Andrew Bolt: Anthony Albanese’s sheer incompetence making Australia less safe

A real prime minister would be outraged that a member of one of Gaza’s most prominent terrorist families has entered the country, and would say anyone with these reported connections is unwelcome. But Anthony Albanese has given up on leading.

Anthony Albanese was heckled by scared Jews at a Zionism Victoria function on Sunday. They know the Prime Minister has made them – and this country – less safe by his ideological idiocy and sheer incompetence. Now they have an even worse example of Albanese’s unfitness for office.

His government has – incredibly – let in a member of one of Gaza’s most prominent terrorist families. Even more incredibly, it’s not now pledging to throw him out.

Consider the extraordinary case of Fayez Elhasani, which exposes not just Albanese but the anti-Israel spin of the media Left.

You may have first read of Elhasani when the Canberra Times and other newspapers published a teary story about this 72-year-old artist: “Maimed Gaza artist in NSW after 10 of his family killed”.

The story, by AAP reporter Farid Farid, who manically tweets anti-Israel propaganda, started like many of the reports painting Israel as satanic.

“Fayez Elhasani always wakes up in the dead of night at the same time an Israeli air strike hit the home where he was sheltering in Gaza, killing 10 members of his family,” Farid wrote.

Nowhere in the story was there even a hint why Israel blew up the home of Elhasani’s son Mohammed on November 24, killing him and most of his family.

The extraordinary case of Fayez Elhasani, which exposes not just Albanese but the anti-Israel spin of the media Left. Picture: Supplied

No, this was apparently random child-murdering violence, with Elhasani raging: “What was the fault of these children being killed for no reason? … This is not a war, it’s a genocide.”

But at least Elhasani had since been let into Australia, where we’ll treat his injured leg. His son, Yousef, also wounded, missed out on the nearly 3000 tourist visas issued by Albanese’s government to Palestinians from terrorist-run Gaza, but Elhasani’s daughter in Sydney said she still hoped to bring him here, as well.

Aw, how sweet.

Now for the truth. Elhasani has another son, Abd al-Rahman, who told Lebanese television a story two days after that bombing that must make us question not just Albanese’s competence, but that of ASIO, the intelligence agency which supposedly checks who we’re letting in from Gaza.

He said his brother Muhammad, clearly Israel’s target, was actually a “commander” of the “operations unit of the Al-Quds Brigades” – the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad which helped start this war by joining Hamas terrorist on October 7 by massacring 1200 Jews., and kidnapping 251.

Abd al-Rahman boasted of other family members who’d also been terrorists until Israel killed them. There was uncle Iyad Elhassan, a member of the Islamic Jihad’s top military council, and Rimah and Sami, who had been with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs.

Australian Jews know Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made them – and this country – less safe by his ideological idiocy and sheer incompetence. Picture: Martin Ollman

They aren’t all the terrorists in this bloody clan. As Clare Armstrong revealed in her brilliant investigation in this newspaper on Wednesday, Elhassani had two other terrorist sons, including Al-Quds Brigades leader Rimah, as well as a nephew, Fahmi, a Palestinian Resistance terrorist, of them now killed.

True, Elhasani himself isn’t a member of any terrorist group, but he did host a gathering of terrorist leaders in 2019 in the cultural institute he led, and called on people to “support Palestinian resistance” and “confront the occupation by all possible means”.

So how did he get a visa to come here? How did ASIO miss his terrorist link, or – good God – did they not matter to it?

Well, Elhasani might be the kind of person Albanese is happy to let in, in his craven attempt to placate his party’s hard-Left anti-Israel supporters and Muslim voters in western Sydney.

Just this week, Albanese evacuated more than 1000 Australians who had been living in Lebanon and now wanted to escape Israel’s attack on Hezbollah terrorists who had fired 9000 rockets and missiles at it over the past year.

Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke has acted like importing even a patriarch of a clan boasting many top terrorists was no big deal. Picture: Martin Ollman

Sky News interviewed one of them, who loudly praised Hezbollah – a banned terrorist group here – and vilified Israel. Albanese flew him back here for free?

But in parliament on Wednesday, Albanese and his Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, acted like importing even a patriarch of a clan boasting many top terrorists was no big deal.

Asked if he’d now cancel Elhasani’s visa, Burke scoffed. He’d cancel the visa if ASIO told him to, but said wouldn’t “defer instead to Google searches from the opposition.”

Talk about putting your fingers in your ears and shouting “la la la”.

A real prime minister would be outraged that ASIO had either missed Elhasani or waved him through. A real leader would say anyone with these reported connections was unwelcome.

Albanese has given up leading. Why is he still there?

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Anthony Albanese’s sheer incompetence making Australia less safe