For most of my life I would have scoffed at the idea that an obviously anti-Semitic government would come to power in Australia. After all, that sounded like some kind of fever dream from the 1920s, when the New Guard were running around slashing the ribbon on the Harbour Bridge and such nonsense. Anti-Semitism is so ‘far-right’ after all, right?
How wrong I was.
Even when it became obvious that the far left, such as the Greens and Socialist Alternative, plainly hated not just Israel but Jews, the idea that such odious garbage would occupy the government benches was surely just ridiculous.
How very, very wrong I was.
Perhaps the Albanese government really aren’t anti-Semites – but if not, they’re doing a bang-up job of acting like it. The best face I can put on their behaviour is that they’re simply pandering to the real anti-Semites – Muslim Western Sydney, the Greens and the far-left of their own rank-and-file – for cheap electoral gain.
Because that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has vowed to protect Australians from the “tinderbox” of tension stemming from debate about the Middle East, saying he was blocking visas for potentially divisive visitors at an unprecedented rate.
That they’re mostly Jews is the obvious part.
Which is all of a piece with Labor’s behaviour since October 7, 2023. When news of the atrocity erupted, Anthony Albanese was wholly silent for 24 hours. When Muslim Western Sydney erupted in joyous celebration of the worst massacre of Jews since the holocaust, and thousands of Muslims stormed the Opera House chanting ‘Gas the Jews’, Albanese, Burke, and their state Labor counterparts refused to say a word of condemnation.
Ever since, they’ve never, ever, been able to mumble even the mildest criticism of anti-Semitism without falling over themselves to shout, ‘and Islamophobia!’ As if Muslims are the ones who are being attacked in the streets, subjected to terror threats, whose schools and houses of worship are constantly firebombed and vandalised.
So, spare me the chest-beating about ‘social cohesion’.
“I really don’t care about receiving criticisms on freedom of speech. Like, do not care,” Burke said, noting he was taking a tougher approach than his predecessors on approving visas.
Which is odd, because Islamic hate preachers seem to have no problems getting visas. Neither do thousands of Hamas supporters from Gaza, who weren’t even subject to the most rudimentary security checks before Albanese flew them in for a photo op and to nudge and wink to Muslims whose side the government is really on.
In case anyone doubted it, the day after tens of thousands of Israel-haters took over the Sydney Harbour Bridge waving posters of the virulently anti-Semitic Iranian regime, Burke is at pains to let them know he’s on their side.
A day after tens of thousands of people marched in support of Gaza across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and in the Melbourne CBD, Burke countered claims from pro-Palestine activists that Labor had been weak on the Netanyahu government.
“We’ve taken sanctions against two members of their cabinet, so it’s no light touch,” Burke said of the June decision to sanction far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
“That’s a big deal. When I knocked back [a visa application from former Israeli minister Ayelet Shaked], the huge thing was that this is a former minister. We’ve since then taken sanctions against current ministers.”
Jewish ministers. In the meantime, the PM is scurrying to meet with the demented anti-Semite, Mahmoud Abbas.
“The Labor approach is you want people to be safe and feel safe,” Burke said.
Which must be news to the Jewish Australian community. Remind them how safe Labor is making them feel the next time Jewish schoolkids are abused as ‘dirty Jews’ in the Melbourne Museum.
Maybe next time, Burke will arrest and detain Australia’s Jewish community. For their own safety, of course.
