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Life for Jews has changed globally since 2023, regardless of their connection with Israel. Australia has always felt safe from challenges elsewhere.
No longer.
Last week’s massacre of Jews in Sydney has resulted in more words, video footage, and commentary than I can get my head around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Bondi_Beach_shooting.
How did this happen?
To answer this question, we must first meet the main characters in our story:
European and Middle Eastern immigrants
Foreign State actors
Islamic, Jewish, and Christian sectors of the population
Radicalised Muslims
Mobilised students and social activists
Anti-immigration protesters
Nazis
The Silent Majority
ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation)
Prime Minister Albanese
Foreign Minister Wong
Okay. Let’s dive in.
White Australia
Until the 1970s, immigrants to Australia were expected to assimilate. Despite its racist undertone, the country’s longstanding White Australia policy, discouraging diversity, kept social friction relatively low.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhvmsV9bnxQ
Jewish post-war migrants appreciated the safe harbour Australia offered and felt that the same opportunities should be available to all people. To this day, a member of my family has this sign in his home:
Multiculturalism
When I was at school, the White Australia policy was replaced by one of multiculturalism. We were all expected to celebrate each other’s differences. It was wonderful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boRpXIJIAoQ&list=RDboRpXIJIAoQ&start_radio=1
At college in the 1980s, I loved hanging out with my Greek, Italian, Serbian, Malaysian, Japanese, Vietnamese and WASPY white friends.
Jewish Life in the Good-Old Days
That’s not to say that everyone loved Jews. Sporting a Kippa and a beard at the time, I was conspicuously Jewish. At lunchtimes, I sat on a grassy mound known to many as Jew Hill, because Jewish kids often hung out there. While eating my sandwiches, I answered questions from passersby about Judaism and Israel. “You Jews need to leave Palestine and return to where you came from”, one person told me.
“Where is that?” I asked. “Poland? Russia? They showed us we aren’t welcome. And before that, we ultimately came from Israel. That’s the only place we’ve ever been in our own home.”
It was the time of the Lebanon War. A student with family from the Yugoslavia quoted to me inflammatory media reports against Israel. I looked at him squarely. “Do you believe media reports about your home country?”, I countered. He shook his head vehemently.
“Of course not”, he responded. “They’re always making stuff up about us.”
“So if the media makes up stuff about you, why do you trust everything they say about others?
One day, my best friend at law school, a Catholic woman, innocently asked me: “Alan, what’s a Zionist? Is it a bad thing?” Surprised, I explained that it’s the expression of Jewish nationality in the land of Israel.
“Oh, thanks. One of my friends asked how I could be friends with you, because you’re a Zionist. So I thought I'd better ask you what it meant.”
On another occasion, she introduced me to a group of her friends. “You’re a Jew!” exclaimed one of them. “That’s cool; I’m saving up to be one…”
Distasteful interactions like this surfaced periodically. Nonetheless, I viewed them as simple bigotry. I never feared for my personal safety.
After my studies I emigrated to Israel, making regular visits back to Australia. On each visit, I clocked the changing face of Melbourne. Middle Easterners, Indians, and Africans became much more prevalent and visible. With distinct cultural backgrounds, I wondered when this changing demographic would reach a critical mass that would change the national agenda.
Islamism
Muslim migrant communities served as a fertile recruiting ground for international Jihadists. Al Quaeda, ISIS and others were all the rage overseas and looking to widen their horizons. Their eyes fell on Australia. Terrorist incidents started being reported.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-20/benbrika-suppression-lifted/2907796
https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/Australian-Islamic-State-Terrorism-and-Extremism_West_September-2022.pdf
Ordinary Australians couldn't see the big picture. Australia was too far from the troubles overseas, and anyway, profiling a part of the population was considered racist.
The Turning Tide
Alongside the changing face of the city, security in Jewish schools and institutions began to appear. Walls were erected and guards appeared. In the early 2000’s I went to visit the Burwood campus of Mt Scopus, my old alma mater, for a sentimental journey. A security guard blocked my entry. I was confused.
I recalled at the time kids who had come from Johannesburg in the late 1970s and joined my school. They described the security systems they had needed back home before emigrating, as law and order broke down. One told me that Jews are the proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’. When they’re attacked, it’s a sign that society is in trouble. So if your Jewish neighbors start moving out, take it as a warning sign.
The Role of Covid
In 2020, we all reeled from the Covid epidemic. Countries the world over took desperate measures to limit its spread. Victoria imposed lockdown regimes that were considered the most severe in the world. People were arrested at home for objecting to lockdowns on social media and had their digital devices confiscated.
Everyone was encouraged to snitch on neighbours who had traveled beyond their permitted curfew distances. It began to feel like a police state.
Frustrated friends called me in Israel to grumble. Previously, in the best commonwealth tradition, Australians celebrated governmental paternalism as serving their best interests. After Covid, trust in their government by some was shaken. American-style conspiracy-theories germinated.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07256868.2025.2481391#abstract
This anti-authority sentiment ruptured the British heritage of restraint that had been part of the fabric of white Australia. Libertarians protested what they saw as a violation of their freedoms and human rights, and protested accordingly. Many were arrested.
Restraint, resulting from government suppression, must have been all too familiar to some sectors of the Middle Eastern immigrant community who had come to Australia from restrictive environments. On seeing Australian libertarians fight the authorities and break the taboo against disrupting the lives of those around them, these immigrants followed suit. And they knew it was okay, because under this government, the were no repercussions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_protests_in_Australia
Get the Jews First
In 2023, when Jews in Israel were massacred en masse by Palestinians, the counter-intuitive uproar of protest against Jews in Australia (and many other countries) was aggressive and frightening. Mobs of Muslim thugs began rampaging and looking for Jews, in an event reminiscent of pogroms from the dark ages.
It didn’t make sense. Palestinian Arabs had perpetrated the attack. The victims of the attack were Israeli Jews and Arabs, Thais, Nepalese and others. This had nothing to do with Australian Jews. Nonetheless, the rampaging Muslims in Sydney were not held in check, and their fear-mongering was declared by the authorities not to be antisemitic. It was clear at that moment that Australia was entering a dark phase.
https://www.australianjewishnews.com/no-evidence-antisemitic-phrase-was-chanted-at-opera-house/
(This leads to a discussion about the Jihadist agenda behind the Hamas attack on Oct 7, but that is obviously beyond the scope of this blog.)
Foreigners Fomenting Chaos
I happened to be in Melbourne on October 7 and for a period of time afterwards. Weekly ‘Palestine’ rallies began to take over the downtown area, intimidating shoppers and passersby. I recorded one such rally (see link below). Watch it and listen to the nonsense shouted by the speakers, who seem more interested in the attention lavished on their performances than on any personal knowledge of their subject. They were protesting for a cause they didn’t understand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUklKaJ8pHk
(Moira, a self-described queer, Aboriginal, anti-Zionist, Jewish activist)
These events mirrored identical rallies worldwide. It’s not difficult to see that state actors abroad, seeking to foment a world intifada, cleverly mobilised radical Muslim immigrants and the anti-authoritarian, reactionary, post-Covid sentiment to cause chaos. By whipping up antisemitic feelings, they could recruit these groups to do their bidding. Demonising Israel gave the perfect justification for attacking Jews.
Evidence of international interference was publicised much later, but I would be surprised if the Australian intelligence services, who failed to sufficiently act on it, were unaware. Israeli intelligence was certainly aware, and passed it on.
https://www.jfeed.com/news/mossad-australia-iran-terror-warning
Naive left-wing activists, themselves often anti-semitic, were only too happy to jump on the bandwagon. They were (and still are) fighting for the fall of white Australia, in the name of every underdog cause they could imagine: Palestinians, gender equality, socialism, victims of Islamaphobia, Aboriginal land rights, social injustice and the like. But in their rush for the demise of Australia's western liberal tradition, they seem oblivious to the agenda of their handlers to strive for a world caliphate, or to the fact that they themselves are next in the jihadist firing line.
At one protest, I stood in a crowd estimated at 70,000, arms held aloft in a sign of resistance, all repeatedly chanting, in unison, “Fuck the police, fuck the police...” I surveyed them all, and a series of words came to mind: anarchists, pawns, useful idiots, dupes and more.
And then I thought: We may be in trouble.
At another rally I attended as a photographer, I was assaulted by protesters after photographing a Middle Eastern looking fellow. (I was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt). A cop pulled me to safety. A friend later alerted me to a photograph – taken of me by the protestors - posted on a Palestinian protest website, underscored by vitriolic text. As the policeman led me to safety, I spun around and snapped them with my camera as they screamed at the top of their lungs: “All Zionists are terrorists!”
Protesters pursuing me as the police led me to safety
I discussed what happened with another photojournalist who had heard the commotion, filmed it, and was then also attacked. He confided that the Palestine protesters were more violent than anyone had ever seen, and he had personally been posted as a threat on their watch-list.
Tacit Government Approval
Anti-Jewish activity in Australia grew. Prime Minister Albanese, a past leader of the pro-Palestine movement, refused to censure Islamists.
Throughout 2024 and 2025, Jewish property, institutions, kindergartens, and schools were attacked. Two synagogues were firebombed, one destroyed. Even just writing these words here, about the ever-peaceful Australia I knew so well, is surreal.
In response to downtown Melbourne becoming a no-go zone for so many, anti-immigrant protests sprang up. These, too, were allowed to proceed under the guise of free speech. Clashes between the opposing protest groups took place.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-01/weekend-anti-immigration-rallies/105718340
Then came the Nazis.
All the while the Jews looked inward, celebrating their Jewish and Australian identities. Proud to bear Australian and Israeli flags, they prayed for peace and the return of their kidnapped brethren overseas who had been vilified by the protestors.
Hostage rally, Federation Square, Melbourne
Far from attacking its persecutors or taking the law into its own hands, the Jewish community begged the government to crack down on violent rhetoric and take steps for its safety. After all, the authorities had exercised an iron fist during Covid, so all they needed now was the will to act to protect the Jews.
Jan 18, 2025
Reading the Room
Growing up in Melbourne, my Jewish peers and I lamented the fatal inaction of our European parents and grandparents in the face of anti-semitism. Why didn’t they emigrate when their societies became hostile and their lives were threatened? Were they blind to the signs? As children of survivors, we learned from their mistakes and were raised to read the room accordingly.
In late 2024, a close friend in Melbourne, who had bottles thrown at her from a passing car while on her way to Shabbat services, told me that the events of 1938 Nazi Germany were being repeated in Australia. I was sceptical at the time. It can't be THAT bad. Another woman with no Israeli connection told me how October 7 changed her life. She had decided to sell up and move to Israel. Most Australian Jews I know are strengthening their connections with Israel. Others, with businesses, assets and family obligations, who had never thought of emigrating from the Lucky Country, are preparing themselves psychologically for having that discussion: Is it time to leave?
Social media post, Jan 2025
A friend told me in hushed tones over Whatsapp that everyone around her is preparing for an emergency exit if it becomes necessary. “Plan B”, she called it.
Many Jews no longer feel support from their neighbours.
“It’s not pleasant living in a country where you are not welcome. We live in a bubble. In our little neighborhood, everyday life has not changed. Except that armed security for schools and institutions has become the norm. And we now have organised 24/7 armed patrols in their streets. It’s nuts.”
https://www.jfeed.com/antisemitism/antisemitic-attacks-melbourne-jewish-community
https://www.australianjewishnews.com/inside-a-police-jewish-community-patrol/
I have always suspected my friends thought me crazy for leaving Australia all those decades ago. Hell, even I thought I was crazy. Now they universally tell me how uncomfortable their situation is. Many no longer wear anything that would identify them as Jews. They make their kids remove their head coverings and Star of David necklaces when they leave the house. A close childhood friend, who had immigrated from a hostile Soviet Ukraine in the 1970s, decided to protect his family by removing the mezuza from his front door.
We spoke again now during Hanukkah. He told me sadly that one of the victims murdered on Bondi Beach had immigrated together with him to Australia when they were children. Screw it, he said, he’s putting the mezuza back up on his door. No one’s gonna make him hide his identity. Now he wants everyone to know he’s Jewish, and he wants to yell it out loud from the rooftop.
While some Jews are hiding symbols of their identity in public, others are now proudly announcing who they are. I was directed by others to LinkedIn profiles. Whereas previously announcing Jewish identity was not helpful for business, Jews are now declaring their Jewishness loudly and clearly. A Melbourne woman who was raised in a mixed household with a called me, distraught, after everything hit the fan. She, her husband and adult children have all decided to convert to Judaism.
Last week’s massacre of Jews was carried out by a veteran Muslim immigrant and his Australian-born son. In a country with strong gun control laws, they had 6 rifles, despite the son being known to the intelligence services. (They also threw explosives into the crowd, which failed to detonate). And they were connected with Muslim centres in Sydney that regularly preached for the murder of Jews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46Ym6Oodz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD0-d6qfbdg
The Government’s Gamble
Let’s call a spade a spade. Prime Minister Albanese has lost control.
At best, he kept anti-Israeli rallies on a low flame to garner support from his immigrant Muslim electorate. This was a very dangerous gamble. It cynically endangered his constituency for personal political purposes and emboldened bad actors, locally and from abroad, to harm Australian citizens, starting with the Jews.
As lip service to the Jewish community, he appointed a special envoy on anti-semitism. Her report was delivered in mid-2025 and put aside. It sat on the Prime Minister’s desk ever since. In the wake of the Bondi massacre, the government is scrambling to put the report's recommendations into effect.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/i-ve-been-holding-my-breath-antisemitism-envoy-says-government-must-act-now-20251215-p5nnoy.html
Aware of his poor image, Albanese did not attend funerals for the Bondi victims.
Turning up at a large public vigil for the victims, he was heckled and booed.
Petitions have been calling for his resignation.
A friend I spoke with today is convinced that Albanese is being paid by Qatar; why else would he not do his job and quash anti-semitism?
Penny Wong, Australia’s Foreign Minister is a staunch critic of Israel. She traveled on an official visit and refused to visit the October 7 memorial.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/06/penny-wongs-middle-east-policy-out-of-her-depth/
For the last 10 days, since the Bondi massacre, she has disappeared from sight. Social media is having a field day.
Social media post, Dec 2025
The Silent Majority: Shock & Surprise
Before the Bondi attack, many Australians - me included - were waiting for the ‘silent majority’ to speak out against anti-semitism. Their silence when Jews were attacked was deafening. Now that murder has hit their streets, their response is becoming audible. Shock and surprise is what many are expressing. This, of course, is a cop out, in particular when coming from those who called to ‘Globalise the Intifada’. Some now express sympathy, but link the murder of Jews to actions by Israel or to historical Muslim suffering. Many are blind to the meaning of global intifada and the part they play as its enablers and potential victims. The Jews are the canaries in this coalmine.
In an article in The Australian newspaper on December 16, 2025, Yoni Bashan starkly highlighted the hypocrisy.
“Now they're all shocked. The progressive activists. The influencers. The Greens. The podcasters. All those impeccably right-on people who have spent two years making “Zionist” – or “Zio”– the dirtiest word in the Australian vocabulary. Who marched down Oxford Street during the Mardi Gras holding a sign that said Globalise The Intifada. Well congratulations. The Intifada’s here.
Globalised.
Mission accomplished.”
The sad thing is that the woke (there, I used that word again) fools working against the Australian establishment still deny the antisemitic nature of their efforts, and continue to fight Australia and the Jews.
To be fair, this is not everyone’s experience. Numerous friends have shared with me stories of letters, calls and other expressions of grief and solidarity from their non-Jewish friends and clients. I have heard of one non-Jewish fellow who unabashedly flies an Israeli flag over his house. (He apparently gets to enjoy small gifts of challa left on his doorstep by appreciative Jewish friends.)
Will You Hide Me?
Since the Bondi massacre, I have been inundated with calls and messages from Jewish acquaintances in Israel, the US, and the UK. But not one of my non-Jewish Australian friends has called.
You may wonder about my Catholic best friend from college. Our relationship was severed years ago because of her reaction to a media report about Israel. After a 10 year hiatus we patched things up. But then, earlier this year, in the context of all the distorted rhetoric around us, her view of Israel as the root of all evil resurfaced. It was then that I realised she had just failed the “Will You Hide Me” test. That’s where your level of trust in an acquaintance depends on their answer to a simple question:
‘When the anti-semites come looking, will you hide me?’
Heartfelt Support
The day after the Sydney attack, I heard a knock at my door in Jerusalem. A Christian neighbour, holding a package, looked at me forlornly. We had bonded, amongst other things, racing together to the bomb shelter during the recent war with Iran. “I’m so sorry about the news. These are for you." She handed me gifts of solidarity and encouragement.
A card with a note, showing that the Jews are not alone in this world.
A jar of honey to sweeten an otherwise sour time.
A Star of David made by Christian schoolchildren in Germany to show their support.
A pin saying Am Israel Chai.
This was not just lip service. Tania is active in bringing Christians to support Israel in its darkest period; working on farms while labourers are away fighting, clearing debris from destroyed houses, packing supplies for evacuees and more.
The Genie’s Out of the Bottle
The genie is out of the bottle. By tacitly allowing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric in the wake of October 7, the Australian federal government has been playing with fire. This has sown division, encouraged radicals, invited in hostile foreign actors and disenfranchised arguably the most loyal and able sector of its society. Even the Nazis are getting in on the act.
Last month I visited Warsaw. The echoes of its Jewish history, and its Jews' ultimate demise, loom large. Way back then, when the Nazis attacked Poland, most Jews were in disbelief and waited for things to calm down. That proved to be a mistake. I don’t think the Jews of Australia are in the same position today. The threat against them is not state-sponsored. But it is surreptitiously state-sanctioned.
It has been said that Israel is the cause of all this mess. I call that BS. To my mind, the existence of a Jewish state has resulted in the golden age of Jewish life around the world in the second half of the 20th century.
When diaspora Jews are under threat, where do they look for safety? Let that sink in.
Whatever the fate of this current government, things don't bode well for Australia, let alone its Jewish population. Jihadists are not known to relent. Their power is growing worldwide. If the Australian authorities step up to the plate as it should have long ago, it just means that the coming culture clash will be that much bigger.
Being Christmas day, 2025, I will take the opportunity to wish Peace and Goodwill to All, wherever and whomever you are.
Notes
In this blog, I have cited personal experience, private conversations and information taken from the media. Where possible, these sources are cited.
All photos were taken by me.
Feel free to correct me if you find any errors of fact or expression.
Comments regarding content are always welcome.
