Little Albo Runs and Hides

Has Australia ever been saddled with a weaker, more useless PM than Anthony Albanese? Albo is an object lesson that, no matter how bad the incumbent is, there’s always somebody worse. Scott Morrison may have been wetter than a slug in a downpour, but it’s unlikely that he ever ran and hid from his own office. And for all his faults, Morrison certainly never backed down from calling out the anti-Semitism of the “pro-Palestine” mob.

Then there’s Albo.

Anthony Albanese has been locked out of his Sydney electorate office this year because of pro-Palestinian protests, amid official security warnings that Islamist extremists are attending anti-­Israel demonstrations on university campuses and outside parliamentarians’ offices.

The Prime Minister’s Marrickville office has not been used since January because of fears for the safety of staff from continuous protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators and warnings from federal police.

This is indefensible. Who is running this country? The prime minister, or a mob of drooling anti-Semites and idiot student leftists?

Security around Mr Albanese, other MPs and in Parliament House has been tightened since late last year after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel in October and the conflict in Gaza sparked protests and vandalism at MPs’ offices and even in parliament.

Parliamentarians requested a security briefing from the AFP and ASIO as concerns rose about protests and security. The Australian understands there was formal advice Islamist extremists and political activists were appearing together at university campus protests around the nation, outside ministerial offices and at public demonstrations.

The official advice was that there could be co-ordination between extremists and political activists, and they were certainly appearing together at protests and demonstrations.

Albanese’s weakness has consequences. Anti-Semitic extremists are more emboldened by the day.

[Opposition Leader Peter Dutton] told The Australian: “A violent protester who breaks the law by attacking a person of Jewish faith on a university campus or seeks to intimidate an MP should be dealt with by the police.

“The fact no one has been arrested for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to electorate offices just encourages the next criminal protester to trash another office. We celebrate peaceful protest but criminal behaviour by these anti-Semitic hate protesters should result in arrests and strong penalties” […]

One Labor MP said in caucus on Tuesday that electorate staff had been assaulted, while another congratulated Senator Wong for calling out the behaviour of the Greens and said the Muslim leadership had been keen to distance itself from the “violent” protests.

The Australian

Really? Which “Muslim leadership”? Name them?

It’s certainly not the preachers at Lakemba mosque, Australia’s biggest, calling for a “jihad on Jews”, calling Jews “bloodthirsty monsters” whose characteristics are “betrayal and treachery”, and urging congregations to “spit on Jews”. Nor is it the sheikh telling a cheering crowd of fellow Muslims, on October 8, that “I’m Smiling, I’m smiling, and I’m happy, I’m elated”.

It’s highly unlikely to be the “community leader” and prominent activist facing charges of kidnapping and torture.

So — which “Muslim leadership” is it?

Albanese’s spineless paralysis is a far cry from Scott Morrison, back in 2022.

At a virtual International Holocaust Remembrance Day event on Thursday night, the Prime Minister took a veiled swipe at calls from a Palestine support group to boycott the Sydney Festival over $20,000 worth of funding accepted from the Israeli government for choreographer Ohad Naharin’s production Decadance at the Sydney Opera House.

“The virus of anti-Semitism still lives in our world. We know its symptoms … the de-­platforming, the cancelling and silencing of the Jewish people,” Mr Morrison said.

“The boycotting of Jewish businesses and Jewish artists hidden under the guise of geopolitical lobbying. The threats to Jewish leaders. The attacks on Jewish places of worship. The blaming of Jewish people for every ill in the world. And the willingness of humanity to see differences in others as threats and not shared expressions of the kaleidoscope of our humanity.”

The Australian

When Scott Morrison is showing you up, then you really have failed the country.