That was the message sent to me yesterday as the news broke about the terrorist attack on a Jewish gathering at Bondi.
Actually, there were two messages, first “Diversity?”, the second “Blood on PM HANDS”.
Knee-jerk reactions followed throughout the evening as the shock and horror of the attack filled the TV screen and the phone kept rattling as news flowed in from all corners of the world.
Very little time was spent to put things into some sort of perspective, the blame game is an easy, quick deflection, a convenient means of dealing with the horror without really thinking it through.
Sussan Ley rushed into a press conference to lay the blame at the government’s feet, Bibi Netanyahu could not wait to rail against Albanese and his government. The government is weak on antisemitism, on and on, question the competence of the government and especially the Prime minister for allowing this tragic event to occur.
And so we stir the pot, lay blame on government inaction, foster distrust, foster more hatred. Why wait for a slightly clearer picture to emerge, gather the evidence, take time to analyse.
Focus for a moment on the terrorists, the one word text sent to me last night… “Diversity”. The murderers who sought out an opportunity to carry out their hateful attack, fuelled by the self-righteousness of fundamentalist Islam. As the night progresses, the killers were named, and yes, they were known. In fact ASIO had investigated the father in 2019, reporting to the then government under Scott Morrison. The report confirmed a close link to a Sydney based Islamic State terrorism cell. Sajid Akram was an immigrant. An Arab immigrant. A Muslim immigrant.
The “Diversity?” question implies that he should not have been allowed into Australia. So in order to limit diversity in our communities, should we restrict immigration based on race, and/or religion? Who let him into the country I wonder, and with nothing on the radar since 2019 was there any clear indication that he was an imminent threat?
The accusations made against he government are interesting, especially coming rom the opposition, we will leave the Netanyahu serve for a little later.
Consider the last two years or so of antisemitic attacks, cars being spray painted with swastikas, synagogs burned and graffitied, a caravan allegedly filled with explosives to do some serious damage somewhere, but allegedly aimed at the Jewish community. It has been a horrific period as the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank continues unabated.
An important question: How has the government react to antisemitism during that time?
West Australian Senator Fatima Payman was elected as a Labor member but her support for Palestinians at the beginning of the current Gaza conflict saw her removed as a Labor member, losing the support of the Party in government and relegating her to the cross bench as an independent Senator. It was not, is not possible to throw her out of the parliament, she was elected by the voters, only they can vote her out.
Ed Husic was Minister for Industry and Science in the first Albanese government, but is now a back bencher, no longer holding a ministerial post.
Dr Anne Aly is currently Minister for International Development, Multicultural Affairs and for Small Business, and is a Cabinet Minister.
Jewish members include Josh Burns, Chair of Joint Committee of Public Accounts.
Mark Dreyfus KC is currently Attorney General.
No sign of antisemitism there, unless I am missing something.
In order to combat a growing sense of antisemitism, a Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism position was created, and Jillian legal was appointed to that position for a three-year term from July 2024. Duties include engaging with the Jewish community and the wider Australian society, provide the government with advice and recommendations such as those outlined in a previously published action plan, which include:
- Strengthening legislation regarding antisemitic conduct and intimidating protests.
- Enhancing the screening of visa applicants for antisemitic views.
- Creating a “Report card“ system for university on their handling of antisemitism, with potential funding implications for non-compliance.
- Adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism across all levels of government
No suggestion there of being way on antisemitism either really.
So, the message regarding blood on the PM’s hands, doesn’t seem to be quite accurate, unless Albo’s dog bit his finger in a feeding frenzy yesterday.
I do wonder how Sussan Ley should have acted differently, even acted to thwart the attack before it happened, as that seems to be implied in her critique.
The third, and probably most interesting issue is condemnation levelled at the Australian Prime Minister by the Israeli Prime Minister.
Book after book, report on the hyper-surveillance conducted on the people of Gaza:
Anne Irfan’s ‘A short History of Gaza’. (2025)
Omar El Akkad’s ‘One day, every one will have always been against this’ (2025)
Rashid Khalidi’s ‘The Hundred Years War on Palestine’ (Revised edition 2024)
OK, they are all Palestinians, are there any Jewish voices there?
Amera Hass ‘Drinking the Sea at Gaza (1996)
Anthony Loewenstien ‘The Palestine Laboratory (2023)
Peter Binart ‘Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza (2025)
Shlomo Sand: His claim is that original expulsion of the Jews under the Romans could not have been an expulsion of all the Jews, just the leadership, the priests, rabbis, intelligencia, because Judea was an agricultural economy and the Romans needed feeding. Three books:
How I stopped being a Jew (2013),
The Invention of the Jewish People (2009)
The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland (2012)
And we should not forget Robert Fisk who reported on the Middle East for over twenty five years, lived in Lebanon for most of that time, repeats the same message, that Israeli survellience and the Israeli spy network misses no threat, real or perceived and is ruthless in its quest for protecting its people.
Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (1991)
The Great war for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East (2003)
Robert Fisk on Israel; The Obama Years (2008)
Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East (2024, published after his passing by Nelofer Pazira Fisk)
Each account, and there are many more, has a constant, consistent refrain, the people of Gaza are watched, every minute of the day and night. Electronic devices tracked, drones, check points, cameras and a spy network. Israeli surveillance is total.
Hamas, in reading the various more recent accounts was often in league with the Israeli government, there was no way, and this too has been repeated time and again, there was no way the the Israeli government did not know that the attack of 7 October 2023 was about to happen. Criticism has been levelled at the delayed response of the IDF, and the exaggerated account of the destruction, much of which was at the hands of the IDF.
Incite some violence and apply a severe collective punishment, not just in Gaza, in the West Bank, even in the refugee camps in Lebanon.
It follows the playbook followed throughout the history since the formation of the state of Israel.
The worse the situation was painted, the worse the perceived damage done, the easier justification could be made for the destruction of Gaza, or to demolish another village in the West Bank, or bomb the refugee camps in Lebanon.
The measure of collective punishment is raised in each of the books listed above, all Palestinians are terrorists, all Palestinians must suffer for being Palestinians, that has been the mantra since 1948 when ethnic cleansing commenced, and again, from an Israeli, Ilan Pappe’s The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, (2006), described the Nakba, using the reports and files of the time which were opened after the fifty-year secrecy time elapsed. The very reports and discussions which saw village after village bull-dozed, 750,000 people rendered homeless, pushed into Lebanon, trans Jordan and Gaza and refused right of return.
For Netanyahu to be critical of the Australian government for having ‘allowed’ the terrorist attack of yesterday rings very hollow, when we look at Israeli’s complicity in their continued attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, their dehumanisation of Palestinians, the refusal to engage in meaningful talks which can lead to peace, to a two state solution, and that goes back to 1917 with the Balfour Agreement where there is no recognition was given to the rights of the indigenous Palestinians.
Albo has blood on his hands?
Really?
Keep Independent Journalism Alive – Support The AIMN
Dear Reader,
Since 2013, The Australian Independent Media Network has been a fearless voice for truth, giving public interest journalists a platform to hold power to account. From expert analysis on national and global events to uncovering issues that matter to you, we’re here because of your support.
Running an independent site isn’t cheap, and rising costs mean we need you now more than ever. Your donation – big or small – keeps our servers humming, our writers digging, and our stories free for all.
Join our community of truth-seekers. Donate via PayPal or credit card via the button below, or bank transfer [BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969] and help us keep shining a light.
With gratitude, The AIMN Team
And Poorleen said today:
“For three decades I have been warning Australia about the dangers of letting people into this country who refuse to integrate and assimilate with our way of life.
We must take a stronger stance on the people and cultures that we allow into the country.”
and,
“Australia doesn’t have a gun problem. we have a radical Islam problem”
Poorlean:
We have a hate problem. And you are one of its leading lights.
Just two words regarding Netanyahu – f**k off!
You’re a wanted criminal, and like your best mate you both have caused havoc and hatred because you did this to stay out of jail?
That kind of incarceration is too timid for the likes of both of you as well as the third leg of this triangle, Putin.
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12/bondi/?
Yes Bert, there is shameful opportunism at play that should be condemned.
The Jewish community worldwide is in grief, and it is right to extend compassion and commiserations to them. However, as you point out the grief and shock at this murderous horror is being misdirected to suit some’s agenda.
Until the facts are established to whatever degree possible, we are looking at this through the fog of the mainstream media, a media that has been exposed over the past 2 years as being unreliable and committed to feeding us a certain narrative.
The worst opportunist has been Sussan Ley as you point out who has obviously sought to score political points out of this. But, she is not alone, Jillian Segal, Chris Minns, Josh Frydenberg, Josh Burns, Julian Leeser, Mark Dreyfus, Allegra Spender and Scott Morrison are ones I’ve heard misdirecting the grief to suit an agenda of instituting Segal’s recommendations.
Recommendations that serve to suppress any criticism of Israel and may even see the introduction of indoctrination of our children.
Let us not forget that the Palestinian community in particular, and those who oppose killing have suffered the same grief every day for two years. Indeed, for many they suffered for decades. These recommendations shout: ‘Shut up, you have nothing to grieve’ at the Palestinian and Lebanese communities and those who stand in solidarity with them.
To his credit Anthony Albanese has not jumped to the kneejerk demands of those pushing the Segal report recommendations. It remains to be seen what he does.
Killing is wrong, it was wrong before Oct 7th, it was wrong on Oct 7th and it has been wrong ever since. Albanese’s problem is he didn’t take that position, he took a side, he sided with a psychopath in Netanyahu and mouthed Netanyahu’s talking points for two years. As you point out, he’s been thrown under the bus by a psychopath.
Does Albanese have blood on his hands? Yes, he does, as reported by the UN expert his government has been complicit in a genocide; he has Palestinian blood on his hands.
Rather than calm the troubled waters, the likes of Sussan Lay and Netanyahu just fan the flames.
This sad incident has it’s origin in the mistake made by the Coalition of the Willing back in 1948.
Ah, the good ‘ole RRWNJ’s and their favourite refrain, “It’s all Labors fault.” rephrased to try and place all the blame on Albo. No surprise there.
Would Rupert and his homunculus, Stokes, Nine and all the rest of the main sleaze media be screaming the same thing if the LoserGnatParty had been in charge?
When I heard Netanyahu’s comments, they made me sick to the stomach. He is inflaming anti-Semitism, setting up good and innocent Jews as targets of idiots’ hate.
Instead of offering consolation and condolences to the Jewish community here, many of whom are fine people and some friends, and support to Australia where this horrific attack took place, Netanyahu engaged in the most grubby of politics. Netanyahu is putting more Jews and Australia in the firing line as targets for this kind of hateful act. It is he that is fuelling it.
Australia is right to engage in appeasement. There are many fine Muslim people, Ahmed Al Ahmed the hero of Bondi is one of them.
Netanyahu is a warmonger and stirs the hornets’ nest. He did that with Gaza and Hamas. His comments could have the affect of more becoming radicalised and making Australia a more dangerous place. He has made the Jewish community less safe by saying “we are targets”.
Netanyahu does not help, he makes things worse.
@ Gonggongche, Ian Joyner:
I would like to add that IMO there are two significant security failures that are germane here: 1. national and 2. political/rhetorical.
ISIS terror attacks against Jews on Australian soil:
https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/what-australia-is-doing/terrorist-organisations/listed-terrorist-organisations/islamic-state-east-asia
a) ‘Apples vs oranges’ problem:
Judaism and Zionism are logically and historically distinct from one another (religion vs ideology). Therefore it follows that conflating antisemitism and anti-Zionism (e.g. calling criticism of and opposition to the Israeli Likud Coalition government’s genocidal policies in its ongoing war in Gaza ‘antisemitism’) is fallacious (i.e. erroneous), resulting in misinformation, political propaganda, community confusion and division.
b) The co-opting of ‘antisemitism’ by Netanyahu – its existence in Australia as somehow a function of the Albanese government’d failure to curb (parroted by John Howard, another nasty political opportunist) – is a cynical distraction aiming at deflection from his own genocidal policies and war crimes. Whilst the the Bondi Beach terrorist attack was unequivocally antisemitic, it appears that it was ISIS-inspired and thus unrelated to the war in Gaza precipitated by the Oct 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.
Consider this Politico article from 2023:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/21/hamas-isis-are-not-the-same-00128107
Netanyahu is a ruthless and sociopathic warmonger who is baiting Albanese with a red herring. Albanese must politely refuse to swallow it and realign himself with what fundamentally matters here: Australia’s national security and the security of Jewish Australians from the genocidal antisemitism of ISIS and its affiliates.
Continuing appeasement of the Zionist right via righteous ‘antisemitic’ rhetoric in scattergun fashion can only complicate matters.
Bert,
Mark Dreyfus KC is no longer Attorney General, he was relegated at the same time as Husik, AG is now Michele Rowland. And, I largely agree with you that Jews and Zionism are like ‘Apples vs Oranges’, albeit, there are numerous styles of Zionism, so as a distinction, I might opt for the term ‘political Zionism’ to distinguish from any more passive forms.
Nevertheless, I add some more grist for the mill:
Labor’s ‘Doc’ Evatt helped establish the UN and headed the UN commission on the ‘Palestinian Question’ where he stridently backed the partition. Two days later as President of the UNGA, they ratified the partition of Palestine (without consulting Palestinians). After that both he and Arthur Calwell elicited massive donations from Melbourne Jews and later Sydney Jews in an effort to maintain / win govt. The fundraising and donations by the Jewish community to Labor remain substantial up to recently.
Even so, for years Labor has had a policy of support for Palestine, as have many Jews, eg: Jewish Council of Australia.
From ‘Rome I’ through to the ‘Crusades’ the ‘west’ brutalized the Levant & Jews, seeking commercial / strategic control. It further justified this in colonialism via Pope Alexander VI (a devious & brutal Borgia), through the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ added to by ‘Terra Nullius’ and the ‘Doctrine of Reception’ (ancient Greko-Roman), all incorporated into the ‘Magna Carta’ and British common law.
After the Romans invaded, sacked and destroyed Palestine, the west convinced the Jews to escape the perditions of the Middle East, and move en masse to the protection of western Europe circa 1st Century CE. But the never satisfied ‘West’ oppressed and murdered Jews in Europe, and again the Jews fled en masse 12th through 17th Century CE. Similarly, the ‘West’ ousted the Moors in the 15th Century CE. Continuing signs of Christian righteousness.
In relative modernity, after the establishment of what became the ‘World Zionist Organization’, the western imperia, especially, Britain (and France) have been deceptive and self-serving in the Levant via the ‘Sykes Picot Agreement’ (1916) and then the ‘Balfour Declaration’ (1926), and the abject incompetent mess of the ‘Mandate’ (1923-48). Giving rise to Irgun, Lehi (the Stern Gang) and murderous conflicts between Jews and Palestinians, and huge numbers of British soldiers killed. A complete mess caused by Britain (and France), who scarped.
It’s no small irony, that at the time (1923), with the ‘League of Nations’ afoot, the ‘West’ settled the extensive ‘Treaty of Lausanne’ with the Turks, organizing the carve-up after the defeat of the Ottomans (and its empire). In that treaty there is no consideration or mention at all of Palestine, the Jews, nor Arabs. And the mess created by the Britain (and France), remained that way through WWII (and the Holocaust) and to the establishment of the UN (1945).
Then after the UN’s unilateral partition of Palestine to facilitate a homeland for Jews (as largely determined by leaders of Zionism) and the formation of Israel (which was never formal, but tacit), there followed a continuum of militarist Prime Ministers of Israel (a militarized state), with the exception of Rabin (the great two-state negotiator), who was assassinated by a disgruntled young Zionist.
And through this modern period, America became flooded with Ashkenazi Jews (from NE Europe), many of whom were Zionists, and became extremely wealthy and politically powerful, and despite its ‘Monroe Doctrine’ (1823 extant and endlessly conveniently reinterpreted) so political America became unremitting backers of Israel (and as ever divisive, confused and hypocritical), like now under Trump and his divisive urger ‘mate’ Netanyahu.
And so it goes on. A millennia+ of mess, turned to a current genocide before our eyes, and now an ‘evil’ massacre in Bondi (not Pam).
Oz now dances amongst all this, with a British monarch our Constitutional head, the LNP Howard govt contracting us to America’s F35 program, the American backing of Netanyahu’s Israel, Oz govt alignment with British / American security, Labor’s Palestine policy, Labor’s association with Jewish donors, Oz Zionist attacks on Oz institutions (re anti-semitsm) and Netanyahu’s attacks on Oz govt in the same vein, whilst allowing protests on behalf of Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank.
With ubiquitous geopolitical / strategic febrility and eco-wars afoot, for the LNP opposition, One Nation, the msm and various partisans trumping up hostility and divisiveness in this circumstance and blaming Albo, is hurtful to many, gross low-brow opportunism, fear-mongering, democracy crushing, ignorant and puerile with a reckless disregard for those maimed and killed. A seed for the re-growth of all the horrors of history.