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Australia is grappling with escalating antisemitic incidents as Israel calls for stronger action against what it describes as an “epidemic of antisemitism” in the country. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government faces mounting pressure over its response to these attacks, which now include confirmed acts of terrorism against the Jewish community.
Recent events have heightened concerns, with antisemitic vandalism discovered at a Jewish school and two other Sydney properties. This incident follows the discovery of a potentially devastating terror plot involving explosives found in an abandoned caravan on Sydney’s outskirts, with evidence suggesting a local synagogue was the intended target. Law enforcement officials revealed the explosives could have created a destructive blast reaching approximately 130 feet.
Jew surrounded by antisemitic mob – Melbourne Australia.
Under Labor, the situation for Jews has deteriorated rapidly. pic.twitter.com/WpCZugKF5M
/div>— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) June 30, 2024
Questions persist about the government’s response timing, as Albanese deflected inquiries about when he received initial briefings on these incidents. This comes amid months of escalating antisemitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne, including property damage and arson attacks in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.
Defending his administration’s actions, Albanese addressed the media regarding the national security committee meeting convened after the terror plot’s discovery. “I don’t intend to go through operational matters, nor do we go through the detail of what’s discussed at cabinet meetings, or national cabinet meetings, or national security committee meetings,” Albanese said. “I get ongoing briefings everyday, I get a national security briefing and indeed just this morning we had a full meeting of the national security committee.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar expressed strong criticism of the situation, stating the caravan discovery was “intolerable” and declared an “epidemic of antisemitism is spreading in Australia almost unchecked.” “This joins a long list of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including setting fire to a childcare centre in Sydney, firebombing a synagogue in Melbourne, and many other antisemitic attacks,” Sa’ar said in a post on X. “We expect the Australian government to do more to stop this disease!”
BREAKING: Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton blasts PM Albanese, on his abysmal handling of antisemitism in Australia.
“This is not just an attack on the Jewish community, this is an attack on every Australian – and it's the Jews today, who next?”
pic.twitter.com/2y8BI0zylo— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 20, 2025
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton criticized the government’s handling of antisemitism since Hamas’s October 7 attack, citing pro-Palestinian demonstrations and university campus activities as instances requiring stronger leadership intervention. “It is deeply disturbing to see the circumstances now unfolding in New South Wales, but entirely predictable,” Dutton said. “When the prime minister hasn’t stood up and been strong and renounced all of this activity over the last 15 months or so, of course it’s going to escalate.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s Peter Wertheim voiced the Jewish community’s growing anxiety: “We are angry because we are seeing that the Australia that we have been fortunate enough to live in ourselves, a land of freedom, fair-mindedness, civilized norms of behavior and the rule of law, is starting to slip away from us.”
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