Some of the most craven individuals have emerged to make capital off of this heinous crime.
The investigation has not even concluded and now sweeping changes are proposed to clamp down on our few remaining civil liberties. No one can blame the PM for this crime, but he can be blamed for the legislative response. Their proposal? A Censor with Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers to ‘correct’ the public narrative against criteria they will control.
Josh Burns, Julian Leeser and the insufferable Frydenberg (who as we remember lost his blue ribbon seat to a first time candidate) demand the adoption of a report written by Segal which went through no Parliamentary review. Have they even read it? This is an outrageous attempt to seize control of our civil society in education, media and politics.
I agree totally . As Joel says , “no law conflating criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews will alter the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Public abhor the genocide occurring in Palestine . The dictates of government policy by the antisemitism woman never begin to approach this pesky detail . Nor does any journalist ever ask her about this .
Joel, this is a great response. The call for unity over opportunism feels right, especially while the ground is still moving under people’s feet. What struck me most is how quickly grief gets rerouted into culture war, because it’s easier than doing the unglamorous work that actually prevents the next attack.
If we’re serious, the focus has to stay boring and structural: firearms access, intelligence failures, follow-through, media discipline. Policing protest or blaming public opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza for a domestic terror attack isn’t accountability, it’s displacement, and it avoids the hard questions about guns, intelligence failures and media irresponsibility.
I also think you’re right to flag the danger of imported narratives. Letting overseas leaders or their local amplifiers frame Australian grief for their own ends corrodes trust here. Jewish safety in Australia is non-negotiable. So is the right to oppose mass civilian killing without being treated as suspect. The only reason those get pitted against each other is political convenience.
Holding that line, calmly and without theatrics, is the adult response this moment calls for.
Liked: 'It must be remembered that the biggest threat to the safety of Jews in Australia—and the spread of antisemitism—is not Australians; it’s not immigrants; it’s not guns. It is Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme government, which have been committing a UN-declared genocide in Gaza for over two years.' Israel's G3n0c1d3 naturally generates enormous dislike from those witnessing their deliberate and repeated war crimes. Yet Israel chooses to keep associating innocent Judaists around the world with its war crimes, using innocent Judaism as a moral shield to hide its mass child murdering behind, while sullying their co-religionists reputation. If Australian Judaists want other Australians (of all beliefs & philosophies) to retain their respect for Judaism as a humane religion, then they might like to message that they expect humane behavior from Israel, and that they reject Israel's ongoing war crimes unconditionally. https://www.jewishcouncil.com.au/
Whatever motivated this heinous criminal pair we may never know, but the most vitriolic commentators and regrettably our current governing politicians unhesitatingly accept that the issue driving this divisive mayhem is antisemitism - a hatred of semitic peoples. In my view the antisemitism charge is an all too convenient manufactured cover that Netanyahu and his fellow Zionist/Fascists strenuously cultivate to divert attention away from the Gaza/Palestine reality - a brutal, ruthless, intentionally inflicted genocide of the Palestinian people by Israeli Zionists.
It seems that the preferred Israeli 'blame' narrative has been effortlessly achieved - without hesitation, our mass media hacks and politicians go into overdrive condemning the unverified diagnosis of raging Australian antisemitism; contriving fascistic laws to ban organised public outcry against a blatantly systemic, illegal, globally broadcast criminal genocide.
So off go the polies & media chasing Israel's antisemitism 'rabbit' while the true cause of Australian's extreme outrage, the fanatical Israeli 'fox' genocide guns blaze on unperturbed.
Australians are not antisemitic - they are almost universally outraged and protesting this Israeli Zionist genocide. It is our civic, moral duty to oppose genocide in the most effective way possible!
Israel is calling in its favors - it has spent million$ over decades cultivating this fertile ground amongst our pollies and media - let the democracy destroying US AIPAC debacle be the lesson.
There's been so much garbage out there. So many people using it for their political ends, as you've so thoroughly documented. I wasn't aware of the Frydenberg stuff. That's disgusting.
Wanted war criminial Netanyahu politicising the tragedy within hours is not something I'll ever forget.
This really captures something crucial about where we're at. The way political grief gets weaponised before anyone's even processed what happened - thats the part that gets me. You see it with gun reform debates getting buried under free speech panic, which feels intentional tbh. I dunno if we ever get past it without media that prioritises accuracy over drama, but watching Frydenberg launch a comback at a vigil makes you wonder who's really driving the bus here.
Well expressed, Joel. Sadly, racist, bigoted stenographers (I will never call them journalists) in legacy media joined by puerile, pedestrian shock jocks in parlous radio stations will not hesitate to spew enmity if they can get some attention. Compounding the problem we have failed and failing politicians who will join for the same reasons, demonstrating their total lack of integrity and leadership which only serves to confirm the wisdom of the electorate in rejecting them in the last election.
Thanks Joel, for your laser thinking-through, cutting into the disgusting self-serving disinformation, reductive myths and cancerous politics. You keep making sense of all this, however despairing.
Hey Joel. I am a fan of your work and thank you for it.
But may I suggest that you tend to make your sentences too long and complicated. It would be easier to grasp your excellent points if you used shorter less complicated sentences.
Albanese’s leadership has taken a severe beating. Is it fatal? We’ll have to wait and see. While there is much to criticise the PM for, it is ludicrous to assert he is responsible for the killing of 15 people at Bondi.
Thank you for your analysis Joel.
Some of the most craven individuals have emerged to make capital off of this heinous crime.
The investigation has not even concluded and now sweeping changes are proposed to clamp down on our few remaining civil liberties. No one can blame the PM for this crime, but he can be blamed for the legislative response. Their proposal? A Censor with Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers to ‘correct’ the public narrative against criteria they will control.
Josh Burns, Julian Leeser and the insufferable Frydenberg (who as we remember lost his blue ribbon seat to a first time candidate) demand the adoption of a report written by Segal which went through no Parliamentary review. Have they even read it? This is an outrageous attempt to seize control of our civil society in education, media and politics.
I agree totally . As Joel says , “no law conflating criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews will alter the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Public abhor the genocide occurring in Palestine . The dictates of government policy by the antisemitism woman never begin to approach this pesky detail . Nor does any journalist ever ask her about this .
Josh riding a wave in his now-fashionable kippah
Despicable
Joel, this is a great response. The call for unity over opportunism feels right, especially while the ground is still moving under people’s feet. What struck me most is how quickly grief gets rerouted into culture war, because it’s easier than doing the unglamorous work that actually prevents the next attack.
If we’re serious, the focus has to stay boring and structural: firearms access, intelligence failures, follow-through, media discipline. Policing protest or blaming public opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza for a domestic terror attack isn’t accountability, it’s displacement, and it avoids the hard questions about guns, intelligence failures and media irresponsibility.
I also think you’re right to flag the danger of imported narratives. Letting overseas leaders or their local amplifiers frame Australian grief for their own ends corrodes trust here. Jewish safety in Australia is non-negotiable. So is the right to oppose mass civilian killing without being treated as suspect. The only reason those get pitted against each other is political convenience.
Holding that line, calmly and without theatrics, is the adult response this moment calls for.
Well said , and correct in every detail . 👍🏻
It's truly truly despicable how the media have behaved
Liked: 'It must be remembered that the biggest threat to the safety of Jews in Australia—and the spread of antisemitism—is not Australians; it’s not immigrants; it’s not guns. It is Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme government, which have been committing a UN-declared genocide in Gaza for over two years.' Israel's G3n0c1d3 naturally generates enormous dislike from those witnessing their deliberate and repeated war crimes. Yet Israel chooses to keep associating innocent Judaists around the world with its war crimes, using innocent Judaism as a moral shield to hide its mass child murdering behind, while sullying their co-religionists reputation. If Australian Judaists want other Australians (of all beliefs & philosophies) to retain their respect for Judaism as a humane religion, then they might like to message that they expect humane behavior from Israel, and that they reject Israel's ongoing war crimes unconditionally. https://www.jewishcouncil.com.au/
Whatever motivated this heinous criminal pair we may never know, but the most vitriolic commentators and regrettably our current governing politicians unhesitatingly accept that the issue driving this divisive mayhem is antisemitism - a hatred of semitic peoples. In my view the antisemitism charge is an all too convenient manufactured cover that Netanyahu and his fellow Zionist/Fascists strenuously cultivate to divert attention away from the Gaza/Palestine reality - a brutal, ruthless, intentionally inflicted genocide of the Palestinian people by Israeli Zionists.
It seems that the preferred Israeli 'blame' narrative has been effortlessly achieved - without hesitation, our mass media hacks and politicians go into overdrive condemning the unverified diagnosis of raging Australian antisemitism; contriving fascistic laws to ban organised public outcry against a blatantly systemic, illegal, globally broadcast criminal genocide.
So off go the polies & media chasing Israel's antisemitism 'rabbit' while the true cause of Australian's extreme outrage, the fanatical Israeli 'fox' genocide guns blaze on unperturbed.
Australians are not antisemitic - they are almost universally outraged and protesting this Israeli Zionist genocide. It is our civic, moral duty to oppose genocide in the most effective way possible!
Israel is calling in its favors - it has spent million$ over decades cultivating this fertile ground amongst our pollies and media - let the democracy destroying US AIPAC debacle be the lesson.
Thank you for this.
There's been so much garbage out there. So many people using it for their political ends, as you've so thoroughly documented. I wasn't aware of the Frydenberg stuff. That's disgusting.
Wanted war criminial Netanyahu politicising the tragedy within hours is not something I'll ever forget.
It's nice to read something that cuts
Oops, hit submit too soon.
But it's nice to read something that cuts through the sickening - because it does literally make me feel ill - politicisation.
This really captures something crucial about where we're at. The way political grief gets weaponised before anyone's even processed what happened - thats the part that gets me. You see it with gun reform debates getting buried under free speech panic, which feels intentional tbh. I dunno if we ever get past it without media that prioritises accuracy over drama, but watching Frydenberg launch a comback at a vigil makes you wonder who's really driving the bus here.
Excellent piece. Thanks Joel.
Thanks Jeff, it's a troubling time.
Well expressed, Joel. Sadly, racist, bigoted stenographers (I will never call them journalists) in legacy media joined by puerile, pedestrian shock jocks in parlous radio stations will not hesitate to spew enmity if they can get some attention. Compounding the problem we have failed and failing politicians who will join for the same reasons, demonstrating their total lack of integrity and leadership which only serves to confirm the wisdom of the electorate in rejecting them in the last election.
Thank you for this level headed analysis. So refreshing after being assaulted by the rhetoric of opportunistic politicians and media outlets
Thanks Joel, for your laser thinking-through, cutting into the disgusting self-serving disinformation, reductive myths and cancerous politics. You keep making sense of all this, however despairing.
Hey Joel. I am a fan of your work and thank you for it.
But may I suggest that you tend to make your sentences too long and complicated. It would be easier to grasp your excellent points if you used shorter less complicated sentences.
Thanks. Philip.
Albanese’s leadership has taken a severe beating. Is it fatal? We’ll have to wait and see. While there is much to criticise the PM for, it is ludicrous to assert he is responsible for the killing of 15 people at Bondi.
I have more intelligent organisms than Ray Hadley in the crisper drawer of my fridge.