Tom Minear: A year since October 7, what has happened to Australia?
As protests around the world mark a year since the October 7 attack on Israel, US correspondent Tom Minear says he does not recognise how Australia has changed since then.
Opinion
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Like Australia, the US is bracing for anti-Israel protests on October 7.
That anyone would take to the streets in an apparent celebration of the murder, rape and kidnapping of innocent civilians is sickening, although here in the States, it’s not surprising.
The US has the power to shape the conflict in the Middle East more than any other external actor. Who sits in the Oval Office – and what they do while they are there – matters deeply to the people of Israel and Palestine and now Lebanon.
While living here has not turned me into a free speech absolutist willing to defend such revolting rallies, I understand why Americans want their voices heard.
If they do not want their taxpayer dollars spent arming Israel, then I can see why they would try to convince their president of that – even if Joe Biden and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have all said they would never do such a thing, especially not in response to people protesting a year to the day since the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
What I do not understand is what has happened in Australia over the past 12 months.
When I moved to the US in 2022, my home suddenly seemed small. The issues that consumed us were often so disconnected from far weightier problems occupying other parts of the world. Would needles found in strawberries ever require presidential intervention?
I worried Australians were not sufficiently engaged in what was happening in places such as Ukraine and the South China Sea. October 7 changed that in a way I did not expect.
The resulting Middle East war has divided Australia like no other conflict in my lifetime. But genuine concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have been dangerously inflamed by what former prime minister Julia Gillard has called “a distortion of history”.
The idea of people marching in Australian cities on Monday is horrifying. But what sends chills down my spine even more is the insidious creep of anti-Semitism. The Jewish uni student kicked out of her apartment by her housemates; the Jewish man refused service at Officeworks; the Jewish couple threatened so regularly that they closed their small business.
This is not an Australia I recognise. As businessman Steven Lowy said so eloquently recently: “It is beyond any of us to influence what’s unfolding in the Middle East. But we can influence what our life is like here at home.”
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Originally published as Tom Minear: A year since October 7, what has happened to Australia?
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