Christian leaders like Anthony Fisher tackle our anti-Semitism crisis with force, heart and logic

Archbishops Makarios Griniezakis, left, Anthony Fisher, centre, and Kanishka Raffel, of the Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican faiths respectively.

Sydney’s Christian leaders have gone to the heart of the threat to all Australians from the clear rise in violent anti-Semitism – as a result of the Hamas terror attacks in 2023 and the ensuing catastrophic war in Gaza – with a moral certitude, force and logic that has escaped federal Labor for 15 months.

The archbishops of the largest Christian denominations, in defence of all religious freedom and the rights of all Australians, have not only condemned the rise of hatred, religious intolerance and anti-Jewish feeling but have also identified the misguided and illogical basis for the violent attacks on Jews and their property.

Without pointing to pro-Palestinian protests – except the first sinister expressions of anti-Semitism on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023, when there were chilling chants about Jews – the archbishops of Sydney address the great conundrum of equating individuals in Australia with “another nation’s military”.

This is a fundamental distortion at the heart of the attacks on people in Sydney and Melbourne – Jews and Israel are the same and can be treated equally even when there are Jews who do not even support the existence of the State of Israel let alone the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

And this is where the political debate was derailed into an argument about the state of Palestine, support for Hamas, condemnation of the Israeli Defence Forces’ actions, UN resolutions, and changes in foreign policy, equivalence between terrorists, their Iranian backers and Israel.

The foreign policy of Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong concentrated on this rarefied political debate, too ready to call for restraint on both sides after a horrendous terror attack and pursued global issues when the real problem for Australians was the growing fear in its communities – not just Jews.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: Simon Bullard/Anthony Albanese

What the church leaders have done in the name of pursuing peace in the Holy Land of Christians, Jews and Muslims, and in protecting all our freedoms, peace and security in Australia, is call out the sinister and illogical equivalence in the political debate that threatens to allow the “normalisation” of hatred based on individual beliefs.

While the archbishops have the advantage of a philosophical approach to religious freedom for all, it should not be beyond governments and politicians to see the inherent falsity and real danger of conflating individuals, their religious beliefs and the actions of national governments.

After all, does the Albanese government accept that all Russians support the invasion of Ukraine? Does the government treat all Indonesians as Muslims? We certainly didn’t treat all Palestinian refugees coming from Hamas-controlled areas as terrorists.

The Prime Minister has always condemned the outrages against Jews in Australia but he has lacked the clear moral and logical argument put forward by Sydney’s archbishops who have not condemned Palestinians or Gazans as they defend Jews.

But they have managed to draw a line between criticism of the Israeli government and the egregious attacks on individual Australians, their freedoms and security.

Yes, there are Jews who identify strongly with Israel and take criticism of Israel as being anti-Semitic but if it is not beyond some church leaders to make a clear moral division it should not be beyond Labor’s federal leaders.