Tatz3 June at 07:26 am
An insightful and articulate analysis. I was appalled by the overt political posturing of some conservatives about Zionism and Israel; including Tim Wilson. It didn’t help; and I reckon it turned some people away from Dutton’s Liberal Party. Burns is a very good local member and has managed the conflict with sensitivity and acumen.