The year ends not with a quandary, but with vile horror

As Australia was moving towards its restful summer holiday period last Sunday, an antisemitic terrorist attack at its iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney, that claimed the lives of 15 innocent people, has recast so much.

One is often told not to send an e-mail  or write in anger. Sleep on it. Consider calmer  communication in the morning.

It is hard to sleep and write calmly after such a contaminating event. The productive, calm, and tolerant society that Australia has prided itself on being seems no more.

In the immediate aftermath of horror, we rightly acknowledge the bravery of so many who sought to limit its impact. We look for the better angels of human nature and we see it in crowds at vigils, record numbers of people offering blood for victims of the shooting and outpourings of sympathy around the nation and the world.

More importantly, we must consider what circumstances gave rise to this nightmare. Regretfully, this aberrant event was no accident.

Since the October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023, Australia has witnessed a hideous and inexplicable rise in antisemitism.

Our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister failed to denounce the Hamas attacks for what they were. Their political weakness has accommodated the rise of radical antisemitism. Witness chants of “Death to the Jews” at the Sydney Opera House days after the attacks. Witness their politically driven decision to support the existence of a separate Palestinian state complete with posturing at the United Nations, without equally extravagant denunciation of Hamas, who today have justified the Bondi killings as part of its war against Israel.

Witness their pusillanimous comments about the need to address “community concerns” about racial tension. Witness their concerns about “Islamophobia.” My recollection that no groups were marching in Australian streets demanding the expulsion of Islamic communities in the way that the “river to Sea” chant became the talismanic chant of so many.

Week after week in Melbourne, Palestinian demonstrators were allowed to chant “Death to Israel” without any condemnation.

For weeks and months our universities were occupied by students decrying Israel with no action being taken. Synagogues and Jewish private property were attacked in Sydney and Melbourne. Jewish people have been abused in shops and businesses. Last week in Melbourne a girl travelling on a tram was told “to get to the gas chambers.”

I have removed students from my senior classes for overt and vile antisemitic comments.  I have endured far too many moments when the chattering professional classes have blithely talked about the “fascist state of Israel.” Moral relativism has taken hold in a ghastly manner.

Opposition to the Israeli’s government’s response to the attack on their sovereignty has become a perverted justification for wholesale attacks on Australia’s Jewish population and Jewry.

Our nation’s progressive Left leaders have played to a political narrative that has demonised Israel and spread worldwide. Now they call for calm and unity and to “avoid the politics of division.” Excuse my incredulity.

Our Prime Minister refers to the inquiry he commissioned into antisemitism. There are images of him holding up the report of the inquiry like Chamberlain waving his peace treaty with Hitler after Munich. The author of the Report notes that most of her recommendations have not been implemented.

Last Sunday, we were reminded in appalling circumstances, that  “the fault lies not in the stars, but  in ourselves.” Especially in leaders who have chosen, for far too long, to tacitly endorse the vile chants of the hateful.  The fish stinks from the head down. No amount of retrospective piety and grief will exonerate their failure to defend true democratic principles and decency.