The horrific terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney should end any illusion that Australia is insulated from the violent currents sweeping across the democratic world.
Gunmen opened fire on families gathered for a community event, murdering worshipers and wounding many more. As Jerusalem Post reporters Mathilda Heller and Shir Perets wrote, this was “a mass shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration” in one of Australia’s most iconic public spaces.
This was not a freak incident or an internal “Jewish issue.” It was an attack on public safety and social cohesion, and on the idea that liberal democracies can afford complacency in the face of rising ideological violence. When Jews are targeted for celebrating their faith in the public square, the problem is not foreign policy. It is the failure of the state to uphold its most basic obligation: protecting its citizens.
For months, Australian Jewish communities have warned that antisemitic incidents were escalating sharply. According to figures reported by Heller in the Post, Australia recorded more than 1,600 antisemitic incidents in the past year, including dozens of assaults and acts of vandalism, and hundreds of other abusive or threatening incidents.
The trajectory was visible long before it turned deadly. Arson attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools, swastikas on homes and businesses, and bomb threats against community institutions were all documented by Post reporters, including Heller, Michael Starr, and Jacob Laznik.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns called one attempted synagogue arson “an escalation in anti-Semitic crime.” Those were the right words, but they were not matched by a decisive strategy.
Coordinated, ideologically driven violence
Even more disturbing was what lay behind some of these attacks. Australian intelligence has concluded that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind at least two antisemitic arson attacks on Jewish sites in Melbourne and Sydney, prompting Canberra to expel Iranian diplomats, suspend its embassy operations in Tehran, and move toward designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. This is not spontaneous hatred. It is coordinated, ideologically driven violence.
At the same time, the Mossad warned Australian authorities of the risk of an antisemitic terrorist attack against the Jewish community. A Post staff report, citing Israeli and Australian media, revealed that the Mossad sent messages about possible threats, even as the local police commissioner insisted there had been no specific intelligence before the Bondi Beach massacre.
That gap, if confirmed, points to a devastating breakdown between the warning system and the political and policing response.
The human cost is already visible. We reported that Arsen Ostrovsky, a Post contributor and pro-Israel human-rights lawyer, was among those wounded at Bondi Beach.
Just two weeks earlier, Ostrovsky had warned of “an alarming surge in Jew-hatred since October 7, including the defilement of Australian landmarks being hijacked as platforms for intimidation.” His wounds at a Hanukkah celebration are a brutal illustration of how quickly rhetoric turns into bullets.
Australia’s experience is part of a broader and troubling global pattern. Across Western democracies, antisemitism has surged alongside a wider resurgence of ideological extremism. Jewish communities are often the first targets, but history shows they are never the last.
Lone actors, radicalized networks, and transnational ideologies do not respect borders, and they thrive where political leadership hesitates to name the problem clearly or act decisively.
Australian authorities have taken steps in response: arrests, investigations, new databases, and task forces. Yet the overall response has too often felt reactive, fragmented, and cautious. Security cannot be reduced to policing after the fact. It requires political clarity, legal frameworks that recognize modern threats, and sustained coordination between intelligence services, law enforcement, and vulnerable communities.
Standing with Australia’s Jewish community is not a matter of symbolism or special pleading. It is a test of whether the state can protect a minority when it is under sustained attack, and whether it understands that doing so strengthens democracy for everyone. Jewish Australians should not have to choose between visibility and safety, or between practicing their faith and trusting their government.
If Australia fails to act decisively now, not just for Jews but for all communities, it will not be because the threat was unforeseeable. The Post’s own reporting throughout the past two years has chronicled the warning signs. Those warnings were ignored, and responsibility was deferred. That is a failure no democracy can afford.