The Common Sense’s Diary

The brutal scenes in Bondi Beach as Islamic terrorists ran amok trying to slaughter Jewish families occurred because the Australian government tolerated Islamic radicalism. Jewish sources say that over 1 500 incidents of threats have been reported over the past year alone but that the authorities did little. In recent years, Australia’s government has become tolerant of antisemitism and Islamic radicalisation. Shortly after the October 7 massacres, Islamists marched in Australia chanting, “F@$% the Jews”, “Where are the Jews?” and, most controversially, “Gas the Jews.” The Australian government later went to great lengths to try to prove that the latter statement had not been made, despite sworn statements from observers that they had heard it.

Australia rewarded Jew-killing earlier this year when it agreed to recognise a Palestinian state amid the continuing fighting in Gaza. The signal sent to Islamists was that, if you kill enough Jews, we will accede to what you want. The Israelis, realising how mad this was, also issued warnings to Australians, which were again ignored.

The lax attitude to Jew-killing continued despite the Australian security services belatedly determining in August that Iran was sponsoring terror proxies planning to kill Australia’s Jews. When that leaked out, the government, now under pressure, expelled the Iranian ambassador while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would be legislated as a terrorist organisation. A wandering albatross has told this newspaper that the Australian security services have detected far more threats against the country’s Jews than its government has admitted to, and that one of the Bondi shooters was on the radar of the security services. However, the political mood in the government was to tread very carefully so as not to offend Islamic sensitivities.

That mood was on full display after the Bondi shooting. Albanese first issued a statement that made no mention of Jews or Jewish holidays at all. Rather, the prime minister said that his thoughts were “with every person affected”. Really? What the bulk of “those affected” have in common, he did not say. Maybe they were all attending a surfing competition on the beach. Later in the day, under severe pressure, he altered that statement to say that Jews had been targeted. But he did not say by whom. Maybe they had been targeted by surfers. That he could not bring himself to say Islamist terrorists tells you all you need to know about how the Australian government feels about Jews.

Remember, Australia is a country that saw fit to hold tennis star Novak Djokovic under armed guard, and to cancel his visa before expelling him from the country, for not having a Covid vaccination long after the pandemic had passed. It is not, therefore, as if there is no political will in the government to withstand public criticism in pursuit of doing everything possible to safeguard Australia’s borders and people. Rather, it is that the will does not apply when it comes to stopping the killing of Jews.

There is a warning for the West in this. When the Islamists are done with the Jews they will come for the Christians. We know that because they say so. The chant from Tehran to London to New York to Sydney is, “First Saturday, and then Sunday.” If Western governments do not get serious about rooting militant Islamic incitement and radicalisation out of their countries, the day will come when Christian Americans, Europeans, and Australians are butchered in Times Square, on the steps of St Paul’s, and on Bondi Beach on Christmas morning.