Published: 16 December 2025
Last updated: 22 December 2025
“It is only through good fortune that serious injuries or deaths have not yet resulted from recent arson attacks or other expressions of violence in Australia.”
I wrote those words last July following the East Melbourne Synagogue arson attack and a mob invasion of the Miznon Israeli restaurant. Today I feel devastated that my fears have been realised.
The horrific massacre at the Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach last night has left Jews in Australia, and around the world, in a state of grief and despair. We are heartbroken, reaching out to family, friends and community for solace and comfort.
The outpouring of support from the wider Australian community has been so moving. Statements from our leadership, from the prime minister, police and security services that they will do everything in their power to ensure the safety of Australian Jews are welcome, stirring and to a degree reassuring.
Yet a sense of hollowness pervades this language. The platitude “Antisemitism has no place in Australia” has been factually inaccurate and, clearly, an ineffective moral call.
A deep intuition shared by many Jews is that the permissive posture adopted by leadership in government (and the arts and academia) towards extreme forms of protest and activism, cannot be unrelated to last night’s events.
Because anti-Zionist activists rarely take the responsibility of defining exactly who counts as a legitimate Zionist target, this inevitably bleeds into the hatred and marginalisation of Jews
Comments4
Ian Grinblat18 December at 09:37 pm
Great article, Andrew.
Please allow me to riff on your mentioning of stochastic terrorism.
In the late 1960s, an article on permissiveness in the performing arts, reminded readers that there is a danger of tolerance giving way to moral cowardice.
During Roman times, the political doctrine of ‘bread and circuses’ eventually led to the stage where as public spectacle, actors killed, or hacked limbs off, one another on stage, gladiators fought to the death, and ‘enemies of the state’, not just Christians, were pitted against hungry lions.
The moral collapse became complete social collapse when the Roman citizens preferred to watch spectacles, ever more barborous, than to defend their state.
Does our Australian government have any intention of preventing social collapse or is it committed to a slow impassive (scientific) process of observation?
It seems that we are living in a culture of forgetfulness wherin we are destined to forever relive history.
Ben17 December at 11:18 am
This is an excellent article and I think everyone should read it. Thank you!
Anthony17 December at 04:10 am
I’m deeply saddened by the recent slaughter of innocent, peace loving people. Albanese and his pathetic government need to go. God help us all. Our prayers are with you.
Cera Newhouse16 December at 12:22 pm
Not really in shock as something sooner or later had to happen ,when you have a government like ours .But we are devastated and terrible sad with the loss of good people .
We came to this country to be safe
.