Simon O’Connor
Husband, step-father, foster dad, and longtime student of philosophy and history. Also happen to be a former politician, including chairing New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Committee.
My heart goes out to the Jewish community in Sydney, and also across Australia and New Zealand – not to mention around the world. Hanukkah is one of the great high festivals of Judaism: a feast of light and yet on Sunday, the light was shattered – but importantly, it will not be broken or eclipsed despite the violence.
What we witnessed happening to Jews at Bondi Beach in Sydney is horrific. It is clearly a terrorist attack and one specifically targeting the Jewish community gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. Others will have been killed too, but even at this early stage the political and religious motivations are clear.
Just like other terrorist actions, the choice of date is very specific – not just an attack on the people on the beach, but on their culture, religion, and way of life. The same was true of October 7th, Yom Kippur in 1973, and many other examples.
Yet none of this should surprise us.
The growing antisemitism in society; the constant pro-Hamas protests which barely mask their Jew hatred; the attack on the Melbourne synagogue last year; the threats to Jewish communities here… the list goes on and on and on.
The warnings have been clear for those with eyes to see, and ears to listen. As friends of mine within the Israeli/Jewish community noted, it was only a matter of time.
Alongside of this are individuals and political parties, reporters in mainstream media, bureaucrats and academics who have long fanned the flames of this violent conclusion. While indulging their cos-play and crying ‘globalise the intifada’, ‘Free Palestine’, and ‘from the river to the sea…’ – they have all played a hand in the horrific happenings in Bondi. Despite their protestations to the contrary, the killing of Jews is precisely what globalising the intifada means. Of course, the likes of the Greens and Māori Party will have no ability of self-reflection in this matter.
I wrote a while back about the continuum of violence, and here is an example writ large, and predictably and tragically so. Our societies have imported both people and ideas that fuel this hatred and violence.
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So what will change? The cynic in me does not expect to see much beyond hollow words with little action, but there are some initial thoughts and suggestions.
The first is for people to speak up honestly and clearly around what happened and why. There is often a tendency to minimise these attacks or hide behind broad sentiments. Clarity is what is needed and, in being clear, countries like Australia (and New Zealand) can then directly confront the source(s).
Secondly, people should not rush to scapegoat entire groups of people. The hero of the day, a shopkeeper from Western Sydney who wrestled the gun from one of the terrorists, is the case in point. His actions show the nuance and humanity of the moment.
Concretely, here in New Zealand – there needs to be a much greater acceptance that the anti-Israel rhetoric is directly contributing to antisemitism and violence. Intelligence agencies around the world have been signaling this, but too often, politicians and others are ignoring the advice.
It is also well past time that police and other agencies push back hard on the various protest groups, with their aggressive and abusive stances. Clearly, there must also be more resources made available to not only follow up on the radicals who fantasise around such revolutionary violence, but also to provide more protection to the Jewish community. The time of arresting peaceful counter protestors standing quietly on the street, while hundreds who are calling for the eradication of the Jewish people march by, needs to end.
We must also address the importation of these violent ideas into our land. This will begin by having confidence in our own country’s values, but also understanding that multiculturalism has failed. As others have pointed out, a society can be multi-ethnic but a stable, peaceful society rests on common shared values. What we saw in Bondi are people’s whose values system is utterly opposed to our Western way of life and understanding.
And New Zealand must stop funding UNWRA – the UN agency that funds, among other things, educational materials that glorify violence against Israelis. That governments continue to fund this organisation sends all the wrong signals. I called for the ending of funding while chairing the Foreign Affairs committee for good reason, and those reasons (and evidence for it) has not changed.
Finally, we must stand in support of our Jewish/Israeli friends and neighbours. They knew this was coming in some way, shape, or form. And here it now is – just across the ditch at a beach many of us have visited – not in some far away land. Sadly, we have bought the issues of those lands onto our shores.
Yet Hannukah teaches us many things, and one is that the light never fails. Let’s all commit to being that light – not only to our Jewish friends, but even to those who walk in the darkness. May we be a light calling people towards truth, beauty, and goodness and away from the horrors of Bondi on Sunday.
This article was originally published by On Point.
