Sydney lays bare the consequences of demonising Israel and shrinking from the fight against extremist ideology that now threatens Western societies themselves
December 14, 2025 17:25
The massacre at Bondi Beach, where at least 11 people were murdered during a Chanukah celebration, was the second deadly terror attack against Jews in as many months – targeted while practising their faith. In October, Jews were murdered as they prayed on Yom Kippur in Manchester. This is not coincidence; it is a pattern. And it will continue unless it is decisively broken.
This violence did not emerge from nowhere. It was prefigured, endorsed and rehearsed in the language Western societies have chosen to tolerate. This is what slogans such as “Globalise the Intifada” mean in practice. They mean the same thing in Australia and the UK as they do in Israel: the murder of Jews. This violence has nothing to do with genuine concern for Palestinians. Where such language is tolerated, mayhem inevitably follows.
The Australian prime minister’s description of the Bondi Beach attack as “evil antisemitism” and terrorism was appropriate and necessary. But words are no longer enough. He – like many Western leaders – must now take responsibility for the failure to confront the hatred that made such an atrocity possible and take decisive action.
On October 9, just two days after the Hamas massacres, so-called pro-Palestinian demonstrators openly chanted “F*** the Jews” in Sydney. If there was any doubt before, that should have been the moment for Australia’s Labour government to recognise that it faced a serious antisemitism problem. Instead, it chose the familiar Western path of avoidance and appeasement.
Just over the past year in Australia, synagogues, schools and homes were firebombed; two nurses “joked” about killing Israeli patients in their hospital; police uncovered explosives reportedly intended for a terror attack at a Sydney synagogue; and endless protests intimidated the Jewish community. Each incident was treated in isolation. Together, they told a blindingly obvious story.
Instead of confronting this hatred and these threats, Australia – like Britain – went on to recognise a Palestinian state without even demanding the release of Israeli hostages as a precondition. That decision did nothing to pacify extremists. As in Britain and elsewhere, such concessions emboldened radicals rather than restraining them.
In the UK and across much of the West, street protests have since dwindled, exposing an uncomfortable truth: the hardcore was always small. Yet governments allowed themselves to be intimidated by a noisy minority, mistaking volume for political urgency.
Across the core institutions of Western society, hostility to the world’s only Jewish state has been normalised, celebrated and rewarded. Endless arguments over whether anti-Zionism is or is not antisemitism have become a linguistic charade. Even indulging this false distinction, what remains is still hatred. And it was always obvious that the demonisation of Israel would, sooner or later, turn on Jewish communities themselves.
Western governments must also confront another uncomfortable reality. Many of the deadliest terror attacks against Jews in Europe and elsewhere have been carried out by radicalised Muslims. Addressing this threat with the urgency it demands is not stigmatisation. Indeed, there are unconfirmed reports that the hero who disarmed one of the terrorists was a Muslim father. Either way, the point is the same: this is a struggle against extremism, not against Muslims. While Jews are often the primary targets, it is Western civilisation itself that is at risk. Just yesterday, German police foiled a planned terror attack on a Christmas market in Bavaria, reportedly involving five Middle Eastern suspects. The threat is organised, transnational and growing. The window for half-measures has closed.
Nor does this threat stop at lone wolves or domestic radicalisation. The Islamic Republic Iran has a well-documented record of directing antisemitic plots in the West through proxies. Whatever the outcome of the Bondi investigation, a radical regime that openly sponsors antisemitic terror cannot continue to be treated as a manageable problem. Acting decisively against Iran is long overdue.
Bondi Beach should mark a moment of reckoning – not only for Australia, but for every Western government, including that in Downing Street. Jews, for their part, will not surrender their identity or retreat into invisibility. Chanukah teaches otherwise. It is a festival of survival and defiance, rooted in a history that has outlasted every attempt to erase it.
We have seen darker moments than this – and endured.
Chag Sameach
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