The National Jewish Assembly expresses its profound condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the horrific terrorist attack on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, yesterday, and a heartfelt refuah shlema to those who were injured.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that so many global leaders and governments have learned nothing in the past ten years. It was just over a decade ago that fundamentalist Islamists murdered around 150 innocent people in Bataclan, Paris.
Since then, our societies have faced Islamist attacks against both Jews and non-Jews on a regular basis. Our leaders condemn them, but do nothing.
The questions that need to be asked are (i) why is this happening (ii) what has to happen at the governmental level to prevent these attacks, and (iii) what steps should be taken?
The core reason for these atrocities, mostly against Jews, is the alignment of two different political groupings. First, fundamentalist Islam, which believes that there is no place in the world for Jews except in a “dhimmi” status role, and most certainly no place anywhere for a Jewish state.
Second, left-wing politicians (not necessarily far left) who have been opposed to Israel for the last 50 years since it developed into a capitalist state and who associate most Jews with support for such a country.
Islamic extremists win the fight when Western leaders are confused about what motivates them - Gary Mond | Getty Images
These two groupings might have different policies on some topics – most notably the gay and trans communities – but on the matter of Israel and Jews, they are united, and on one other tangential but vitally important policy too, namely support for mass immigration, legal or illegal, to Western countries from Muslim ones. These slow but undoubted population changes endorse the likelihood of success of their cause.
So what’s to be done? We need to elect new Governments that think differently. Such new rulers need firstly to understand what the causes of the problem are, as I wrote above. Second, they need to accept the resulting principles.
At the head of these is the notion, occasionally mentioned by wise commentators, of “first the Saturday people then the Sunday people”.
Put simply, it means the appreciation of the fact that antisemitism is tragic for the Jews, but also a serious problem for non-Jews too. What starts with the Jews does not end with the Jews.
This is not a “right-wing vs left-wing” attitude, although in today’s world it might seem like it. It is simply a question of whether a government is prepared to fight for its country’s survival against forces that wish to destroy it.
Now to policies. First, governments need to restrict, and even stop altogether, all immigration from countries with high Islamist populations who do not share traditional Western values.
If they do not do so, ten years from now those countries, already changing, will become completely unrecognisable. Marches and displays of public hatred for Israel and Jews must be completely banned, with no exceptions.
Then there needs to be direct policies to curb antisemitic behaviour in so many areas of public life – schools, universities, hospitals, businesses, the courts, entertainment and sport. It might be a tough task, but if there is a serious will to deal with Jew hatred, nothing less will do.
In summary, there is a disastrous path that is currently being trod. Verbal abuse, then graffiti, then arson, then physical abuse, then murder, then mass murder and then pogroms. Many countries in the West have sadly travelled a long way down that route.
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