Published: 10 February 2025
Last updated: 29 April 2025
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.
To understand why antisemitism has become such a key political battleground, it is important to first broaden our focus beyond Jewish voters.
Comments10
David Jackson5 May at 07:23 am
Following on from my last comment in March,. The result reinforces in the main people voted on cost living issues. Australians don’t like foreign conflicts being fought on the streets damaging private and public property. The swing against Dutton proves there’s no Jewish vote And the vote against the Greens showed there was no Muslim vote(pro Palestine).
David Jackson4 May at 06:38 pm
Dean, I have the advantage of reading your article post Election Day, knowing that Albanese has been re elected with an outright majority. In about October 2024 the journalists on Insiders program on the ABC said that the Government’s voting strategy at the UN was about shoring up seats with Muslim voters such as Blaxland, Wentworth in NSW and Wills in Victoria. With swings recorded to Labor from the Liberals and the Greens was the strategy worth it? Will Australia’s opposition to Netanyahu policies against West Bank settlements continue? regards David
David Jackson29 March at 03:10 am
Dean, I love your analysis, please keep contributing. However, on the anti sematism issue a number of factors have been confabulated by expediant political players. Question. When does Australia’s opposition to Netanyhu’s policies of West Bank Settlements and attacks on ‘innocent’ civilians during the Gaza conflict become anti sematism. Answer; when Israel’s actions, whose main population is Jewish get’s treated in the mainstream Australian media, is no longer is anti Netanyhu, anti Israel, anti Zionist but anti sematic. The words and actions of Foreign Minister Wong and Australia’s votes at the UN are things Albanese cannot take back. Dutton has been a clever manipulator of these events, after all Israeli intelligence sharing has prevented terrorist attacks in Australia saving lives. This is undeniable. Other clever manipulators have been the National Socalists, neo Nazis types who have just dovetailed into all of this. This is how they work, they love to cause division, almost anacharistic in nature, mainstream media is doing there work for them, afterall historically Australia has had a xenophobic past, with the Chinese hordes, Communist invasion, red and yellow invasions stemming back to the goldrush and white Australia Policy. Recent votes at State bielections support, reinforce the view Australians don’t like minority groups such as the Greens and pro Palestinians bringing their home conflict to the streets of Australia, damaging private and public property. This explains somewhat the drop in the Green vote. The only place for these votes to go is either Informal or Labor. This should help the ALP’s Josh Burns in Macnamara. From first hand observation, the Liberals will not regain Goldstein, they are wasting their money. The Liberal’s Tim Wilson may regain a small amount of votes but not enough to dislodge Zoe Daniels. I know the Jewish community doesn’t appear to care what Palestinian or Islamic voters think, but they are neither homogenous or united either, whilst some applaud, they are disappointed too Labor hasn’t gone far enough. Dean, I’m disappointed that this strategy of short term opportunism for retaining seats with significant Islamic populations has caused so much community division. It simply hasn’t been worth it. regards David