From Auschwitz to Bondi
When antisemitism is excused, minimised, or politically managed, it does not fade. It escalates.
In 2003, I visited the Auschwitz concentration camp. As a father of a three-year-old daughter at the time, among the thousands of family pictures, one of a similarly aged Renia Kohn brought me to tears and, 22 years later, still does. Much like Matilda, she was murdered simply for the crime of being Jewish.
Prime Minister Albanese’s “love is more powerful than hate” comment proved beyond all reasonable doubt that he is unfit to lead this nation. If his government’s failures everywhere else weren’t bad enough, his insincere platitudes with respect to the Bondi massacre and subsequent responses only confirmed his trademark as an appeaser. His lack of authenticity during this crisis has been exposed for all to see.
The jeers directed towards him at Bondi outwardly expressed the mood of a nation tired of his government’s political cowardice. The Jewish community only invited Albanese to the eighth day of Hanukkah out of respect for the office. The fact he was given no speaking role, despite his offering, speaks volumes, sending a not-so-subtle message by shining light on the darkness he has presided over.
Bondi has tragically exposed what happens when political expediency is put ahead of principle. The Albanese government has spent its time in office ideologically prioritising virtue ahead of values.
The fact Albanese refuses to call a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the worst radical Islamic terrorist attack on Australian soil reveals two things: contempt for Australians, especially the Jewish community, and a shameless attempt to bury scrutiny surrounding the systematic failures by his government that would surely be exposed by it.
While Albanese can reflect that he “could have done more” to protect the Jewish community, the following data reveals just how much antisemitism he chose to turn a blind eye to on his watch. This has been a pogrom.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Australia’s peak Jewish representative body, documented more than 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the two years following October 7, 2023, a rate five times higher than the decade prior to the massacre in Israel.
2023
October 8 – Sydney Opera House: pro-Palestinian protesters chant “Where are the Jews?”, “F**k the Jews”, and “Gas the Jews”.
October 8 – In Western Sydney, Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun addressed a large protest rally glorifying the October 7 massacre, shouting to the crowd: “I’m elated. It’s a day of courage, it’s a day of resistance, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory.” Prime Minister Albanese attended the National Iftar Dinner hosted by the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) in early 2023, where Dadoun gave the vote of thanks and closing prayer.
October 8 – Two individuals walked past a New South Wales synagogue, shouted “Allahu Akbar”, and threatened to “blow up the synagogue”.
October 9 – A 44-year-old Jewish man in Sydney called a “Jew dog” and assaulted in a public park, sustaining concussion and spinal fracture.
October 11 – Melbourne synagogue receives a bomb threat.
November 23 – A large mob of anti-Israel protesters descended on a Melbourne synagogue, rioting and throwing rocks, forcing evacuation by worshippers.
December – Multiple bomb threats made to synagogues across Australia.
2024
January – Foreign Minister Penny Wong visits Israel and other Middle East states but does not visit sites where the October 7 massacres took place. Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, stated her actions were “a serious error of judgment” and that a visit to the sites was “essential to understanding the depth of evil that Israel faces”. Albanese defended Wong, saying her visit was “not about an opportunity for a photo op”. In December 2025, Wong said, “I regret how people perceived the situation”.
March 15 – Australian government lifts suspension on $6 million in funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a group that aided and abetted Hamas terrorists.
May – Jews attending the “Never Again Is Now” anti-antisemitism rally in Melbourne physically assaulted by anti-Israel mobs.
May 25 – Australia’s largest Jewish school in Melbourne graffitied with hate speech.
July 4 – Free Palestine protesters breach Australian Parliament House security in Canberra and hold banners from the rooftop.
October 13 – Antisemitic graffiti reading “Be careful” sprayed on a Jewish bakery in Sydney.
October 17 and 20 – Bondi-based Curly Lewis Brewing Company torched by mistake. The intended target was the Jewish-owned kosher deli Lewis’ Continental Kitchen next door, which was attacked three days later.
October 24 – Albanese alights from his government jet wearing a Joy Division T-shirt, the name given to the sexual slavery wings in Nazi concentration camps, in full knowledge of its meaning.
November 19 and 21 – Cars set on fire and buildings vandalised with “F**k Israel” in a Jewish neighbourhood in Sydney.
November – Melbourne synagogue defaced with “Free Gaza” and “Jews kill babies”.
December 5 – The Great Synagogue in Sydney besieged by unauthorised anti-Israel protesters, forcing Jews to shelter inside.
December 6 – Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne set ablaze in an arson attack.
December 9 – Australian Federal Police launch a dedicated antisemitism taskforce under Special Operation Avalite.
December 11 – Suburb of Woollahra in Sydney attacked again. Cars set on fire and buildings vandalised with misspelled slogans including “Kill Israiel”.
2025
January 4 and 7 – Man threatens worshippers exiting Chabad North Shore and Kehillat Masada synagogues in St Ives.
January 10 – Allawah Synagogue in southern Sydney vandalised with swastikas and “Hitler on top” graffiti.
January 11 – Newtown Synagogue vandalised with swastikas; arson attempt made after accelerant poured but fire failed to fully ignite.
January 15 – Multiple cars firebombed. “F**k the Jews” spray-painted on a car. Jewish home splashed with paint in Dover Heights, Sydney.
January 21 – Jewish childcare centre in Maroubra, Sydney, set on fire and vandalised.
February 12 – Two Sydney nurses suspended after declaring on social media that they would murder Jewish patients inside a New South Wales public hospital.
July 4 – Twenty people attending a Shabbat dinner at East Melbourne Synagogue targeted in an arson attack.
July 5 – Synagogue door set alight; Israeli restaurant stormed by protesters in Sydney.
August – Pig’s leg thrown into kosher establishment in Waverley, Sydney.
August 3 – Palestinian march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge featuring Taliban, Islamic State, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and Hamas flags, images of Ayatollah Khamenei, chants of “Death, death to the IDF”, and burning of Australian flags.
August 10 – Prime Minister Albanese announces Australia will recognise the State of Palestine at the 80th United Nations General Assembly.
August 26 – The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) determines Iran was behind the Adass Israel Synagogue and Lewis’ Continental Kitchen arson attacks.
September 7 – Ehtesham Ahmad rides an Arabian horse along Bondi Beach while waving a Palestinian flag.
September 21 – Formal recognition of Palestinian statehood by Australia.
December 1 – A 71-year-old woman arrested for antisemitic graffiti in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
December 14 – Mass shooting at the Bondi Beach Hanukkah festival claims the lives of 15 innocent civilians, including Matilda, a 10-year-old child, and injures more than 40 others.
What more evidence did Albanese require to take firmer action?
One day before the Bondi massacre, I had breakfast with a close Jewish friend. We had been flatmates during our time at university. He told me just how unsafe his community had been feeling and that the authorities were doing so little to stem growing antisemitism.
He had been celebrating Hanukkah at another location with other members of his local synagogue, and it was ordered to be closed immediately after the attack in Bondi commenced.
Unfortunately, for a man who has been behind so much division, Australians must not accept his dilemma of “how hard it is to legislate” against such evil by wrapping it in tighter gun controls, further limits on free speech, and dragging in extreme-right actors as a deflection. Had the vile attack been carried out with a vehicle ploughing into victims, would the government be seeking to toughen car licensing laws? We must not allow Albanese to obfuscate.
As of December 2025, Australia lists 31 terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code, of which 27 are Islamic, three far-right, and one ideological. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director-General Mike Burgess has consistently stated in official briefings that “religiously motivated violent extremists remain the majority of ASIO’s counter-terrorism caseload… to be clear, I am talking about individuals who follow a perverse interpretation of Islam, not people of Islamic faith”.
Bondi hero Ahmed al-Ahmed embodied courage under fire and deserves our highest praise. Boris and Sofia Gurman showed equal strength in their attempt to thwart the massacre despite their tragic fate. Countless first responders and others should hold their heads high for their selfless acts, despite being uniformly let down by a government seeking not to offend certain radical groups due to the insidious poison of political correctness.
This is not a time for politics but a clarion call for real leadership to enshrine shared values that ensure all Australians never again have to experience such an atrocity. If our government refuses to accept accountability, Australians must vote with their feet and rid themselves of those who lack the courage to do the right thing.
It is time to reflect on the pictures of beauty personified in Matilda and Renia Kohn and take remedial action against the scourge of ideological and religious hatred that ended their lives before it is too late.
 | A guest post by
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Excellent chronology and analysis. Like you, I found the PM’s “love is stronger than hate” line absolutely moronic.
Your chronology misses one important landmark in the rise of antisemitism fanned by Labor actions: Albanese’s permanent closure on 12 September 2025 of his electoral office, following persistent picketing and harrassment by pro-Hamas protestors. (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/sep/15/anthony-albanese-closes-grayndler-electorate-office-marrickville-palestine-protesters )Here was the PM, who could easily have had police move on the demonstrators and arrest them if they refused, instead caving for fear of a leftist-Muslim backlash.
Instead, he recognised ‘Palestine’ just a week or two later, rewarding the protestors for their belligerent contempt for voters’ right to consult their local member and PM.
I have been unable to find any reference to a Cabinet meeting or a Security Committee of Cabinet meeting to decide to recognise ‘Palestine’. I suspect it was a decision taken by Albanese, Wong, and Marles.
As of today, no new electoral office has been opened for the PM’s electors, and the protestors have promised to follow any new office to disrupt it too.
No wonder Albanese is scared of a Royal Commission: his personal decisions embody the craven Labor pursuit of the Muslim and leftist vote.
A superb and moving piece. The photo of Renia Kohn is heartbreaking knowing this innocent child never grew older, brutally murdered for no reason other than being Jewish. Then follows the list of shameful antisemitic acts Australia has hosted.
Albanese's pro-Palestinian support has been evident for decades, dating back to his uni-student days: a stance he seems loath to outgrow. He has not matured into a statesman let alone a leader, or even a half-decent politician. Albo is a man consumed by biases and hatreds permanently on display one way or another (Tories, as he has stated openly and quite possibly, in my view, Jewish people and Israel, particularly). This is a man who has spent his entire life within cloistered walls where his prejudices were nourished: first at university, where he first found comfort in Labor's ideology (pathology) of resentment and then, almost immediately, nurtured and encouraged by the political embrace of Labor staffer, followed by induction to its higher ranks as a Labor MP. To me, he epitomises the quintessential profile of someone who is highly successful at failing upwards in a highly sheltered environment where the real world is shut out. Cunningly clever no doubt, and well-versed in survival at any cost, his long-held predelictions and biases make him unfit for leadership because, unlike truly great leaders, Albanese is completely unable to shut away the personal and put the greater good first: in this case, all Australians and the nation. His gracelessness, his insensitivity, and his callous hubris have been on display since October 7, '23: his reputation and legacy will forever be blood-stained by his treatment of Australian Jewish citizens and of Israel internationally by his rewarding of Hamas and its Iranian-backed agenda at the UN. He has demonstrated at home and around the world for all to see his utter contempt for all Australians and the high office to which he was so unfortunately granted.
Australia is now in a state of civil war: it began with the Voice Referendum. We are a nation divided and rent as never before in our history across a myriad of issues and topics, our weapons being mainstream and social media, policies at every level of government, corporate zaniness driven by fear, bizarre rulings at law and inane legislation. This is a direct result (one has to ask whether it was intentional?) of one Anthony Albanese, a small man, a man of little character but enduring great hatreds.
Civil wars do not suddenly appear - they are the product of festering issues unaddressed that spread like a virus, infecting many and disturbing all. The cost of a civil war on any nation is enormous, counted in blood and treasure. Australia is currently in the early stages of its first civil war, and it has a way to go; it will get worse before it gets better. What is desperately needed now is the emergence of a truly great leader, but, looking at the political class we are burdened with currently, the options are not promising by any standard. Between the ranks of the Coalition are maybe 10 souls worth salvaging. But the Coalition labels (National Party and Liberal Party) are damaged brands, and the public trusts neither. This is evidenced by the march of many Liberal Party faithful to One Nation, while serious money is funding voices such as Advance. Do we need our version of Reform and a Farage? We certainly need something and someone fast before our civil war takes us further toward the abyss.