‘Decent’ Aussies heeded anti-Semitism warnings, leaders didn’t

In your editorial (“On anti-Semitism we were warned but did not listen”, 1-2/2), who is referred to as the “we” who did not listen?

I listened, but how could I not hold fears for the future given my ancestry, my late Polish parents and relatives suffering during WWII in Poland, being at the displaced persons camps, with the alarm bells sounding the warning to the rumblings after the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023?

Those who survived WWII at the hands of the Nazis have listened, as they are not the “we”.

My conclusion would be that the Australian Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, and the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, are the “we” who did not listen.

To be an effective prime minister, one must have the qualities to lead in times of adversity and to have the guts to make a judgment call on unpopular subjects – the right call that would not be seeking the votes that a political party would have been chasing in order to appease a minority, such as the case is with Labor.

Susan McLochlan, Caboolture South, Qld

As an Australian-born Jewish woman, born to Holocaust survivors who arrived in Melbourne in 1950 with a six-year-old child, my brother, and my grandparents from a displaced persons camp, I want to say thank you.

I was educated in Church of England schools in Melbourne, have many non-Jewish friends and associates, and have sons who are married to non-Jews.

I have never experienced blatant anti-Semitism as in the past 15 months. Now living in Sydney, I am shocked and disappointed by the way Australians have both attacked and turned a blind eye to rampant anti-Semitism.

I applaud your paper for standing up to support decent Australians who helped to build this country into what it is today.

Jasmine Dindas, Darling Point, NSW

The call by former head of the Department of Home Affairs Mike Pezzullo for the establishment of an Operations Sovereign Borders-type multi-agency to combat the increasingly incendiary level of anti-Semitism in this country is timely (“Anti-Semites are winning”, 1-2/2).

The discovery of a caravan loaded with explosives in Sydney’s north is particularly indicative of the trajectory of this violence.

Fire bombing of premises is becoming a regular occurrence nowadays. Ordinary Australians are losing faith in our governments and police departments to maintain the safe environment that we should expect.

Vicki Sanderson, Cremorne, NSW

Your headline, “Anti- Semites are winning”, is correct because instead of immediate, effective, proactive and decisive action from our leaders when anti-Semitism first flared at the Sydney Opera House protests, all we got were words and platitudes.

Words do not extinguish the fires of hate and prejudice.

We needed a Churchill then, but instead got a Chamberlain.

John Wilmot, Sherwood, Qld

The absolute terror of Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud is horrific to witness, as pale-faced, almost collapsing with fear, encircled by armed, masked Hamas and jihad terrorists, she is taken through a surging, screaming mob of thousands of Palestinians to the Red Cross convoy (“Joy and anger in chaos of prisoner swap”, 1-2/2).

The Hamas demonstration of power that only it stands between its terrified hostages and an unthinkable fate at the hands of the roiling mob is all part of Hamas’s sadistic cruelty in tormenting those whose destruction is its ultimate aim.

Meanwhile, we in Australia, until now largely protected by distance and isolation from such horror, cannot afford to underestimate its reach.

It has supposedly no place in our “model multicultural nation”, but it is among us, courtesy of global movements of peoples and the reach of the internet.

And, courtesy of the backfooted recalcitrance of our authorities, it has been emboldened, empowered and is on the loose. Immediate and effective counteraction is crucial.

Mike Pezzullo’s push for an Operation Sovereign Borders-type multi-agency campaign to combat the deadly rise of anti-Semitism in Australia makes sense.

Deborah Morrison, Malvern East, Vic