How Has Australia Come to This?

Yet again, to our utter shame, Australia is emerging as an epicentre of the dark tide of anti-Semitism sweeping the West. Belatedly, the PM is making a show of concern, but after a year of silence and inaction, it’s too little, far, far, too late. Especially when the PM’s crocodile tears are undermined at every turn by his Israel-hating foreign minister.

A car has been torched and seven others damaged in another anti-Semitic attack in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, in which horrific slurs were scrawled across two buildings […]

The strike on the prominent Jewish suburb of Woollahra marks the second in less than a month, after another car was set alight and horrific slogans were smeared across buildings in late November.

It is the latest in a growing number of anti-Semitic attacks across the nation […]

A board member of the Melbourne synagogue fire-bombed last Friday said anti-Semitism across the nation was getting “out of control” and the fabric of Australia was changing.

We’ve known that since October 8 last year, when Sydney’s Western suburbs erupted in spontaneous celebration of the shocking massacre by Hamas. Carloads of Muslims raced around the streets and set off fireworks, while imams told cheering crowds how they were ‘elated’.

The next night, a mob of Muslims accompanied by Greens politicians attacked a vigil for the October 7 victims at the Sydney Opera House, chanting ‘Gas the Jews’. The only person arrested was a Jewish Australian carrying an Israeli flag.

Then was the time to unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism. But the government and police did nothing.

The Prime Minister said nothing when a mob descended on Central Shule Chabad Synagogue in Melbourne’s east on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. He said nothing when an anti-Israel convoy drove through Sydney’s eastern suburbs, home to many Jewish Australians. He remained silent when families of Israeli hostages fled from protesters who ambushed them, calling them “baby killers”. No response came when a Melbourne professor had his office stormed, protesters calling him a “war criminal” for working with an Israeli university. Silence again when former Olympian, Australian senator and Indigenous woman Nova Peris was surrounded by an intimidating mob at the Great Synagogue in Sydney.

The silence extends beyond government. While major corporations and cultural institutions rush to signal their virtues on climate change and the voice, they remain conspicuously silent when Jews face actual violence and threats to their physical safety.

So, excuse me if I don’t buy the PM’s pretend road-to-Damascus moment.

Anthony Albanese has “unequivocally” condemned the anti-Semitic attack in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, saying he stands with Jewish community.

Too late, Albo. We’ve seen your real attitude for the past year.

The Australian revealed on Monday that Mr Albanese entertained Labor donors over drinks at Perth’s Swan River on Friday – the day a Melbourne synagogue was torched – before playing tennis on Saturday afternoon.

At the same time, his government continues to relentlessly attack Israel.

The chief executive of the Zionist Federation of Australia has blamed the horrific anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on the Albanese government’s “drastic shifts on longstanding policy on Israel”.

“Jew-hatred is escalating into domestic terrorism, fuelled by the demonisation of Israel and a persistent failure to call out incitement,” CEO Alon Cassuto said.

“The government’s drastic shifts on longstanding policy on Israel carry domestic consequences.

“Chants of ‘Globalise the Intifada’ on our streets and campuses are translating into real-world hate. Antisemitism, disguised as anti-Zionism, threatens Jews, social cohesion, democracy, and the rule of law” […]

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume says anti-Semitic attacks around Australia are “becoming a pattern that is all too common” and has blamed the Albanese government for “emboldening and enabling” the violence.

“We’re looking to our leadership to stamp this out, unfortunately Anthony Albanese has been missing in action.”

Worse, his foreign minister, as well as other ministers and senior MPs whose seats are based in Muslim-dominated western Sydney, have been tacitly encouraging anti-Jewish sentiment at every turn.

Anthony Albanese’s promise to fight anti-Semitism must start with reining in Penny Wong’s obsession with Israel and Labor’s naivety that Australia can influence peace in the Middle East.

Wong’s foreign policy speech associating Israel with China and Russia continues the Albanese government’s pattern of using a megaphone to attack the Israeli government while hardly ever calling out Beijing over its abhorrent human rights record.

Of course not. Not when CCP-linked figures are showering literal shopping-bags full of cash on the Labor Party.

All we need now to complete our anti-Semitic attack Bingo card is for Labor MPs – such as Muslim MP Ed Husic – to come out whining, ‘But what about Islamophobia?’, again.