Bridge battle was lost, but we’ll win the war

What took place on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday was a gut punch for our community.

A militant anti-Israel group, the same one that held a pro-Palestinian rally as the October 7 horrors were still unfolding, relishing the massacre as a “humiliation” for Israel, succeeded in defeating the elected state government and the NSW police and convinced a single judge that its rally was motivated by humanitarian concerns and not anti-Zionist ideology.

A senior journalist who was on the ground covering the march, told me that from his interactions with the crowd, he concluded the marchers were not from a broad cross-section of society but were drawn overwhelmingly from the Arab-Australian communities and those on the hard left. In other words, this wasn’t so much a sample of wider societal feeling, this was the bulk of the anti-Israel movement itself that came out for what was framed as a historic event, and which had by virtue of the government’s opposition and the subsequent Supreme Court victory, received wall-to-wall publicity in the days before.

This is not to dismiss the impact of the Harbour Bridge rally or to wave away the very real emotions we have all felt in the past few days. With talk of an imminent recognition of a Palestinian state, there is a justifiable sense that our enemies are racking up the wins, which will embolden them to go further and further, as their hardline nature demands, posing a further threat to Jewish participation, way of life and physical security.

When one suffers a reverse, the natural compulsion is to try to claw it back, or undo the pain with a like-for-like victory. Many in the community, and supporters beyond it, are calling for a pro-Israel march on the same landmark.

This is untenable for numerous reasons. Firstly, the community rightly argued before the event that the Harbour Bridge is a national landmark that should not be shut down to accommodate one side of a foreign conflict. Acting out of caprice or malice now will only harm us.

Secondly, there is no evidence to suggest, and much to the contrary, that a rally of this sort wins over new supporters or leads to material policy outcomes.

And thirdly, unlike the pro-Palestine movement which draws on heavy support from the inner-cities and Sydney’s western suburbs, firm support for the Jewish community, shown by research to be at least equal in size, comes from all over the country, comprises different faiths and ethnicities and includes rural and regional Australians, making a mass rally in one place largely unattainable.

We must understand that we are locked in a constant struggle. No single flashpoint or battle is decisive. Within this struggle, we will see moments of pride and success, and we will face setbacks. Arguably this is part of the immutable nature of being a Jew. Nobody promised us a life of ease.

Our task is to fight on, day by day, with everything we have. And not to succumb to emotions of fear and despair which only deplete our energy and distract us. The community can be assured that its leaders and professionals will not relent for a single day. And the community itself has an obligation to do one thing above all others. That is, to stay united.

Unity is not a vibe or a slogan. Nor does it mean an absolute uniformity of opinion. It means we stick together because we choose to. Because we recognise that we have to.

Savagery inflicted on the Jewish people breaks our hearts but it does not break our national unity or the connection between the Jews of Israel and the Jews of the Diaspora.

In fact, it focuses us, forces us set aside difference we realise are of no real consequence, and binds us into a spectacular force.

This is how we have lived through the firebombings, the abuse, the boycotts, the harassment and never flinched.

But if we allow them, the events unfolding before us could cause monumental ruptures within Israel, within Diaspora communities and between Israel and the Jewish world. If this happens, we will be reduced to insignificance, and our ability to advocate and defend ourselves will evaporate.

In the 22 months since October 7, we as a community have summoned reserves of energy, fortitude and courage that perhaps, we didn’t know we had. We will need a good deal more of this in the months and years to come.
We lost the battle over the bridge, but we will not lose the war. Of that, you can be assured.

Alex Ryvchin is co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.