Anthony Albanese’s wrong tone on Israel helped feed the rise of anti-Semitism, says John Howard

Former prime minister John Howard says Anthony ­Albanese’s failure to denounce in unequivocal terms the October 7 terror attack by Hamas set the wrong tone for the country.

John Howard and Anthony Albanese both appear in the Sky News documentary Never Again. Picture: Sky News

Former Liberal prime minister John Howard says Anthony ­Albanese bears much of the blame for rising levels of anti-Semitism, ­saying a failure to denounce in unequivocal terms the horror of the Hamas attack on Israelis on ­October 7 had set the wrong tone for the country. But the Prime Minister rebuked the claim, saying he and his government had called out anti-Semitism “when we see it” and such behaviour was “completely not acceptable”.

Since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7, there has been an unprecedented rise in anti-Semitism across the country, with many Jewish Australians increasingly targeted online, in their workplaces and on the streets.

Mr Howard said the country needed to utterly reject anti-Semitism but that Mr Albanese had failed to set the right tone from the start.

“One thing we must unite on is to completely repudiate any return of anti-Semitism,” Mr Howard tells former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg in a documentary on anti-Semitism to be screened on Sky News Australia on Tuesday.

“I believe that if from the ­beginning that these horrible events of the 7th of October had been denounced in unequivocal terms, no buts, maybes, no equivalence, none of that, from the very beginning, you would not have had these outbreaks, because part of the role of being a leader of a country is to set a tone.”

Mr Albanese did immediately condemn the October 7 attack by Hamas as “indiscriminate and abhorrent”, saying Israel had the right to defend itself.

But since then, the government has become increasingly critical of Israel as the civilian death toll has risen in Gaza.

It has backed a Palestinian ­effort to become a full UN ­member and has refused to ­criticise the ICC’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli ­leader Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes. Holocaust survivors have also called on the government to step up the fight against anti-­Semitism.

Yvonne Engelman.

Nina Bassat.

“My message is: get involved. Stand up and say, ‘this is wrong. We don’t want this in our country’,” Yvonne Engelman told Mr Frydenberg.

Another survivor, Nina Bassett, said her message was to “open your eyes and open your mind and open your heart … speak out on the right side of history”. Mr ­Albanese described the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia as “devastating”.

“I’m particularly concerned that some of that rise appears to have been amongst younger generations coming through … It’s not who we are, and that’s why we need to call out anti-Semitism when we see it. That’s something that I have done, something that the government has done, overwhelmingly parliamentarians across the spectrum have done as well,” the prime minister told Mr Frydenberg.

Mr Albanese said violent demonstrations, or the harassment or doxxing of Jews was “completely not acceptable. Violence has no role ever, nor does any threatening of people because of who they are, nor as well as some of the specific targeting that has occurred”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said it was outrageous that there seemed to be a tolerance for a degree of anti-Semitism in Australia today.

“That there’s some justification or some tolerance level, just a little bit of anti-Semitism is okay, that that thought has crept into the national psyche or into the psyche of some of our leaders, I think is an abomination,” he said.

Mr Dutton said Mr Howard had set the right tone in his leadership during crises such as the Port Arthur massacre and the Bali bombings, but Mr Albanese had failed to set the tone required of a leader since the Hamas slaughter of Israelis on October 7.

“I thought that opportunity was there for the Prime Minister to do the same in the aftermath of what we saw on the steps of the Sydney Opera House,” Mr Dutton said.

“I thought the absence of that leadership and the weakness demonstrated in the days following, the equivocation, the moral equivalence demonstrated by the Prime Minister, I think that allowed the bar to be raised in the minds of some people who have ha in their hearts, that they can practise anti-Semitism.

“The Prime Minister didn’t call it out in a way that should have been the case, and I think that has set us on a dangerous path since then.

“I think he’s let our country down and he’s certainly let the Jewish community, and therefore all Australians, down as a result of his approach and the lack of leadership.”

Never Again: The Fight Against Anti-Semitism premieres 7pm AEST Tuesday, May 28. Stream at SkyNews.com.au or download the Sky News Australia app