Israeli government goes into attack mode after Bondi

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to the Bondi Beach terror attack by blaming Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for allowing antisemitism to spread.

“Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia. You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said in a media conference on Monday.

Netanyahu has previously claimed that Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state would fuel antisemitism. In August, at the time of the recognition, he called Albanese "a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews".

Albanese has rejected any connection between Australia's Israel-Palestine policy and the worst antisemitic attack in Australian history.

In an interview with national broadcasters, the Australian prime minister was asked if he accepted “any link between that recognition and the massacre in Bondi”.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “Overwhelmingly, most of the world recognises a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East.”

Veteran analysts say Netanyahu's attack on Albanese is motivated by scoring political points at home and deterring foreign leaders from criticising Israel.