Australia failed the test on the night of the attack. It is now failing again in daylight. An internal review is not accountability. It is concealment dressed up as governance.
What should have been a moment of clarity and compassion was quickly overshadowed by denial of facts, false identifications, and a rapid reframing of the event.
Sydney should not be used to shut down legitimate criticism of Israel. But it should end the pretense that antisemitic intimidation, when cloaked in politics, deserves a pass.
This assault was no random act of violence; it was a deliberate terrorist attack on a peaceful Jewish community.
The critical question – rarely asked – is: where is Israel’s intent to destroy the Palestinian people?
The Maccabees prevailed because they refused erasure – militarily, culturally, and spiritually. Contemporary Jewish survival requires the same multi-front refusal.
As the South Caucasus undergoes a profound transformation and the Middle East enters a new diplomatic era, Israel has a rare chance to convert dormant affinities into durable strategic capital.
Israel has proven it can survive and endure. The task of 2026 is to ensure it can thrive and flourish, not despite the past two years, but because it chose to rebuild wisely after them.
The massacres, the pogroms and the terror, are focused on Israel’s eradication: to be achieved by crushing Jews and the Jewish spirit.
If the international force never deploys, or deploys in a limited, ineffective way, there is a real danger that the ceasefire will become a “frozen conflict.”
If Israel is to honor Haymanot Kasau and every child who depends on the state’s vigilance, it must remember this truth: When a child disappears, time is the enemy and urgency is our only defense.
