Seeing the light of moral clarity amid the darkness

Thirteen days ago my world changed, our world changed, forever. The medieval slaughter of innocents representing the single biggest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust punctured the aura of invincibility that surrounded the Israel Defence Forces.

Terror has ushered in widespread trauma, leaving a whole nation grieving for the more than 1400 lost and 200 missing.

It has left deep psychological scars in the Jewish community in Israel and beyond its shores that may never heal.

As a person of Jewish faith who has only ever known of a confident and strong Israel, I never thought I would feel as my parents did in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War the existential threat facing Israel. But now I do.

As a person of Jewish faith growing up in a tolerant and multicultural Australia I never thought I would feel as my grandparents did in 1933 the rising tide of European anti-Semitism that would consume their families in the flames of the Holocaust. But now I do.

I stand before you anguished and anxious about the future. When fears over safety see Jewish students afraid to attend lectures on campus, Jewish parents feel the need to keep their children home from school and Jewish schools advise students not to wear their uniforms that make them identifiable outside school grounds, we know we have a problem.

And when hundreds of demonstrators in Sydney chant “F..k the Jews” and “Gas the Jews” we know just how dangerous and serious that problem really is. What happened last week outside the Sydney Opera House was nothing short of an abomination. A national disgrace that has become an international embarrassment.

Just think for a moment what just happened in our own country. Instead of being able to show solidarity with Israel as our national icon was lit up in blue and white, sympathetic Australian Jews and non-Jews were told to stay away for their own safety as a rampaging mob was given centre stage.

No such behaviour was tolerated near the Eiffel Tower, the Brandenburg Gate or 10 Downing Street when they were lit up in blue and white. To the contrary, thousands rallied outside these landmarks, singing the Israeli national anthem, the Hatikvah, and showing their spontaneous support.

If that was not bad enough, it has been reported that it was said to the leadership of the NSW Jewish community: “Maybe it’ll just be easier if we don’t light up the Opera House to protect you people.” “You people”: what a disgraceful term for a community of proud Australians that has never seen a conflict between their faith and their nationality.

A community that has produced our greatest citizen soldier, Sir John Monash, governors-general, governors, chief justices, chief scientists, Nobel Prize winners, leading business figures, philanthropists, medical professionals among so many others.

In making my remarks tonight I had a choice. I could dwell on the death, despair and darkness that is dominating debate. Or I could share some of the lessons of history and what it tells us about how the light will shine again.

For more than 2000 years the enemies of Israel have been seeking its destruction. The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Nazis, to name just a few. But history tells us that the enemies of the past are no more. The Jewish people survived and Israel prospered.

Now, despite the huge challenges ahead, I see the light returning. When leaders across the Western world including US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak with piercing moral clarity in defence of Israel and rush to be by its side in its hour of need, it gives me comfort that Israel has support where it counts.

When thousands of Israelis line the pavements waiting to donate blood, open their homes to fellow citizens who have lost theirs and volunteer to serve in the army before they’re even asked, it gives me hope that Israel’s debilitating internal divisions can be relegated to a thing of the past.

We are all here for the same reason – because we support good over evil and because we know Winston Churchill was right when in the heat of battle he said: ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’ These are indeed the darkest of times, and every day innocent lives are being lost in both Israel and Gaza. We cannot lose our common humanity as Hamas makes victims of the people of Gaza, too. It is my hope that despite all that has happened the light will eventually shine through.

Josh Frydenberg is the former treasurer of Australia. This is an excerpt of a speech delivered in Melbourne on Thursday in support of victims of terrorism.