Discombobulated

 

'Discombobulated: To be in a state of confusion or disorder'

That one word pretty much sums up what many in Israel have been going through these last few years. Most of us here are psychologically overwhelmed. The stresses of everyday life are hard enough: work demands, relationships, kids and mortgages. But add to that the need to dodge missiles, and the whole house of cards starts to wobble. Schools are closed, parents with kids at home can’t work properly, commerce slows down, and travel becomes hazardous. 

 

Two weeks ago, it flared up again. Air raid sirens sound at the oddest hours. You try to live as normally as possible, but there is a pervasive fear of being caught away from a shelter during an attack. One never quite gets used to the shock you feel each time the Home Guard app on your phone screeches aggressively. The constant alerts keep people more on edge here than the missiles themselves. Maybe that’s the point.

(Source: Social media) 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVx7-SrjBxZ/?igsh=cHNnNThic3VrazIx
(Source: Social media)

Our last conflict with Iran, nine months ago, in which the Islamic regime bombarded Israeli population centres with ballistic missiles, was good preparation for what we are going through now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-Day_War,

 

I wrote at the time about what it was like here.
See: https://alanmeerkin.blogspot.com/2025/06/run-for-your-life.html

Interrupted sleep, adrenaline rushes and anxiety all lead to a sense of confusion and disorder.

Source: Social media 

 

 

Missiles and Brain Mush 

 

When Lion's Roar (Israel’s name for the current campaign) began two weeks ago, I was visiting a friend in Tel Aviv. During the first few days, we were woken by sirens, with sleepy stints hiding in the Mamad before going back to bed until the next siren. (If you are not aware, a Mamad is a private bomb shelter built in every apartment constructed after the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq bombarded Israel with missiles).  I suffered a distinct sense of jetlag and lost all sense of time. When I woke at 2pm, I was sure it was just after dawn. Many people suffered – then and now - headaches, exhaustion, irritability, apathy. The state declared a state of emergency. With nothing else to do, and confused about what they should be doing, most people spent their time trolling social media for news and listening to podcasts. I'm no exception. It’s like searching through garbage cans for something that might be edible. Apart from being addictive, too much phone and screen time just exacerbates feelings of isolation and fatigue, (especially when it exposes the viewer to the growing hostilities against Jewish life globally.)

 Source: Social media

The Importance of Interaction

 

It is alarmingly reminiscent of the COVID lock-downs. Especially for those with a Mamad who are fearful of going outside, depriving themselves of the social interaction available in communal shelters.

In the following few days, we had to calculate when and for how long it was safe to take the dog for his walk. Apart from a few other dog walkers and the periodic smoker, the streets were empty.

One day we visited friends who live in a tower only minutes away. When the siren came, we hurriedly made our way down to a shelter two floors below the building. About 60 people joined us. 

 

Couples cuddled.

 

 

Parents played games with their kids.

 

  

Others drank tea and stared at their phones.  

 

 

 

  

 

Not all protected spaces are equal. In the middle of the night, it's more convenient to walk to a Mamad in your apartment rather than to dash down a few flights of stairs to the communal shelter, only to be seen with unkempt hair by droopy eyed neighbours in their sleepwear.

Mamads are also preferable for people with slow mobility, such as the elderly and infirm, who can’t rush downstairs at the drop of a hat. As a social initiative, one of Israel’s banks, in coordination with a known chain of hotels, is offering one week hotel stays for those aged over 80 years of age, providing easy access to protected spaces. 
https://www.jpost.com/consumerism/article-888960

Communal shelters have different advantages. They provide a sense of unity and social cohesion. The sense of loneliness dissipates, and friendships are even made.

 

 

 

A young woman on social media was upbeat, explaining that sirens work in her favour; they force her to take a break from her computer a few times a day, go to the shelter and mingle with other humans.

Source: Social media

A creative thinker developed an app for dating under fire. A QR code is stuck up on shelter walls. Singles are then invited to scan the code and find other singles in the same shelter.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/society/artc-bomb-shelter-dating-israeli-app-turns-safe-rooms-into-matchmaking-hubs

Shelters of Old

 

Back home in Jerusalem, Iranian missile attacks are far fewer than in Tel Aviv. Nonetheless, we do get missiles. The shelter in my 60’s era building was designed to withstand bombs dropped by airplanes, not the projectiles we are cowering from today. Still, with no choice, that’s where you run to.

I was stopped by someone in the supermarket the other evening. "Where do I know you from?", he asked. I had no idea. Eventually we realised we had met in a shelter. But not in the last two weeks. "Oh yes, it was from the other war." But which war? The 12 day war with Iran in 2025? The Hezbollah and Houthi attacks of 2024? The Hamas campaign of 2023? It’s surreal when your life comprises a series of wars, each being a chapter in a larger book about the war for Israel’s survival.

Residents often abuse their shelter as a storeroom. Almost 2 months ago, as media reports grew of US forces gathering in the Middle East, I asked all residents in my building to remove their belongings from the shelter. Remaining items would be disposed of. Nothing was moved. After a month, I emptied the shelter and hid everyone’s stuff. All hell broke loose, but at least the shelter was empty. Days later we were attacked. Now, as we sit together in that small, antiquated, inadequate space, listening to the whooshing of iron dome interceptors, which sound like airplanes speeding down our street, and as the room shakes with the explosion of Iranian missiles being intercepted, some in the building thank me.

This situation is fairly common. The front garden of a nearby building looks like a garbage dump. I inquired if someone was moving. "Nah. People keep stuff in the shelter, and we had to clear it out. Half of it’s junk anyway. We'll have to sort it out when the war is over."

 

 

As I'm writing these lines a siren sounds, and I leave my computer to race for the shelter. A neighbour complains about the constant running up and down the stairs, and I remind her that it makes up for the lack of exercise we are all suffering.

 

Not all sirens and alerts are equal, either. Ballistic missiles – which fly beyond the earth’s atmosphere, take about 12 minutes to reach Israel. When a launch is detected, we get an early warning on our phones, giving 10 minutes to prepare for an air raid siren. Sometimes, on receiving the early warning, I imagine that I am that missile, speeding through space towards Israel, watching countries passing below me in a blur, as exhausted Israeli citizens decide whether to stay a few moments longer in bed, to go to the toilet, or to put on their shoes and wander down to a shelter before I get to them.

When there’s time, I prefer to make my way down the street to one of the large communal shelters underground. These are much safer than the dinky little concrete room in my building.

 

Dressing up for an Evening Out

 

During Purim, the authorities requested people not to congregate for Megilla readings. Nonetheless, readings took place in shelters everywhere. The atmosphere was very celebratory, especially as the story recalls the triumph of a genocidal Persian leader against the Jewish people. Add to that the fact that Saddam Hussein's reign of missile terror against Israel in 1991 was vanquished on the Purim festival, and there was much hope that, in this regard, history would repeat itself. 

https://www.jpost.com/judaism/jewish-holidays/article-793110

 

Even in the absence of sirens, we can hear explosions from some distance away. These come without warning. So, too, clutter bombs, which friends have described seeing in the sky, like beautiful fireworks, threatening neighbourhoods beyond our zone of danger.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV6pqdZiAfl/?igsh=cHk0aXRibjh4Mmdi

Source: Social media

 

 

Life Underground 

 

Now that Hezbollah has entered the fray and is attacking Israel from Lebanon, northern Israeli towns have the additional threat of missiles that arrive within 5 seconds of a siren - if their siren sounds at all. Many have moved underground.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-889614

Countries recently attacked by Iran have restricted their airspace. Ben Gurion Air Control has relocated underground and is employing extraordinary means to facilitate emergency flights, including 'rescue flights' to bring home Israelis stranded abroad. (Israel seems to be the only country for which a rescue flight refers to efforts to bring citizens into a war zone). I was scheduled to fly this week, and uncertainty about the flight and its safety caused me significant anxiety. Ultimately, the airline cancelled my flights.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/28/airspace-closure-middle-east-flights-us-strikes.html

Hospitals have also moved underground to parking lots that were constructed for just such contingencies.
https://www.rferl.org/a/underground-hospital-israel-war/33706639.html

 

Resilience

 

With all this going on, you can imagine why we are all discombobulated. 

 

Below is a text message sent by one of the large insurance companies, offering free mental health support in these trying times.

 

Despite the implications of prolific anti-semitic/anti-zionist propaganda, Israelis know that living like this is not normal.

Perhaps we should reframe our perspective and appreciate just how resilient we are in the face of this madness. 

Two weeks on, we are settling in for what may be a longer-than-expected haul. Life is not normal in our neck of the woods, as we would like it to be, but it is a fact that must be accepted to survive.

Despite all these trials and tribulations, we are in fact blessed. We live in a sophisticated, democratic and free society, with phenomenal defence systems and a surprisingly robust economy. We lead the world in so many fields and continue to fight for universal human values that we so strongly believe in. Unlike the civilians of Gaza, Lebanon and others who attack us, we have comfortable beds to sleep in, hot water to wash in, and plenty of food in our refrigerators. The news is full of attacks perpetrated against Jewish individuals and institutions around the world, often with little practical support from the local politicians. By contrast, here we have a society and state that are (on the whole) interested in protecting our welfare.

It’s a great time to live in Israel.

Sydney

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.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/it-was-horrible-pregnant-mother-arrested-during-covid-reveals-the-huge-strain-her-two-year-legal-battle-had-on-her-and-her-family/news-story/906882a5b7f901ff8cf24f12c5593837

Everyone was encouraged to snitch on neighbours who had traveled beyond their permitted curfew distances. It began to feel like a police state.

https://www.humanrights.vic.gov.au/legal-and-policy/covid-19-and-human-rights/centring-human-rights-in-the-covid-19-recovery/policing-and-emergency-powers-in-the-covid-19-recovery/

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.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14957433/Anthony-Albanese-Palestine-Yasser-Arafat-photo-PVO.html

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.

https://7news.com.au/news/neo-nazis-march-through-melbourne-cbd-in-terrifying-display-of-racism-recruitment-c-19629185

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/

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-01-31/jews-in-australia-up-security-conceal-identity-after-spate-of-antisemitic-attacks

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.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-01-31/jews-in-australia-up-security-conceal-identity-after-spate-of-antisemitic-attacks

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.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/anthony-albanese-will-not-attend-10yo-bondi-terror-attack-victim-matildas-funeral/news-story/2eb093fa796bd28e6118dbb2bc4c4182

Turning up at a large public vigil for the victims, he was heckled and booed.

https://nypost.com/2025/12/21/world-news/australian-prime-minister-anthony-albanese-heckled-at-bondi-vigil-week-after-hanukkah-terrorist-attack/

Petitions have been calling for his resignation.

https://www.theaustraliatoday.com.au/online-petition-urging-albanese-to-resign-tops-144000-verified-signatures-after-bondi-terror-attack/

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.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15384497/How-woke-pro-Palestine-marches-taken-Australia-vigil-Bondi-Beach-terror-victims-wasnt-free-disruption.html

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.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/nsw-police-state-government-to-probe-why-neonazis-could-use-parliament-as-stage-for-anti-jewish-rally/66839206-4fcf-4623-ad25-d4c36b20be45

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.