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Greg Sheridan

‘Superior moral reasoning’ in the war on anti-Semitism

Greg Sheridan
We are a nation of the new world, blessed free of old-world hatreds, until today.
We are a nation of the new world, blessed free of old-world hatreds, until today.

Donald Trump’s decisiveness created the momentum for a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza, just as the Albanese government’s equivocations, hand-wringing and moral confusion left the space open for the worst outbreak of anti-Semitism in Australian history.

That Trump might give lessons to the Albanese government in how to run an effective administration – even before he’s inaugurated – is perhaps not so surprising. That he should so clearly demonstrate superior moral reasoning to the Australian government is not something we would have anticipated so clearly.

Albanese must now, so belatedly, follow the advice of Jillian Segal, his special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, and call an emergency national cabinet meeting to deal with the most sickening outbreak of genuine racial hatred modern Australia has seen.

At every moment as the anti-Semitism crisis has developed in Australia, the Albanese government has been a dollar short and a day late, to put it mildly, dragged kicking and screaming, and with extreme reluctance, to acknowledge the gravity of the problem, the distinctiveness of the hatred, and the urgent need for moral and administrative leadership from the national government.

'Vibe of violence': Jillian Segal AO on antisemitism

The anti-Semitism rife in Australia today is shocking and shameful in its own right. It is even worse because Australia, until the present moment, has not hosted these virulent traditions of anti-Semitic hatred.

We are a nation of the new world, blessed free of old-world hatreds, until today.

In the 1930s, when Jews were increasingly harassed across Europe and the forces were gathering for the shattering reality of the Nazi Holocaust, Australia appointed its first Australian-born governor-general, Sir Isaac Isaacs, who was also, incidentally, Jewish. He had formerly been chief justice.

In the nation-defining carnage of the First World War, Australia turned not to a professional soldier, but to an engineer and militiaman, as its supreme military commander, Sir John Monash. He was also Jewish.

These appointments, and others like them, could not have happened in Europe.

Now Australia is blighted by the mixture of three streams of the oldest hatred – right-wing racial anti-Semitism, left-wing ideological anti-Semitism that grows out of an insane demonisation of Israel and hatred of Israel as part of the West, and the distinctive tradition of Arab and Islamist anti-Semitism.

When the first iteration of what was coming in Australia became apparent in the hideous anti-Semitic demonstrations on October 9 at the Sydney Opera House, the Albanese government should have recognised the problem and given the clearest and most emphatic response.

Instead the government has looked completely out of its depth at every point, not understanding what was going on, not conceiving of an effective response, terrified of annoying that section of its own voters who harbour political hatreds of Israel.

Politicians ‘doing nothing’ to ‘stamp out’ antisemitism

When Foreign Minister Penny Wong visited Israel, for some unfathomable reason she declined to visit the sites of the unspeakable Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians.

It is right that the government cares about the innocent lives lost in Gaza. At every moment of this conflict, from day one, Hamas could have ended the suffering of the Palestinian people by releasing the Israeli hostages it took on October 7.

The larger Palestinian movement, Fatah, which surely has no love for Israel, this week issued an excoriating statement on the devastation Hamas brought on the Palestinian people entirely in the service of the strategic interests of Iran. How can it be that Fatah sees this, and the Albanese government doesn’t?

Trump famously declared that if Hamas didn’t release the hostages by the time of his inauguration all hell would break loose. No one can know exactly what Trump had in mind here, but his vice-president elect, JD Vance, said it would mean extremely energetic American assistance to Israel to destroy remaining battalions of Hamas and further, stronger sanctions on anyone in the Middle East who had supported Hamas.

Trump’s language may have been imprecise, as usual, but he had rightly zeroed in, operationally and morally, on the point where all decent democrats should be applying pressure, to Hamas and its supporters.

The Albanese government, in its mishmash of confusing and multi-directional equivocation, has occasionally said it is a longstanding friend and supporter of Israel. If that is true, why didn’t it spend the past year applying whatever pressure it could to Hamas, and to those parts of the Arab and Iranian world that support it, including through loud and repeated rhetoric, instead of joining in the bullying and abuse of Israel at the United Nations?

Anti semitic attack on the Newtown Synagogue, Sydney. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Bullard.
Anti semitic attack on the Newtown Synagogue, Sydney. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Bullard.

Was there perhaps some tawdry, dismal, DFAT multilateral diplomacy calculation that joining in the kicking of Israel might advance Australia’s chances of securing the deputy chair role in some feckless UN Committee on Pots and Pans?

Now Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is going to Israel to repair a needlessly, pointlessly, wantonly shattered international relationship, another instance of more than a dollar short and a day late.

This has been a pitiful episode by the Albanese government. Synagogues burn, Nazi symbols and slogans are sprayed on Jewish homes and vehicles, Jewish properties are violently vandalised as part of a movement of sectarian hatred.

Australian institutions have not responded effectively, partly because they’ve had no leadership from the federal government.

The government has been so anti-Israel itself that its mild denunciations of actual communal violence are vitiated by its implicit endorsement of at least some of the cause the violence allegedly serves.

What possible excuse can Prime Minister Albanese give now, in the light of Jillian Segal’s devastating analysis and request, for not convening a national cabinet?

Whatever excuse is used, this is not remotely good enough.

Read related topics:Donald Trump
Greg Sheridan
Greg SheridanForeign Editor

Greg Sheridan is The Australian's foreign editor. His most recent book, Christians, the urgent case for Jesus in our world, became a best seller weeks after publication. It makes the case for the historical reliability of the New Testament and explores the lives of early Christians and contemporary Christians. He is one of the nation's most influential national security commentators, who is active across television and radio, and also writes extensively on culture and religion. He has written eight books, mostly on Asia and international relations. A previous book, God is Good for You, was also a best seller. When We Were Young and Foolish was an entertaining memoir of culture, politics and journalism. As foreign editor, he specialises in Asia and America. He has interviewed Presidents and Prime Ministers around the world.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/superior-moral-reasoning-in-the-war-on-antisemitism/news-story/051ddf21a6645aa3da766d84f97160ad