For the first time in our lifetimes, antisemitism will be an Australian election issue

It is not just Jewish Australians who are worried about antisemitism. A recent Resolve poll for The Age/SMH found just over half of of broader public think the Gaza conflict has made Australia less safe. The latest Essential poll found 43% of Australians think the government isn’t doing enough to combat antisemitism, compared to 30% who think it is, and who 9% think it has done “too much”.

With this law-and-order context, antisemitism has become a totemic issue in the political contest between Labor and the Liberals, feeding into broader concerns about community safety and security.

When I wrote in October about the growing partisanship and politicisation consuming discussions about antisemitism and Israel, I did not see things getting better anytime soon. But they have clearly gotten worse than even I imagined.

Indeed, we have gotten to a point where Peter Dutton has laid the blame for “every incident of antisemitism” at the Prime Minister’s “dereliction of leadership.”

Dutton has been consistent in trying to paint the Prime Minister as weak on the antisemitism, but his rhetoric has escalated, even going so far as to attack Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns, whose own office was smashed up and lit on fire in a significant antisemitic attack.

The political finger pointing on Australian antisemitism has even drawn in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeting after the Adass attack that “it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia.”

Netanyahu’s certainty in casting blame over the Adass attack carries a certain irony, given October 7 occurred on his watch, and his refusal to permit an independent inquiry into Israel’s greatest security failure in at least half a century continues to this day.

Jewish community leaders have offered mixed views on to what extent they lay the blame at the feet of the government. AIJAC’s Colin Rubenstein and Jamie Hyams link the government’s criticism of Israel with the rise in antisemitism, while Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler argues the government’s lack of strong action has enabled the rise.

But ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim has been sober in cautioning that antisemitism has been on the rise around the world, and that “no country has got this right.”

Indeed, at least 16 synagogues around the world have been targeted by arson attacks since October 7. Clearly, the problem is global and widespread, and it is impossible to blame it entirely on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

I confess my bias here, because I used to work for Albanese, but I sincerely don’t think the rush to blame him for what is a genuine national crisis of antisemitism is fair or productive. I also know that his concern about the spread of antisemitism in Australia is genuine, as is his desire to fix it.

But putting aside my personal beliefs, perception in politics is reality – and the perception that Labor is presiding over a sharp decline in community safety has to be dealt with.

To understand why antisemitism has become such a key political battleground, and why the Liberals have spent so much effort on it, it is important to first broaden our focus beyond Jewish voters.

The Jewish community is not a significant demographic in Australia. We make up just 0.4% of the population, mostly concentrated in a tiny handful of seats – particularly Wentworth, Macnamara and Goldstein. The Liberals will target winning back Goldstein from independent Zoe Daniel, but they are less likely to win back Wentworth, and have no hope in Macnamara where they would require an implausible 12.25% swing in two-party terms.

Dutton’s play on antisemitism goes beyond the Jewish community. His attempt to portray Albanese as weak and ineffective in the face of rising extremism and social discord is targeted at middle and outer suburban Australia.

Of course, none of this is to say that the Liberals don’t genuinely care about the Jewish community – I have no doubt that both sides are sincerely horrified by what is going on.

But Dutton’s pitch to the electorate to become PM will rely on convincing voters that Albanese has failed in two key areas that the Liberals always target – economic management and security and safety. The antisemitism crisis plays into perceptions on the latter.

If voters feel Labor has failed to keep them safe, Dutton’s pitch appears more potent. So, Labor has as much a political imperative as a moral one to crack down on antisemitism.

Of course, the government will point to a range of measures they have taken – including funding for community security, criminalising Nazi and terrorist hate symbols, historic anti-doxing laws and the establishment of a special AFP taskforce to combat antisemitism.

There is also no doubt that Albanese’s condemnation of antisemitism has grown stronger over time – it is difficult to think of many issues he has spoken about more in recent months.

But strained relations between the government and the Jewish community through the Gaza war, substantially due to the government’s increasing criticism of Israel’s handling of the war, and support for Palestinians, have contributed to a lack of faith in the government’s response to the antisemitism crisis.

I don’t believe these two issues should be conflated, but they have been. The community has every right to disagree with the government’s foreign policy shifts, just as it has every right to question whether action on antisemitism has been timely or effective enough – these are both legitimate topics of discussion, but they should be kept separate.

It stretches basic logic to think that Australia’s voting pattern at the UN or rhetorical criticism of the civilian toll in Gaza has caused antisemitic vigilantes, let alone terrorists, to attack synagogues and Jewish homes.

On the contrary, a glance at the comments on the Prime Minister’s social media reflects the opposite – antisemites don’t feel emboldened by Labor’s criticism of Israel or support for Palestine, they believe Labor has been too supportive of Israel. This has been fed by the false and dishonest claims by actors and parties to the left of Labor – including the Greens – that Australia has been “complicit” in the war, captured by the “Zionist lobby”.

The Australian Federal Police’s identification of possible ties between the recent spate of attacks and local crime networks or overseas actors also pours cold water on the idea that at least this current wave is motivated by, or could be dissuaded by, government policy or rhetoric.

What is clear is that the strongest action needed right now to dissuade the attacks is arrests and convictions. The government has made legislative reforms and flagged more to come, but we need to see police and prosecutors put these laws and powers into action.

Labor has plenty of action to point to, but voters will judge it on results. Just as with cost of living and the economy, progress in the right direction may not be enough . When people feel unsafe or insecure, they tend to punish whoever is in charge.

The election looks to be close, with a hung parliament and minority government likely. What emerges in the next parliament will be a greater need for cross-partisan cooperation to govern the nation – combating antisemitism will be just one of the issues we can only hope sees the politics dialled down.

Peter Dutton might reap a political dividend from the antisemitism crisis, but we should be wary of what comes next. Antisemitism will not disappear if Labor loses, and our ability to combat it will always be weaker if it becomes a permanent casualty of partisan politics.