OPINION
As the Australian left spirals deeper into the dark night of its own, drawn-out Kristallnacht, a government that’s been playing with matches is finally starting to smell the smoke.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that a movement which kicked off by celebrating the worst massacre of Jews since 1945 with fireworks and chants of “Gas the Jews!” on the steps of the Opera House is spiralling into ever-increasing violence.
Twenty-three people have been arrested and charged following a pro-Palestine protest at a Sydney shipping terminal on Tuesday night.
About 400 protesters gathered at Port Botany to oppose the arrival of an Israeli-owned cargo ship and to urge the government to call for a ceasefire.
But, right on cue, the Albanese government is acting all surprised that the anti-Semitic hate they’ve been nudging and winking at for weeks is getting more violent.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says she is concerned about increasing violent pro-Palestine protests following the events at Port Botany overnight.
“I am really disappointed to see this sort of conduct at a protest, particularly one that is targeting violence at police,” she told Channel Seven’s Sunrise.
So, not much that it’s targeting Jews?
This is all of a piece with the disgusting pandering from the Albanese government. Especially among its senior members whose seats desperately rely on the Muslim vote in Western Sydney. Like Tony Burke.
Workplace relations minister and MP for Watson Tony Burke says he is “wary” of pro-Palestine protests descending into anti-Semitism but said people are desperate for the deaths in Gaza to stop.
Note, no mention of the deaths in Southern Israel. It gets worse.
“Penny Wong has said that we need to work through the steps towards a ceasefire,” he added.
“There is a desperation of people wanting the deaths to end … and I’ve repeated what Penny Wong has said in terms of wanting those steps towards a ceasefire.”
They didn’t want the deaths to end when it was Jews being massacred. In fact, they set off fireworks and cheered. It’s only when Israel started defending itself that they suddenly wanted a “ceasefire”.
This is tantamount to letting Hamas get away with the worst atrocities at least since ISIS, if not Auschwitz.
At a state level, too, Labor is recklessly playing with anti-Semitic matches.
Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson says Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has been “very irresponsible and reckless” in not condemning the Melbourne school protest for Palestine sooner.
“She has worked back her comments a little, she is now more strongly saying that students should be at school but last week she was talking about the democratic right of students to go to these protests. That is reckless and irresponsible. It is a breach of duty of care,” she told Channel Seven.
“They cannot put children in harm’s way. There is a certain risk with these protests. These protests are very divisive and very, very scary. For Jewish students and Jewish schools.”
She said school principals also had a duty to direct their students not to attend these protests.
She’s kidding, right? You can bet your arse the left-wing teachers are encouraging their little Pallyjugend stormtroopers.
The opposition is rightly calling the government to account for its revolting tolerance of open, violent anti-Semitism.
Peter Dutton will call for “moral courage and clarity” in unequivocally condemning ugly scenes of anti-Semitism, as Anthony Albanese moves to reassure Jewish leaders that he will protect social cohesion against those seeking to divide Australia.
“Moral courage and clarity” and “Anthony Albanese” are rarely heard in the same sentence.
And Jewish leaders need only judge Albanese by his (lack of) actions, rather than his panicked, belated words.
From ignorance of the October 7 horrors for a full 16 hours, to sitting by (or pissing off overseas again) while his senior minister pander to violent anti-Semitic mobs, Albanese has woefully failed Australia’s Jewish community.
The Opposition Leader and Prime Minister will join senior Jewish and political leaders at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum on Wednesday in a display of bipartisan support against anti-Semitic hate speech and violence fuelled by the Israel-Hamas war.
Speaking at the reopening of the expanded museum, established in Melbourne’s southeast by Holocaust survivors in 1984, Mr Albanese is expected to declare his commitment to the Jewish community amid a wave of anti-Semitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne.
Well, it’s all a bit late, isn’t it? The time to do this was the very instant a mob of Muslims and Greens politicians marched on a Jewish vigil at the Opera House, chanting, “Gas the Jews”.
Albanese conspicuously failed. So has the rest of his government.
The Albanese government has come under fire from Jewish community leaders and the Coalition over growing divisions inside Labor around Israel’s response in Gaza and perceptions that senior government figures have not unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism.
The Australian
Of course, they haven’t. Not while they desperately need the Muslim vote in Western Sydney.