Still hate
Despite not being an actual terrorist threat, a caravan full of explosives was still an act designed to intimidate our community.
We now know that there was no actual terrorist threat from the caravan full of explosives discovered in the Sydney outer suburb of Dural in late January.
But if anyone thinks this means that we Jewish Australians can sleep soundly in our beds at night, they could not be more wrong.
It was still an act designed to intimidate our community, as were all the various acts that police have now attributed to organised crime gangs.
Those who planned these graffiti and arson attacks were emboldened by an environment where, since the infamous riot at the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023, it is seemingly okay to go after the Jews.
These pages have more than documented the failings of our elected leaders, law enforcement officials and civil society in being too reactive and not taking the problem seriously enough until it was too late.
The failure of our justice system to prosecute hate preachers has seen the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) having to take legal action itself.
The normalisation of antisemitism has seen an academic feel comfortable to endorse discrimination against the vast majority of Australian Jews who believe in Israel as the Jewish homeland, and then a large political party (The Greens) sees no issue in platforming that academic.
And that just covers items reported in this week’s print edition. Let’s not forget about the mass doxxing, the campus encampments and lecture disruptions, the Bankstown nurses boasting about killing Israelis, businesses being boycotted and forced to move, angry mobs intimidating residents of Jewish areas and a myriad of other incidents we have dealt with in the last 17 months.
All of which makes it all the more important that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has endorsed ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin’s plan to tackle antisemitism, as presented at the recent Sky News summit.
Dutton clearly understands that as the community under fire, we are in fact the ones best equipped to both define and suggest solutions to this crisis.
Now it is up to the government and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to do the same. True leadership means listening to those who are qualified, taking proactive action and doing what is right, regardless of electoral considerations.
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