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Since Bondi our political class and media have descended into mawkish competition to prove their condemnation of antisemitism and their determination to stamp it out. That’s a commendable and necessary goal. Let’s agree on that.

Beyond such consensus confusion reigns.

Antisemitism is on the rise, why was Bondi (quote) “allowed to happen”?, what are the ‘real’ issues, who is responsible for what?, who is to blame?, who are the good guys and who the bad guys?, who knows the facts and who is ignorant of them?, who is ‘lying’ and who is telling the ‘truth’?

Many different and contradictory answers to such a multitude of questions have been proffered. They triggered heated debate as what our governments should immediately be doing to, somehow, use the law to stop and ‘ban’ violence, hate speech and racial vilification or – even more unrealistically – a demand for governments promote mutual racial respect if not (‘love speech’) so that a Bondi ‘can ‘never happen again’; clearly a goal of Mission Impossible ambition.

The media and all political parties consciously stirred the partisan pot, hoping to win viewers, readers and voters by throwing around divisive, judgemental and emotionally loaded words and value judgements with gay abandon while pretending to promote cohesiveness via public displays of empathy and sanctimonious speech making.

Explosive and ill-defined words such as ‘hate’, ‘terrorist’, ‘Zionist’, ‘innocent’, ‘guilty’, ‘barbaric’, ‘beloved’, ‘cowardly’, ‘heroic’, ‘stolen lives’, ‘eradicate’, ‘devastated’, ‘elated’, ‘shocked’, ‘offensive/offended’, ‘blameless’, ‘justifiable’, ’unfair’, ‘Holocaust’ etc. etc dominated a dialogue that quickly followed the offering of condolences. A painful lexicon of words were used for rhetorical impact not insight, understanding or justice.

Phrases and chants were also deployed to justify various interpretation of reality and condemn others as untrue propaganda.

We’ve all heard of ‘violent pro-Palestinian campus protests’, ‘Israel, a democracy fighting a defensive war’, ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine Will Be Free’ (which sounds pretty much the same as to me as ‘Between the sea and Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty’: Likud 1977’, a statement repeating the same message as Irgun’s insignia when it was categorised as a terrorist organisation under The Mandate), ‘gas the Jews’, ‘fuck the Jews’, ‘death to the IDF’, ‘the IDF the most moral military in the world’, ‘unsafe for Jews to attend Uni lectures’, ‘UNWRA infiltrated by HAMAS’, ‘Israel blocks aid deliveries to Gaza’, ‘Israeli Government again (2025) rejects two state solution’, ‘ICC issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes’ etc. etc.

All the above rhetorical tools have been intentionally used as weapons to harm opponents while promoting the worthiness of one’s own side’s stance on any event or flare up that attracts public attention. These are the tactics of warfare. And, as the old proverb reminds us, truth is the first casualty of war. Any semblance of fairness towards an enemy is the second casualty.

Australians virtuously talk about the need for safety, equity and justice for all, but at the same time fiercely insist their own group’s rights and values are immutable. The Israeli-Gaza war has reinforced this tendency by injecting a “them” vs “us” inflexibility into ethnic debate. Without flexibility there can be no compromise. And without compromise democracy can’t function.

HOW NOT TO DIFFUSE AN EXPLOSIVE SITUATION

A key symptom of a productive meeting between ‘opposites’ is when both sides walk away a little disappointed they didn’t get all they wanted or hoped for, but nonetheless feeling content to proceed with the compromise reached; a compromise that both sides can support because it is to both sides’ advantage if not a perfect solution for either.

Overseas experience shows, the model of publicly funding more and more ethnic groups to advise government on reducing racial tensions intensifies differences between ethnic groups rather than bridge them. We already have many First Nation advisory bodies at both Federal and State levels. We have taxpayer funded Special Envoys, one to combat Antisemitism and another to fight Islamophobia. Other ethnic groups, naturally enough, will and do press their right to be similarly represented. Such a trend can easily produce a plethora of competing silos that press (ie. lobby)for their group’s interests without feeling the need (let alone being required) to sit down with others from different silos to seek mutually satisfactory ways to move forward together.

As the UK found out such a silo-system of ethnic advocacy actually institutionalises differences by increasing rigidity and extremism both within and between silos, thereby making it harder for everyone to reach pragmatic compromises. It’s an approach that failed the UK.

Make no mistake, Australia is currently on a similar path to further divisiveness. We are not on a path to peace and harmony. Our Government’s initiatives are centrifugal in terms of their real-world impact although piously centripetal in intent.

A minor, (and very) hypothetical might help example the paradox.

Currently we fly three flags to acknowledge our heritage and ability to live alongside each other. Flying a fourth Israeli star of David style flag to show support of Jewish Australians, then a Palestinian one (followed by the flags/symbols of other diaspora citizens) in an attempt to demonstrate our inclusiveness would have the reverse effect to that intended. Such feeble tokenism would only serve to highlight the differences that separate us rather than promote the goal to build a nation of distinctively Australians values that all Australians can support and prioritise ahead of any associations and loyalties they may have with their past homelands.

That’s enough social theory, let’s get back to how we’ve experienced racial problems in our daily lives.

THE DANGERS OF EXTREME POLARISATION

Some ‘hate’ Jews simply because they are Jews, no matter what they do (or don’t do), where they live (or used to live) or what their individual beliefs might be. People of this mindset stamp all Jews ‘bad’. When such hatred leads to calls for violence against any and all Jews that is true antisemitism, antisemitism at its worst.

Such a stance is tantamount to believing (and advocating) that the only good Jew is a dead Jew (just as US General Sheridan reputedly said of Indians during the Frontier Wars in America in the 1860s). Thankfully ,the number of Australians who ‘hate’ Jews enough to want to murder them is very, very low .

Some Australians (at the other extreme of the spectrum) ‘hate ‘Muslims irrespective of what they do (or don’t do), where they live (or used to live) or what their individual beliefs might be. They ‘hate’ Muslims simply because they are Muslim. This is Islamophobia at its worst.

The irony here is that many Australians (who think they’re well informed about matters Jewish) don’t know (or want to know) what Muslim Australians think or believe. They’re happy to use shallow racial stereotypes and/or their favourite news sources as the foundations for their ‘opinions’.

Ask someone in the street ‘do the words Muslim, Islam and Arab mean the same thing?’

My guess is most would be flummoxed by the question. I’d further guess that some (older Australians of Anglo stock and older European immigrants) would be most comfortable regurgitating comments about ‘Arabs’ they first heard when children; the majority of those comments would be negative. Some might suggest the word Islam is more frequently associated with ‘terrorism’ (as in ‘banned’ Islamist Terrorist Organisation), suggesting that, somehow, Islamists are more dangerous than Muslims. Some might hazard other guesses.

Few would say anything like the majority in most Arab states (of which there are 22 from such diverse areas as Northern Africa, The Gulf, The Arabian Peninsula, The Horn of Africa and Levant) are Muslims, the followers of Islam (a monotheistic Abrahamic religion).

Most Australians know even less about the histories, cultures, religion(s) and wars on and between these ancient Arab states than they know about the short history of Israel and its conflicts with its Arab neighbours.

Such ignorance is bliss for the propagandist. Public ignorance maximises the potential for the skilful manipulator to concoct stories using pride and prejudice, fear and hope to build emotionally convincing stories, stories capable of swaying public opinion one way or another.

People who stamp all Muslims as ‘dangerous’ and potential ‘terrorists’ not only do so because they ‘hate’ Jews but because they’ve also been told Muslims ‘hate’ (there’s that super-negative word again ) Australian ways and want to supplant them with their own alien values and beliefs.

Thankfully, the number of Australians who are so fearful or hateful of Muslims they want to restrict their rights, imprison or deport them is also small, but growing.

Most of us, that is most Australians (who are more than marginally interested in the war beyond casually hearing about it in the daily news), live somewhere between, but well away from, either of the above extremes; somewhere toward the centre of the spectrum where we see merit and fault, truth and distortion, reasonableness and unfairness, viciousness and compassion on both sides.

Before passing judgement on what we see and hear we owe it to ourselves, (as well as those involved in the conflict), to acquaint ourselves with the facts. That’s the least we can do if we want to build a society where all are treated the same, a society of equal rights and equal obligations, a society that doesn’t mete out different treatment to citizens depending on our or their colour, race, religion, propaganda skills or any other ‘differentiation’ that someone says is relevant.

What then are the facts?

A SHORT BUT NECESSARY HISTORY OF THIS CONFLICT

On Monday 19th of January 2026 both the PM and Opposition leader stood in a recalled Parliament to deliver hagiographic eulogies for those murdered at Bondi. Emotions ran high. Horror was expressed, grief displayed and big promises made. Everyone’s blood was up. That’s not a good time to embark on rational discussion as to what can best be done to prevent such race-based violence happening in the future. It takes time, cool heads and reflection to properly address such sensitive and complex matters. Factoring facts into deliberations not only cools things down it can also give birth to new perspectives on what lies behind all the spin.

Here are a few facts that might assist in that process.

FACT. The opinions of many Australians on the Israel-Palestine troubles were formed after watching what happened on Oct 7 2023 in Southern Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah…… followed by what they then saw happen the evening after at the Sydney Opera House.

For many Australians of non-Middle Eastern background that’s when this war first attracted their attention. And that’s when they made up their mind as to who was in the right and who in the wrong. Emotionalism trigged by visual scenes of wanton murder and reports of rape etc. carried the day. Few had doubts as to who were the innocent victims and who were the barbarians.

Having committed themselves to an emotionally triggered stance few were likely to, or did change their mind. Nor were they open to new information that might put this malignant struggle into a more balanced perspective.

The reality, of course, is that Oct 7 was but another chapter in a long and complex struggle whose modern history stretches back over a century. The modern era of this struggle started around the same time ANZACs were landing at Gallipoli in 1915.

A few chronological FACTS show just how many twists and turns have got things to where they’ve ended up in early 2026.

FACT: In 1917 Britain (The Balfour Declaration) declared its support for the establishment of a Jewish state, not so much because the British wanted ‘justice’ for the Jews but because they sought Jewish support in the war against Turkey and its Ottoman Empire. This ‘Declaration’ was in Britian’s own interest. Nonetheless the Declaration is often used as supporting ‘evidence’ to help legitimise the formation of a Jewish homeland somewhere.

FACT: After WW1 the League of Nations gave Britain mandatory status over Palestine (roughly the area that now includes Israel, Gaza and some of the West Bank). British colonial rule stretched from 1918 to 1947.

Britain facilitated significant Jewish immigration over the period, increasing the Jewish population from around 56,000 to over 600,000. The arrival of such numbers in an Arab population of approximately a million caused ever increasing tensions which culminated in Arab revolts in 1920 and 1936/39. In putting down these uprisings it’s estimated about 10% of native, adult Arab males were killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled.

In an attempt to calm things down the British severely cut back Jewish immigration numbers in
the 1940s. This, in part, triggered the Jewish Insurgency where Jews took up arms against Britain. This is a period when Irgun and Lehi (the notorious Stern Gang) were classified as “terrorist organisations”, not the freedom fighters they are known as today. (Note. Have you noticed yesterday’s terrorist organisations become tomorrow’s freedom fighters if their side wins. If their side loses they forever remain terrorists). By 1947 a Britain depleted by WW2 had had enough and handed Palestine back to the newly formed UN, leaving questions of sovereignty unresolved and the area in chaos.

FACT: In 1947 the UN proposed the partition of Palestine into two states. At the time the population of the previously mandated area was roughly two-thirds Arab, one third Jewish. The UN proposal gave Israel/Jews (the minority) a bigger land area (of superior fertility) in one mass. The Arabs (the majority) got a smaller area of less productive land, split into two areas, one on each side of the proposed new Israeli state. In other words Israel would have won first prize and the Arabs third prize in a two-contender contest. Arabs rejected this proposal.

The Jewish community then took unilateral action in 1948 and declared Israel a sovereign state. That decision triggered war with multiple Arab nations. Israel won the war. Palestinians call that war Hakba (The Catastrophe). Around 700,000 Arabs were forced out of Israel without right of return or compensation for what they left behind, that is their homes, farms, businesses and communities.

This dispossession gave birth to many Arab fight-back organisations that Israel (and most Western Countries) branded as terrorist organisations, which over time morphed into organisations we are familiar with today (Hamas, Hezbollah et al).

FACT: Over the next four decades Israel was involved in many wars. It won them all. Over time Israel relentlessly expanded its occupation and control of Palestinian areas in spite of local resistance and prohibitions/sanctions from the UN and other international organisations such as the ICC.

Illegal Jewish Settler numbers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, for example, increased from near zero to around 700,000 today. Those settlers did not pay compensation to those who previously occupied the land, rather new settlers received subsidies from the Israeli government to move into these territories.

By 2023 Gaza (although not occupied by the IDF) was electively controlled by Israel. Banking, water, exports/imports and people movements in and out of Gaza were all controlled by Israel.

Before the war of 2023 per capita income in Gaza and the West Bank was around $US 3,000, in Israel it was around $US 55,000.

The progressive dispossession and marginalisation of Palestinian Arabs over three generations explains why October 7th 2023 happened in Israel …and why December 14th 2025 happened at Bondi.

MEANWHILE BACK IN AUSTRALIA

Before Oct 2023 antisemitism had slowly been on the rise. In Australia the Palestinian issue had received but occasional and short-lived attention. It was not a topic of sustained high visibility in main street Australia.

That situation reversed within 72 hours of Oct.7. All of a sudden the conflict became ‘the’ topic that dominated all others. All the elements of high tragedy drama (emotionalism, horror footage, racialism, disgust, fear and blame calling) hit us in the face and heart like a bolt out of the blue.

The Jewish community demanded protection, Muslim communities felt unfairly maligned. Both fought to claim victim status. Both fought to prove the truth of their narrative and the falsehoods in their opponents. Both used religion and history as part justification for their stances.

The intensity of the battle for public support built as reports of antisemitic activities in Sydney and Melbourne increased and as news footage from Gaza showed the scale of destruction of life and the means to sustain it.

What happened at Bondi fanned the flames even further. A slaughter of innocents on Australian soil shocked the Nation. Our political class went into hysteria-mode trying express their empathy and determination to protect Jewish Australians, the progeny of Holocaust survivors.

So intense was this desire that we came close (in January 2026) to enacting laws that would have made free speech on the subject virtually verboten. The last-minute dropping of vilification clauses saved us from that fate.

But core problems remained-and still do.

Personally, I neither hate nor love all Jews. I judge them by what they say and do.
I neither love nor hate all Muslims. I judge them by what they say and do.

I don’t care if they love or hate me because I’m of Anglo-Irish stock. I’m happy for them to judge me by what I say and do.

If all you do is fight for your side, no matter what, it becomes impossible for people to settle their differences peaceably.

Personally I think both sides in the struggle need to lift their game by demonstrating respect for the other side.

I, for one, can’t understand why the many Jewish organisations of Australia overwhelmingly and publicly support Israel and its policies no matter what Israel does.

Why do they deny Palestinians the same rights they insist on for themselves. (ie the freedom believe what they want and live their lives, their way in safety)? This strikes me as being one-eyed if not hypocritical.

An Israel ‘right or wrong’ stance only helps imprint the associative equation that AUSTRALIAN JEWS SUPPORT ANYTHING ISRAEL DOES – because – ISRAEL IS THE JEWISH HOMELAND – A STATE THAT ONLY WANTS JEWS AS CITIZENS – and that (if true) makes it almost traitorous for any Jew anywhere to CRITICISE ISRAEL- therefore -ALL JEWS (including AUSTRALIAN JEWS) ARE BUT EXTENSIONS OF ISRAEL – and therefore – a LEGITIMATE TARGET TO PRESSURE TO STOP ISRAEL FROM CONTINUING ITS GENOCIDAL ACTIVITY IN GAZA.

The perception that being a Jew means ‘ISRAEL first, always’ needs to be broken if Australian Jews want to cool things down and win deeper support within the broader Australian community.

In spite of the obvious skills and expertise of Australian Jewry’s PR and propaganda machinery the way they present Australian Jews only serves to reinforce the guilt by association equation outlined above.

Australian Jews also make it patently clear they are appalled by (and vocal in their condemnation of) any defacing of the Israeli flag, the sight of Palestinian flags being carried in street demonstrations, pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel placards displayed on University campus lawns, the chanting of anti-Israel/Jewish slogans, criticisms of Israel being discussed in lecture rooms, public displays of grief for the assassination of Arab leaders (‘terrorists’) … even events like the Sydney Harbour Bridge march.

The report of the Special Envoy on Antisemitism (a non-elected body) went as far as to suggest her office rate broadcasters, universities et al on antisemitism and report to Government those who fail the ‘test’. Those who ‘fail’ would then be punished by cutting back their government funding. If implemented, this would be censorship by a non-elected ethnic body – a constriction on free speech.

The voice of Australian Jewry is loud and highly visible in positioning ‘Jews -Israel ‘as the always innocent victims, the blameless, the sinned against, the ones whose human rights are always the first to be violated.

Yet the Jewish community itself proudly displays the Israeli flag at their gatherings, festivals, protests, in many synagogues and in news pieces and commentary clips (designed for airing on TV and in social media). Its colours were projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House Oct 9th 2023. During the Jan 22nd 2026 National Day of Mourning (for the victims of Bondi) Australian flags were flown at half-mast on the Opera House and on government buildings around Australia. Inside the Opera House our PM (once again) wore a kippah while delivering his apology for not preventing what happened at Bondi. He hasn’t worn Muslim attire when visiting a mosque (although he has been seen wearing a scarf, without being aware, with a right-wing party symbol at a Hindu festival and a turban at a Sikh event – a drover’s Akubra when meeting farmers and a hardhat in factories). Admittedly this is a minor point but some are so sensitive they notice such things and interpret them as evidence of government’s close affinity with Australian Jews.

Muslim Australians who mourn for family and friends suffering genocide under that flag, the Star of David, are naturally upset to see what looks like so much attention (if not preferential treatment) being given to those who cause them and their pain. Many Australians supporters of a two-state solution – Australia’s official policy – feel (or suspect) the same.

Why do Jews never miss reminding us they are classified ‘terrorists’? If I lived in Gaza I’d proudly proclaim Netanyahu a ‘terrorist’. The ICC agrees and has already issued an arrest warrant charging him a war criminal.

Why have we heard so much from the Special Envoy on Antisemitism but virtually nothing from the Special Envoy on Islamophobia? The 54 recommendations made in his report (Sept 2025) have received little airing in public forums.

Why do so many Australians feel uncomfortable seeing a woman wearing a Hijab or Burqa in public? (read Pauline Hanson’s comments in the Senate for enlightenment on the subject).

Why do 80% of UN member states (including Australia) disagree with Israel’s decision that they’ll continue to resist the formation of a separate and sovereign Palestinian state? Why is the US the strongest supporter and indispensable ally of Israel? Why did Trump nominate Netanyahu for a Nobel Peace Prize?

Here are two pictures that speak louder than a thousand words ever could about Trump’s true motivations.

Two views of the future of Gaza

Will the implementation of Trump’s fantasy improve the lives of Palestinians? No.

Will Israel’s effective occupancy of the River to the Sea guarantee Israeli’s long-term security? No.

Will the horrors of Oct 7th 2023 and Bondi Dec 14th 2025 be reenacted in the future? Yes…..unless both sides abide by the Golden Rule of both the Old Testament and the Koran,
– “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”–

During the 1948 war, Ben Gurion (Israel’s first PM) assured his colleagues worried about the return of Palestinians to their once owned homes they had nothing to worry about because “the old will die and the young will forget”. He was wrong. History keeps the stories of the dead alive and the young still seek justice for themselves and their children.