This weekend brought another stark reminder of the dangerous rise of global antisemitism when two Muslim terrorists opened fire on a crowd of thousands of Jews who had gathered on Sydney’s Bondi Beach in Australia to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. The terrorists killed at least 15 people, including a Holocaust survivor, a rabbi, and a ten-year-old girl. Dozens more remain injured.
We wish we could say this horrific event was shocking, but unfortunately, it is not. Australian authorities had been put on notice about the dangerous rise of antisemitism in recent years and have not taken the threat seriously. Just this month, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry warned about the rising tide of antisemitism, with annual incidents now five times what they were prior to the October 7 massacres. These have included arson attacks on synagogues, preschools, and other Jewish institutions. Jewish homes and cars have been vandalized with antisemitic messages.
The response by the Australian government has been to accommodate the anti-Israel mob while failing to protect Jewish communities. In August, the government allowed antisemitic protesters to shut down traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and then Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recognized a Palestinian state.
The Hanukkah event where the massacre occurred was an annual tradition run by the Jewish organization Chabad that brings together Sydney’s Jewish community. Given the rise of antisemitism in Australia, one would think there would be a large police presence on hand, prepared to respond immediately to any threat. Instead, witnesses reported that police “froze.” The shooting continued for 20 minutes, enabling the gunmen to keep reloading. The death toll almost certainly would have been higher were it not for one heroic bystander, also Muslim, who crept up from behind one of the attackers, jumped on top of him, and ripped the long gun out of his hands.
The shooters were identified as Naveed Akram and his father, the Pakistani-born Sajid Akram, who came to Australia in 1998 on a student visa. In 2019, Naveed was examined by Australia’s intelligence agency for having strong ties to an Islamic State cell, but after six months, it was determined he didn’t pose a threat.
One would think such an egregious tragedy would make Australia rethink its immigration policies, its response to antisemitism, or its strategy of accommodating the pro-Hamas mob. Instead, Albanese has announced that Australia, which has among the toughest gun laws in the world, is going to impose even tougher restrictions on legal gun ownership.
Albanese expressed horror at the attack. But what did he think the mob meant by “globalize the intifada”?