James O’Doherty: Soaring Chris Minns and stumbling Anthony Albanese

The deep regret Chris Minns had over his handling of Sydney’s Opera House protest is perhaps why he has, over the past 14 months, has been a strong leader in calling out insidious anti-Semitism — and shown up the PM, writes James O’Doherty.

The surge in violent anti-Semitism has led to Woollahra being targeted with hateful graffiti and burnt-out cars twice in a month.

This can be directly traced back to an angry protest on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, which was organised while terrorists were still in the process of murdering 1200 people.

At the time, Premier Chris Minns apologised for failing to ensure members of the Jewish community could safely gather to mourn in front of Opera House sails illuminated in the colours of Israel’s flag.

The deep regret Minns had over his handling of the protest is perhaps why the NSW Premier has, over the past 14 months, been the strongest of the nation’s leaders in calling out insidious anti-Semitism festering across Australia.

Central to his stance is the belief that while nothing he can do will bring peace to the Middle East, “importing conflicts around the world onto the streets of Sydney” can destroy peace at home.

Chris Minns has shown stronger leadership on anti-Semitism than Anthony Albanese.

Minns has repeatedly been there when it matters, including visiting Sydney’s Central Synagogue on Friday after a synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed.

In Woollahra on Wednesday, the Premier said there was no point “sugar-coating” the fact that anti-Semitism is increasing.

“This isn’t just a random act of destruction, this was specifically designed to, in my view, incite hate and intimidate the Jewish community in Sydney,” he said.

This is a commonsense stance from a leader who values pragmatism above most else.

The Premier has repeatedly shut down members of his own party over their anti-Israel attitudes.

He told members of his own party that if they wanted to freelance on international affairs they should get a job in Canberra, and accused one – Upper House MP Anthony D’Adam – of being a “deliberately inflammatory” nobody.

While it was not his intention, Minns’s strong stance has drawn direct comparisons with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for being limp-wristed. While pleading for an end to the evil of anti-Semitism on Wednesday, by Thursday Albanese’s government had split even further from Israel.

Addressing the conflict at a private Labor function in the Inner West stronghold of Grayndler on Tuesday, Albanese declared that his government makes “no apologies for standing for two states in the Middle East, the right of Israel to exist, and the right of Palestinians”.

According to Crikey, who first reported the comments, Albanese also said that people who were “upset” at his government’s position would be “more upset by Thursday”.

By Thursday morning, Australia had backed two UN votes opposed by Israel: One was to demand an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire, while the other condemned Israel’s ban on the UN’s Palestinian aid agency UNWRA.

The PM’s allies say that there were nothing in the comments that broke with the government’s position on Israel, while arguing that Labor MPs have spent more than a year standing up to violent anti-Semitism from the Greens and others in the hard-left.

However, none of this changes the fact that Albanese has alienated Jewish community leaders with how he has handled the increase in anti-Semitism at home.

As The Daily Telegraph’s Lachlan Leeming reported on Thursday, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip declined to appear alongside the PM at the Jewish Museum – hours after standing in lock step with the Premier.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin has also been scathing of the federal government this week.

“Even a couple of days ago, Penny Wong was giving a speech in which she lectures the Jewish community about what anti-Semitism is and isn’t, and compares Israel to China and to Russia,” Ryvchin observed.

“I’m sure she had no intention of doing this, but it sends a signal that the Jewish community is standing up for a rogue nation and that inevitably has a blowback, an impact, on our community.”

Asked if there is anything the state government can do to turn down the temperature, Ryvchin says Minns has been an “exemplar”.

“He recognised that mistakes were made with the way the police handled the Opera House mob, but he owned that mistake, and that, to me, shows integrity and leadership.

“He’s been in constant contact with the community, the community feels they have great access to him, they feel that he’s listening.

“The can’t the same can’t be said at a federal level.”

Minns does not have to worry about Australia’s international relations platform. He is lucky.

But after dropping the ball on October 9, the Premier has come a long way to repairing trust with the Jewish community. In doing so, he has shown up Albanese’s fumbles.