Two lines connect the massacre in Bondi Beach, the attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the murder of a couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington in the summer, and many other attacks on Jews that have become commonplace in the West.
The first common denominator is the transformation of Jews everywhere, simply because of who they are, into targets whose killing is seen as legitimate. Calls for annihilation that have echoed through Western capitals for more than two years have created the atmosphere. Within it, whether through spontaneous initiative or external direction, it is easy to grow active terrorist cells.
Fifteen people were killed and 38 wounded in the massacre at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach. Photo: AFP
The second connecting line between the wave of attacks on Jewish communities around the world is more elusive, and less visible. It is difficult to convince someone who is not Jewish that he will be next in line. On the surface, the global surge in antisemitism is explained away as being because of the war in Gaza or because antisemitism is an ancient disease. Try convincing an American, a Briton or an Australian on the street that whoever murdered Jews today will murder him tomorrow.
And yet, no less than Israel and the Jews, the entire West is threatened by this wave of murderous violence, even if much of it does not yet realize it. Particularly blind has been, and remains, the government of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who even after the second deadliest terrorist attack in Australia’s history has still failed to internalize where the problem lies. His feeble initial response to the attack illustrates just how little he understands the severity of the threat that has been built under his nose during his time in office.
Albanese has displayed an especially conciliatory line toward the violence raging in his country since the October 7 massacre. Instead of banning violent slogans such as “global intifada” and “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” he recognized a Palestinian state. Instead of filtering out the entry of inciting terrorists, he barred senior and junior Israelis from entering Australia. In his great foolishness, Albanese failed to understand that anyone who legitimizes a massacre that took place thousands of kilometers from his country will ultimately end up with a slaughterhouse on the most famous beach of his own. That is the nature of terror. It has no borders.
This is precisely the problem of the progressive West. Paradoxically, in Arab countries, in China and in Russia, an iron fist crushes the incubator of radical Islam. There, in countries that are not democracies, there is an understanding that this current cultivates both extremist slogans and the violence itself. By contrast, in countries that call themselves liberal, the incitement and the violence that follows it run wild, with very few restraints.
Mourners gather for victims of the Sydney attack. Photo: Reuters
An absurd spectacle
In an absurd spectacle that is hard to comprehend, radical Islamists in America openly express their aspiration to conquer the White House. They would never dare make a similar call in Morocco, Dubai, Beijing or Moscow. Or take Qatar’s Al Jazeera, banned from broadcasting in much of the Arab world, yet free to incite across the West. Can there be any justification for such folly?
For now, only Jews, both in their own country and abroad, are paying with their lives for this moral feebleness. But as always in history, we are only the first. Just like the Nazis or the communists, radical Islam, both Shiite and Sunni, threatens to overtake democracies, in this case by doing so from within.
When one thinks about it, this is exactly what our Hasmonean forefathers fought against. The dominant culture of their time sought to erase their identity and values as handed down through Jewish tradition. In the end, Jewish tradition and morality endured and prevailed. So it will be this time as well, heavy as the price may be.
