Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: No, No No – They’ve Globalised the Intifada

Let me start by saying this loud and clear as an Australian Jew, born and bred by the shores of Bondi. We should not have to ‘Rest in Peace’ so that we can live in peace!

Sunday the 14th of December, 2025. A day marked forever by atrocities that were, tragically, predictable.

Sydney, Australia – our beautiful slice of heaven on earth. Our sacred land down under. A nation for everyone. A place that, no matter how far or how wide I roam, I will always call home.

‘A sunburnt country. A land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains’. Those words come from iconic Australian poet Dorothea Mackellar’s 1904 poem ‘My Country’. They are recited with pride, taught in classrooms, woven into our national mythology. But directly after those iconic phrases she writes something far less quoted: “I love her jewel-sea, her beauty and her terror.” On Sunday, those words became iconic for an entirely different reason.

Down by the iconic jewel-sea of Bondi Beach, one of the most recognisable places in the country, terror arrived with devastating clarity. Not somewhere distant. Not somewhere foreign. Here. At home. At a Jewish community gathering held to celebrate light.

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A Celebration of Light, Deliberately Targeted

On the first night of Chanukah, Jewish families gathered publicly by the water to light candles and spread light to a world that desperately needs it. Chanukah is a story of survival. Of a small, persecuted people refusing to surrender their identity. Lighting candles openly is not incidental to the festival – it is the point. That visibility made us a target.

Gunfire tore through the crowd. Panic followed. Screams, confusion, parents searching for children, people shielding strangers with their own bodies. In minutes, lives were ended and others irreversibly altered, leaving wounds both physically and mentally that can never be fully healed.

Fifteen people were murdered in cold blood. Dozens and dozens were wounded, with many still fighting for their life in hospital. Among those killed was Rabbi Eli Schlanger z”l, a community leader who helped organise the event. His wife was shot. His two-month-old baby was seriously injured. Writing those words still feels unreal but reality does not soften itself for our comfort.

This was not random violence. This was not senseless chaos. This was not something that “could have happened anywhere.” This was a terrorist attack, motivated by ideology and directed explicitly at Jews, at a Jewish event, on a Jewish holiday. It still doesn’t sit well with me that many are expressing their love for the “Bondi community”. Whilst i am fully aware of the traumatising nature of the attack, there is a simple fact that many are choosing to overlook. Had this event taken place in Dover Heights, in Vaucluse, in Rose Bay, that is where the attack would have happened. This attack was specific and the location just so happened to occur on the iconic Bondi Beach. Any single post that either does not use the words “attack specifically on Jews”  and the word “antisemitism” is simply a farce. Let’s not forget this, The attackers (i will not say those animals names) were hunters that came with high powered shot guns and im sorry to say went ‘Jew Hunting’.

Language matters. Because when we refuse to name what something is, we weaken our ability and our will to prevent it from happening again.

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This Did Not Happen in a Vacuum

For years, particularly since October 7, 2023, Australian Jews have been warning that something fundamental was shifting. Antisemitic incidents surged at a rate unseen in generations. Threats, harassment, vandalism, intimidation, physical assaults, Arson, bomb threats, and online incitement that increasingly spilled into real-world violence. Jewish schools were targeted. Synagogues defaced. Families altered daily routines. Many stopped wearing visible Jewish symbols altogether.

We spoke about escalation. We spoke about radicalisation. We spoke about inevitability. We spoke about what we knew would happen. We, without mincing our words said something  like this WILL happen if nothing is done.

We warned that global patterns were repeating themselves locally. That rhetoric was becoming permission, and permission was becoming action. These warnings were not abstract. They were detailed, documented, and persistent. Too often, they were met with minimisation. With calls for “calm.” With political anxiety about being seen to prioritise Jewish safety too loudly. With a failure to understand that antisemitism does not announce itself politely before it kills. I can only hope that now it is abundantly clear that Judaism and Zionism/Israel are inherently and intrinsically linked. This notion that hating Israel, calling for its iradication or chanting “globalise the intifada” or “Death, Death to the IDF” does not compromise the saftey of global jewery who almost all are Zionist is a completely absurd.

They called for the intifada. On Sunday night it arrived, right here at Bondi Beach.

Bondi was not an anomaly. It was a culmination. It was our worst fears becoming reality. Let me add that these chants not only compromise our saftey but they have actions. When you chant for an Intifada which is a violent uprising or Death, Death to anyone you do something very specific. You normalise violence and death into our everyday lexicon, and what you saw in Bondi was infact violence and death.

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Failure Is Not Abstract: It Has Names and Responsibilities

This attack represents a cascading failure across every level of responsibility charged with protecting Australians. Intelligence agencies failed to adequately identify, disrupt, or neutralise radicalisation pathways that were neither hidden nor novel. Post–October 7 threat environments were not recalibrated with the urgency they demanded. Counter-terrorism frameworks failed to meaningfully adapt to the clear designation of Jewish communities as high-risk targets globally. Lessons from overseas attacks were acknowledged rhetorically, but not operationalised. Policing failed to adequately secure a publicly advertised Jewish event at one of the most recognisable locations in the country, during a period of unprecedented antisemitic escalation. Visibility was known. Risk was known. Protection was insufficient. This does not in any way minimise or downplay the incredible efforts and sacrifices of the Police on that day. However, the fact that this even occurred, the fact that the shooting went on for as long as it did and the fact that many witnesses would gladly testify to the fact that many officers were simply frozen in action, is a statement of fact we simply can not ignore. If the Police had heeded the seriousness of the communities concerns they would have placed officers at public events that have the skills and weaponary to respond to such an attack. They did not. 

Political leadership also failed to consistently and unequivocally name antisemitism. Allowing it to be diluted, contextualised, or deflected. That hesitation did not de-escalate tensions. It emboldened them. Condolences after funerals are not protection.Vigils after death are not prevention. Accountability means acting before blood is spilled – not explaining after it is. I simply could write an article on its own of each politician and government official that has let us down, however it is important to highlight one very specific example.

Allegra Spender is our Federal member for Wentworth which is the area (that includes Bondi) in which the vast majority of Jews in Sydney live. Ms Spender has continuously said nice words, promised action and positioned herself as a friend and ally of our community. I hope Sunday shattered that illusion. Regardless of any words or actions she has said or done, facts do not care about your feelings. During her tenure as our community’s government representative she has seen an over 300% rise in antisemitism, she has seen schools, synagogues, restaurants and public places be vandalised and even burnt down. She has watched our community live in fear like never before and at the end of the day her words and actions were illustrated on Sunday as completely useless.  It must also be noted that she is part of her own minority party called the ‘Teals’. This group of representatives is filled with reprehensible figures whose views and policies most definitely do not align with our community. There is that old saying that ‘you are the company you keep’ and her company is a Shanda (disgrace) to our community.

My Interview with Kan News Israel at the scene

Heroism and the Hypocrisy We Avoid Naming

In the midst of horror, there were acts of extraordinary courage. Ahmed Al Ahmed ran toward danger. Unarmed, he tackled an attacker, disarmed him, and fought back. His actions saved lives. He was shot in the process. His bravery is unquestionable, and the outpouring of support toward him reflects the best of this country.

There were others too: people who shielded children, who carried the wounded, who used surfboards as stretchers, who applied first aid under fire, who refused to leave strangers alone in their final moments. This is what humanity looks like when systems fail. And yet, an uncomfortable truth remains.

The family of Rabbi Eli Schlanger z”l – widow and 5 childern lives have been shattered. But their plight has received far less attention and support. This is not about diminishing heroism. It is about confronting discomfort. Ahmed has been gifted millions of dollars and Rabbi Eli who leaves behind an injured wife, toddler and 4 other children has received a fraction of that amount. It is easier to celebrate courage than to sit with targeted Jewish death. Easier to amplify stories that restore faith than those that force us to reckon with why Jews were attacked and why warnings went unheeded.

Both truths must be held together. Anything less is dishonest.

What Terror Wants: and Why It Will Fail

Terrorism is not only about killing. It is about consequence. It seeks to reshape behaviour. To make communities retreat. To make identity quieter. To turn celebration into calculation.

It wants Jews to gather privately.

To live cautiously.

To disappear politely.

Chanukah exists precisely because Jews refused that logic. You can destroy our Temple, you can gun us down in Bondi but we will not ever let you stop us from spreading the light.

Light is not lit when conditions are safe. It is lit because darkness insists it shouldn’t be.

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An Inheritance I Carry

I am the grandson of four Holocaust survivors. They escaped Europe and antisemitism by travelling as far as it was possible to go – to Australia. This country was not just refuge: it was redemption. They became pillars of their community. They believed, deeply, that what they fled could never fully take root here. My grandmother – my Nana adored Bondi. She loved Australian beaches with a gratitude only survivors truly understand. As a child, she took me to this very Chanukah gathering.

I am almost glad she is not here to see Jews and fellow Holocaust survivors like her gunned down for being Jewish on her beloved Bondi Beach.

What Must Happen Now

If this country is serious about ensuring Bondi never happens again, reform must be structural, not symbolic. Australia needs a Royal Commission into Antisemitism to examine failures across intelligence, policing, political leadership, online radicalisation, and hate-crime enforcement. Not another taskforce. Not another report destined for a shelf.

We need at minimum and establish:

• Mandatory national threat-level reassessments for Jewish institutions.
• Embedded counter-terrorism liaison units within Jewish communities
• Uniform hate-crime laws with real enforcement. Real consequences, no more show.

• Political language that names antisemitism without caveat or fear. Explicitly distinguishes that infact anti-Zionism is inherently linked to antisemitism.

Security cannot remain a private Jewish burden. Protection of minorities is a core obligation of the state.

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From Anger, Through Trauma, Toward Hope

I am angry. I am traumatised. We are grieving collectively and individually.

Angry that we warned and were ignored.

Angry that accountability so often follows funerals.

Angry that Jewish fear still needs justification.

But I also know this: my community is still here and we always will be.

We are not invisible and we will rise again stronger and more united than ever before.

We are not ashamed.

And we are not done with sharing our light to the world.

Bondi Beach will never be the same. Neither will Australian Jewry. But we will rebuild: stronger, more vigilant, and more united. We will demand better from those entrusted with our safety. And we will continue to light candles by the jewel-sea.

Not because it is easy.

But because it is necessary.

Because if terror thought it could extinguish our light, it misunderstood us completely.