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
Rachel Sussman28 March at 05:17 am
Thank you for your honesty in saying:
“I confess my bias here, because I used to work for Albanese,” it makes it easier for me to disagree with your view and still not feel too upset…
Unlike the author, I sincerely think that Albanese holds much blame for what you admit to be ‘a genuine national crisis of antisemitism’ – and in my view it is fair and productive to say so, indeed far more productive than walking with eyes shut wide just to protect what seems to me an undeserving loyalty .
I find it interesting that the author is quick to point to ‘Dutton’s need’ to address the issue due to the Liberal need to win Mcnamara and Wentworth, yet disregards Labor’s need to achieve same in the West via Muslim votes.
What is ok for one apparently is not ok for another….
I disagree about Dutton ‘playing on antisemitism’ to portray Albanese as weak and ineffective in the face of rising extremism and social discord is targeted at middle and outer suburban Australia. Voters do not need Dutton to do this for them, they can see it for themselves…
Personally, Dutton and Chris Minns have been the two leaders that held me and are still holding me as an Australian Jew, sadly, Albanese is not Chris Minns…
But I thank the author for at least mentioning that:
‘non of this is to say that the Liberals don’t “genuinely care about the Jewish community”, personally, the speed with which Albanese used the events to turn a blind eye not only to Australian Jewery, but also to Israel, cast doubts about where he comes from, but to be honest his ‘loyalties’ have never been a great secret….
The author’s statement 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.” is hardly a surprise, after all he is getting closer to the election and realizing that his approach caused much damage… maybe he did not think that at least some within the Jewish community will ‘rebel’, after all most of us Jews (including myself) have always been loyal Labor supporters… but he was wrong, at least some within us have come to clearly realize that the Labor we once loved and were loyal to is no more… well at least not under Albanese and his team…
But still, others within us will prefer to still protect Labor and condemn Liberals, it is their right to do so, this is what democracy is about…
Ian Grinblat17 February at 03:05 am
On re-reading my post, I fear that I was unclear – please do not tell us that the PM is distressed by antisemitism, rather tell us just what steps he has taken, as our national leader, to combat antisemitism.
Steve Holstein13 February at 07:47 am
A very fair assessment of the painful issues in these difficult times. It’s so easy to generalize and construct a narrative that attributes blame and responsibility across the board. Antisemitic attacks in Australia represent a fringe minority—criminals and the extremely disaffected. There are also suspected actions of foreign agents under investigation both here and overseas. The motivation of such actors seems directed simply at creating broader civil unrest.
Antisemitism is condemned genuinely and wholeheartedly by our major political parties. Even the Greens, who have clearly tolerated “lower” level anti-Jewish sentiment within their ranks and have seen the exit of many of their young Jewish members, would not openly condone antisemitic violence.
Labor governments, both nationally and at the state level, have found themselves navigating uncharted territory in recent times. Freedom of expression should never be used to justify removing a community’s right to freedom from violence. Labor governments have clearly gone too far in “permitting” both legal and illegal protests that have brought low-level threats and intimidation to our communities. The protesters at Sydney University were one such example. I have first hand testimony from Jewish students, not just of the presence of off-campus individuals of all ages in the so-called sit-ins, but of lecturers permitting protesters to enter lectures for a brief rant. These rants were not restricted to anti-Israel rhetoric but also included anti-Jewish bile.
Support for Gazans seems to quickly turn into aggression towards Zionism in all its forms, and thereby towards Jews. It is not acceptable to conflate all forms of Islam with radical Islam, nor is it fair to take the worst rantings of Israel’s religious far-right and equate them with all forms of Zionism.
The clearest and time-tested message is that hate speech and racism, wherever they arise, should be “nipped in the bud” as they can escalate all too quickly.
Steve Lieblich13 February at 12:11 am
It SHOULD be an election issue! .. for all right-minded Australians but especially for Jews.
Steve Lieblich13 February at 12:07 am
It does NOT “stretch basic logic to think that Australia’s voting pattern at the UN or rhetorical criticism of the civilian toll in Gaza has” emboldened the antisemites to express their hatred. That is EXACTLY what the Albanese/Wong/Burke government has done.
Irrational vilification of Israel IS antisemitism.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described antisemitism as a “mutating virus”:
In the Middle Ages, Jews were persecuted because of their religion
In the 19th and 20th centuries, they were targeted because of their race.
Today, antisemitism often manifests as opposition to the existence of the state of Israel.
Rabbi Sacks emphasized that antisemitism becomes dangerous when it moves from the political fringes to the mainstream and gains public tolerance.
That is exactly what is happening, and this federal government has only now, after more than a year, begun to realise it.
Bankstown nurses prove it12 February at 08:12 am
Regular Australians have taken a while to notice things. But once they see stories like the Bankstown nurses saying they will kill patients should make them feel like the government has let things get too out of hand. Time to clean up house.
Ian Grinblat11 February at 10:57 pm
Dean,
I don’t agree with your assessment of why some of the community and the community leadership have turned against Labor.
Support and concern for the Palestinians is both reasonable and fair., but not when it was expressed without a word about the massacre, or the hostage-taking.
Our Foreign Minister ostentatiosly called in the Israeli ambassador, but recoiled in terror at the thought of calling in the Chinese ambassador, even after our pilots and seamen were physically endangered by the Chinese military.
As for our Prime Minister, the best that can be said about his goodwill or his ability is to point to his leadership of the Yes case for the Voice, and his disavowal of any responsibility for its failuer when he turned away from even an attempt to build a bipartisan approach.
The shallowness of the PM’s approach is clear in his adoption of the widespread but erroneous belief that antisemitism is a Jewish problem. Hence we have a Jewish woman appointed as envoy on antisemitism and a Muslim man in a corresponding role for Islamophobia. A recognition that these are Australian problems would have seen a judge appointed in each case.
Likewise the ridiculous choice to send our Attorney-General to repair relations with Israel. The Foreign Minister made the original mess, so it wwas her job to clean it up. Did they really think that Dreyfus, being a Jew, would be a better envoy?