Was the anti-Semitic sentiment the primary catalyst for the massacre?
On 21 December, I posted a short Japanese article entitled ‘The term “anti-Semitism” is running rampant in Australia’ on my blog. To be honest, I don’t think I adequately explained why discussions about anti-Semitism in Australia had suddenly increased after the Bondi massacre. This is because anti-Semitism is a very complicated issue requiring a comprehensive analysis of various factors from many different angles. Furthermore, I am still unable to process my anger at the highly political exploitation of the Bondi tragedy by certain Israeli and Australian politicians. Due to my busy schedule, despite being on summer holiday, I have not yet had the opportunity to sit down calmly and write a rational and lucid analysis of this event in either Japanese or English.
On 27 December, I was interviewed on a podcast hosted by a friend of mine in Hiroshima regarding my article. Despite spending almost an hour on the program, unfortunately, I was unable to discuss my thoughts on the “sudden rise of anti-Semitism” in a clear, analytical manner. This is simply because I need more time to consider all the important factors in order to present a critical and persuasive argument on this issue. I would like to do so within the next few weeks.
For now, however, I would like to highlight some important considerations for discussing anti-Semitism using a few YouTube programs that I found very useful.
As I mentioned briefly in my Japanese article, as far as I am aware, there is hardly any anti-Semitic sentiment among Australian civil activists campaigning against the Netanyahu regime’s genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. We condemn the Israeli government and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) not because they are Jewish, but because of the genocidal atrocities they have committed against innocent civilians, including many children, in Gaza. In other words, we condemn the Netanyahu regime’s state terrorism. Therefore, it is anti-Zionism — opposition to Israeli nationalism, which seeks to maintain an exclusively Jewish state through the brutal colonization of Palestine — that motivates Australian civil peace movements, not anti-Semitism. I should also point out that many of the Australian activists campaigning against the Netanyahu regime are Jewish. By the way, needless to say, I do not support any form of violence committed by Hamas or any other organization or individual.
Consequently, I believe that the claim by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Australian Zionist leaders that the Bondi massacre occurred because the Australian government failed to prevent the rise and spread of anti-Semitism serves to conceal the genocidal attacks perpetrated by the Netanyahu regime in Gaza over the past two years. Yet few Australian politicians, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, major newspapers or television outlets, have pointed this out. Why have they failed to do so? It seems that they are all afraid of being labelled “racist” or “anti-Semitic” by the so-called “Jewish community,” which appears to be Zionist-led.
‘Get her out!’ Protester removed from Bondi vigil
As far as I know, this TV report is exceptional. It’s about Michelle Berkon, a Jewish woman who tried to condemn the politicizing of the memorial service for the victims of the Bondi massacre by Zionists the day after the massacre, when they draped themselves in Israeli flags at the site. She claimed that the Israeli flag represents genocide. Shockingly, her freedom of expression was suppressed when she was taken to a nearby police station by a group of police officers. Who authorized the police to take this action?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZxb8328hZU
In stark contrast to Australia, a widely viewed video shows renowned American actor and singer Mandy Patinkin, his wife Kathryn Grody (a playwright and actor), and their son Gideon Grody-Patinkin passionately denouncing Netanyahu’s atrocities in Gaza during an interview with the New York Times. They argue that Jews worldwide should condemn Netanyahu’s actions, as these are the very cause of anti-Semitism and are placing Jews in perilous situations.
Mandy Patinkin on Gaza: A Plea to Jews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFjOb9DGS1w
Kathryn Grody: ‘I am concerned, compassion for every person in Gaza, you know, is very Jewish. According to the policies of Netanyahu, I’m a self-hating Jew or I’m anti -Semitic. I feel this is the behavior the politics of what he’s doing is the worst thing for Jewish people.’
Mandy Patinkin: ‘And I ask Jews all over the world to consider what this man, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his right-wing government is doing to the Jewish people all over the world. They are endangering not only the state of Israel, which I care deeply about and want to exist, but they are endangering the Jewish population all over the world. He is the most dangerous thing, not just since October 7th. It is it has been a deeply troubled situation and endangering the Jews by endangering those in Gaza, and to watch what is happening for the Jewish people. To allow this to happen to children and civilians of all ages in Gaza for whatever reason is unconscionable and unthinkable. And I ask you Jews everywhere all over the world to spend some time alone and think, is this acceptable and sustainable? How could it be done to you and your ancestors? And you turn around and you do it to someone else.’
Incidentally, it is interesting how Mandy Patinkin found that his own relatives were among the victims of the Holocaust.
Mandy Patinkin Discovers His Ancestor's Hidden Holocaust Connection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8_arGR3LEQ
Some Holocaust survivors also denounce the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza as genocide. This is a prime example of the idea that “sharing pain generates hope,” a belief that I hold dear.
Holocaust Survivor Absolutely DEMOLISHES Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxLtxX7kPcU
Holocaust Survivor: ‘The way that the Israeli government is using the memory of the Holocaust in order to justify what they’re doing to the Gazans is a complete insult to the memory of the Holocaust, it’s an outrage……. What distinguishes the Jewish Holocaust is its industrial scale and industrial methods being applied. And what has been happening to Gaza is similar in that the scale of the bombing and the indiscriminate nature of the bombing, the complete lack of care about children and women being the majority of the victims amounts to Industrial scale of genocide. The painting of the Palestinian people as worthless almost “animal like” by the description of some of the leaders that dehumanization enables the population of Israel to tolerate what’s going on.’
I know that many Jewish people in Australia and elsewhere still support the Israeli government’s military actions in Gaza. I just hope that they will use their moral imagination to picture what is happening to the many children in Gaza and ask themselves the question Mandy Patinkin asked: ‘Is this acceptable and sustainable?’
‘Children ask why they survived’: Doctor’s Gaza testimony shocks UN Security Council
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5B1MO1PW3M
Dr. Feroze: ‘Last year, I published in the New York Times a survey of 65 American healthcare workers who had served in Gaza. 83% of them reported seeing children shot in the head or the chest. I personally treated 13 such cases in my two weeks at European Hospital. According to the War-child Alliance, nearly half of Gaza’s children are suicidal. They ask, “Why didn’t I die with my sister, my mother, my father?” Not out of extremism, but out of unbearable grief. I wonder if any member of this council has ever met a 5-year-old child who no longer wants to live, let alone imagined a society in which so many young children feel this way. And what astonishes me is not that some children in Gaza have lost the will to live, but that any still cling to hope. My Palestinian friends, mostly healthcare workers, no longer speak of resilience or even survival. Parents memorize their children’s clothing in case they must identify their remains later. They pray for one piece of bread to give them before they sleep so that their children might die less hungry if they are killed at night.’
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa was born in the US in 1982 to the Pakistani parents migrated to the US. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/10/18/hwiv-o18.html
Now, I would like to share with you an interview with Bob Carr, one of the few Australian politicians to strongly condemn the mass killings carried out by the Netanyahu government in Gaza. In this interview, Bob Carr details how Australian government foreign policy is consistently shaped to serve Israeli interests under the influence of the Jewish lobby.
Exposing the DISTURBING ISRAELI Lobby inside Australia | Ex-Foreign Minister Bob Carr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4psBTp6CVk
Bob Carr: ‘The Israel Jewish lobby in Australia is a foreign influence operation. It’s designed to put the interests of Israel above the interests of Australia and its foreign policy. No one else has an operation as well funded. No other country has an operation with offices in every Australian capital city. No one else organizes donations to attempt to elevate its influence in the way the Jewish lobby does in Australia. This is how they operate. We’re not going to be intimidated by the pressure of the Jewish lobbying in Australia. If a country is knowingly implementing a genocide, uprooting civilians, sending them on death marches, reducing the population to one of walking corpses, and allowing the IDF to shoot at children. Do we deal with the perpetrators of this as a normal nation? I don’t think we can.’
Australian politics is not the only area to have faced political pressure from the so-called “Jewish community.” There have been numerous instances of Zionist groups exerting pressure on freedom of expression in the arts and culture. The most recent example is the cancellation of the annual Writers Week event as part of the highly regarded Adelaide Festival, due to pressure from Zionist groups. These groups were displeased that Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian of Palestinian and Egyptian descent who has strongly criticized the Israeli government, had been invited to the event next month. They pressured Peter Malinauskas, the Premier of South Australia, to withdraw the invitation. Malinauskas succumbed to this pressure and cancelled the invitation. In protest against this decision, the director of the Writers’ Week and three other Festival board members resigned. Furthermore, more than 180 writers announced that they would also refuse to participate. Ultimately, this made it impossible to hold this year’s event, leading Malinauskas to cancel it entirely. Thus, freedom of expression in Australia is now being blatantly violated in many places due to political intervention by the extreme right-wing Zionist lobby.
Incidentally, Randa Abdel-Fattah is an impressive writer, legal practitioner and academic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randa_Abdel-Fattah
Adelaide writers’ week 2026 cancelled as board apologises to Randa Abdel-Fattah for ‘how decision was represented’
Louise Adler speaks out after Adelaide Writers’ Week cancelled
Louis Adler is also a remarkable Jewish person. She was CEO of Melbourne University Publishing from 2003 until 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5T3Dxw9Cas
I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide writers’ week Louis Adler
Adelaide Writers Week under attack from the Jewish Right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekmPL7nkozA
Although there are many other useful sources of information, I hope you find the above helpful for understanding the current situation regarding anti-Semitism in Australia.
Yuki Tanaka
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