Latest / The Front / Jewish Australians aren’t feeling reassured about anti-Semitism

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Jewish Australians aren’t feeling reassured about anti-Semitism · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday March thirteen, twenty twenty five. Unjustified and a
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  Speaker 1: bad decision, but Australia won't be retaliating against Donald Trump's
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  Speaker 1: twenty five percent tariffs on Australians steel and aluminium. The
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  Speaker 1: Albanese government is devastated at Trump's refusal to exempt Australia
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  Speaker 1: as it did during his first administration, now fears arising
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  Speaker 1: this will poison other aspects of the US Australian relationship.
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanezi says he'll seek another phone call with the
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  Speaker 1: President to plead Australia's case. A huge NBN upgrade that
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  Speaker 1: cost seven hundred and fifty million dollars was a giant flop,
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  Speaker 1: new figures show, with only an extra one hundred customers
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  Speaker 1: signing up. The government owned telco rolled out five G
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  Speaker 1: enabled wireless broadband, and it was supposed to lure customers
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  Speaker 1: from competitors like Elon Musk's Starlink. That's an exclusive by
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  Speaker 1: our tech editor Jared Lynch live now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com AU Police say a string of antisemitic attacks
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  Speaker 1: were part of a criminal hoax, not a reflection of
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  Speaker 1: anti Jewish sentiment, but far from reassuring Jewish Australians, it's
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  Speaker 1: left a community with more questions than answers today. What's
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  Speaker 1: in it for criminals to spread fear among Jews? And
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  Speaker 1: how do we interpret those terrifying acts of violence?
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  Speaker 2: Now we are now confident that these tip offs were
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  Speaker 2: fabricated and the caravan plot was an elaborate scheme contrived
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  Speaker 2: by organized criminals domestically and from offshore.
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  Speaker 1: On Monday, the Australian Federal Police and New South Wales
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  Speaker 1: Police offered their theory on why a caravan packed with
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  Speaker 1: explosives was left in a suburban Sydney street in January.
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  Speaker 2: Today, I can reveal that the caravan was never going
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  Speaker 2: to cause a mass casualty event, but instead was concocted
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  Speaker 2: by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's good, right, alleged offenders are before the courts,
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  Speaker 1: case closed. Except for Australia's Jewish community, it's very much not.
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  Speaker 3: None of the individuals we have arrested during Pearl have
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  Speaker 3: displayed any form of anti Semitic ideology.
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  Speaker 1: This is Dave Hudson from New South Wales Police.
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  Speaker 3: We don't believe there is any ongoing threat to the
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  Speaker 3: community from a terrorist act. However, outside of Pearl we
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  Speaker 3: are continuing to see anti Semitic incidents and each of
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  Speaker 3: those will be fully investigated.
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  Speaker 1: Chrissy Barrett from the Australian Federal Police.
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  Speaker 2: Almost immediately, experienced investigators within the JOW counter Terrorism Team
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  Speaker 2: believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorist plot,
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  Speaker 2: essentially a criminal con job.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Rice is The Australian's New South Wales editor, Ricey,
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  Speaker 1: how has that announcement gone over in the Jewish community
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  Speaker 1: and beyond Well.
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  Speaker 4: It's gone down like a lead balloon, and so it should.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, it was a really surprising statement for both
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  Speaker 4: the AFP and the New South Wales Police to come
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  Speaker 4: out with effectively declaring that there was no anti Semitism
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  Speaker 4: behind this, no actual anti semitism, and that it was
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  Speaker 4: all some kind of air hoax. But the reality is
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  Speaker 4: that they haven't caught mister Big yet. They've charged, most
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  Speaker 4: recently fourteen people, none of them in relation to the
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  Speaker 4: caravan itself. Surprisingly and yet despite the fact that they
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  Speaker 4: haven't got mister Big they seemed to be able to
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  Speaker 4: declare that there is no anti Semitism as a otive
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  Speaker 4: behind this, and I'm not sure that I get that,
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  Speaker 4: and certainly the Jewish leaders that I've spoken to don't
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  Speaker 4: get it either. It has created, i think, in the
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  Speaker 4: wider community, a sentiment that it was all nothing really,
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  Speaker 4: that it was just a bunch of low lifes who
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  Speaker 4: were paid to do this, and so it actually doesn't
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  Speaker 4: represent any kind of significant anti Semitism in the community,
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  Speaker 4: and I think that's wrong, and I think the messaging
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  Speaker 4: from both the New South Wales police and the FEDS
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  Speaker 4: should have been a lot clearer on this.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So just step me through this like a Ma Toddler.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that police need is intelligence about
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  Speaker 1: what's going on in the criminal community. This is how
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  Speaker 1: they progress from learning about one crime to potentially uncovering
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  Speaker 1: a whole lot of other crimes or plots that are
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  Speaker 1: still underway. So let's say mister Big had committed some
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  Speaker 1: drug offenses and is either in jail or is overseas
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  Speaker 1: trying to avoid being brought back to Australia to face charges.
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  Speaker 1: In the ordinary course of events, a high level criminal
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  Speaker 1: knows things, so he's trying to sell that information essentially
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  Speaker 1: to the police, or in this case, trick the police.
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  Speaker 1: Is that right?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah? The age old example of this is the krim
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  Speaker 4: who says, I know where there's a bunch of rocket launchers,
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  Speaker 4: and if we can do a deal and you can
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  Speaker 4: talk to people and maybe I get three or four
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  Speaker 4: years off my sentence, I can tell you where these
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  Speaker 4: rocket launchers are. In that case, they've gone down this
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  Speaker 4: road before, and the rocket launchers turn out to be
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  Speaker 4: fifty years old or more. Usually just nonexistent. But there
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  Speaker 4: are cases where police and prosecuting authorities will maybe do
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  Speaker 4: deals is perhaps putting it too strongly, but will take
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  Speaker 4: into account information that is given by criminals. What I
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  Speaker 4: fail to see in this case, Yes, the caravan, you
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  Speaker 4: can see that. It's a nice package to deliver to
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  Speaker 4: the police. You've got a caravan, it's got explosives, it's
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  Speaker 4: dressed up with antisemitic literature. It's perfect. You know, you
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  Speaker 4: can virtually tie a bow around it and give it
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  Speaker 4: to the cops. As at present. That's fine, But what
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  Speaker 4: about the fourteen people who've most recently been charged. They
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  Speaker 4: are all just low lifes who've been paid to go
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  Speaker 4: around burning some cars, scribbling racist graffiti on walls. What
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  Speaker 4: I don't understand is what advantage is that to mister Big.
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  Speaker 4: What leverage does he get out of having all these scumbags?
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  Speaker 4: I don't get it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, especially if the alleged scumbags just lead you back
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  Speaker 1: to mister Bigg exactly.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like mister Big is going here, you know,
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  Speaker 4: go and investigate all these people that I've hired to
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  Speaker 4: do this stuff. It doesn't make sense. There is so
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  Speaker 4: much about this case still that doesn't make sense, and
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  Speaker 4: the mixed messaging that's coming from both the New South
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  Speaker 4: Wales cops and the federal cops is not helping one bit.
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  Speaker 4: They cannot get their act together. They can't even agree
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  Speaker 4: on whether it's an overseas based actor or a local It's.
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  Speaker 1: Important to note here many of these individuals are making
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  Speaker 1: their way through the courts. Many of these claims are
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  Speaker 1: just allegations at this stage, and everyone has a right
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  Speaker 1: to a fair trial. Since October seven, twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: when har mass fighters slaughtered and greaped civilians in Israel
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  Speaker 1: and took hundreds of hostages, the Jewish community around the world,
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  Speaker 1: including here in Australia has been on high alert for
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  Speaker 1: a rise in anti Semitic sentiment. Here at The Australian,
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  Speaker 1: we've spent the past seventeen months covering how anti Israel
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  Speaker 1: and pro Palestine groups have expressed themselves in marches, university
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  Speaker 1: encampments and on social media. But in the past six
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  Speaker 1: months or so the words seemed to become actions.
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  Speaker 3: It's a problem that appears to be growing faster than
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  Speaker 3: the police operation trying to stop it.
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  Speaker 4: Beginning Melbourne, where a synagogue has been destroyed in a
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  Speaker 4: targeted attack.
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  Speaker 1: At about ten past four this morning, offenders entered the
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  Speaker 1: property and set the synagogue ablaze. Police start tonight asking
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  Speaker 1: for your help.
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  Speaker 3: After a cafe in Bondai went up in flames early
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  Speaker 3: this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Than on on Sea Lane at Kingsford, words too hateful
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  Speaker 2: to say sprayed across cars and garage doors in Sydney.
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  Speaker 1: Families awoke to the word Jew scrawled on their homes
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  Speaker 1: or cars and the smell of smoke. Many of those
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  Speaker 1: Sydney Jewish families are descendants of Holocaust survivors. For them,
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  Speaker 1: the fear of where antisemitism can go suddenly became very real.
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  Speaker 1: And when you understand that history. You know, the word
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  Speaker 1: jew being spray painted on a wall is not just
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  Speaker 1: a simple act of graffiti. That's exactly what was happening
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  Speaker 1: in Germany and Austria in the nineteen thirties when Adolf
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  Speaker 1: Hitler's rise was accompanied by terrifying attacks on Jewish homes
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  Speaker 1: and businesses. The revelation in February that a caravan packed
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  Speaker 1: with explosives and addresses of Jewish businesses had been discovered,
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  Speaker 1: it just sent those levels of fear into the stratosphere.
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  Speaker 2: We believe the person pulling the strings ont changes to
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  Speaker 2: their criminal status, that maintained a distance from their scheme
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  Speaker 2: and hired alleged local criminals to carry out parts of
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  Speaker 2: their plan. This twisted, self serving criminality has terrorized Jewish Australians.
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  Speaker 2: There was also unwarranted suspicion directed at other communities, and
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  Speaker 2: that is also reprehensible.
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  Speaker 4: I didn't think we should forget that since that October
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  Speaker 4: seven attack. In twenty twenty three, the Master attack, something
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  Speaker 4: like seven hundred anti Semitic attacks in Australia and the
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  Speaker 4: later Strikeforce PEERL. I think they've arrested twenty nine people.
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  Speaker 4: There is just no question there is a huge amount
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  Speaker 4: of actual anti Semitic violence going on. And I'm not
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  Speaker 4: talking about pro Palestinian marches or people being anti Israel.
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  Speaker 4: I'm talking about actual anti Semitic jew hating stuff, you know,
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  Speaker 4: that is increasingly degenerating into violence. And I'm even excluding,
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  Speaker 4: if you will, these latest paid attempts, And I'm saying,
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  Speaker 4: exclude it, even though we don't know the motivation of
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  Speaker 4: the person directing it. Even if you exclude those, you know,
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  Speaker 4: the extent of the violence against Jews in this country
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  Speaker 4: is quite extraordinary still.
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  Speaker 1: After the break. So when is a racist attack not
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  Speaker 1: a racist attack. One of the things that I've been
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  Speaker 1: intrigued about from the beginning is why the word Jew
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  Speaker 1: being graffited on walls has been such a constant throughout
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  Speaker 1: You know, if you know anything about history, you know
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  Speaker 1: that that was the precursor to the Holocaust. That the
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  Speaker 1: public shaming of Jews and the revelation of people's Jewish identity,
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  Speaker 1: the outing of Jews that led in a direct line
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  Speaker 1: to the Holocaust. I'm not saying that there's another Holocaust
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  Speaker 1: in the offing, but that's why it was so chilling
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  Speaker 1: for Jews in Sydney, so if we think perhaps some
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  Speaker 1: or all of these anti Semitic attacks were committed or
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  Speaker 1: inspired by other motives, you know, just sort of pure
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  Speaker 1: criminality or something self serving motive, it seems awfully coincidental
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  Speaker 1: that the manifestation of that is this unbelievably terrifying graffiti
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  Speaker 1: of the word.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, I just don't buy that these criminal acts,
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  Speaker 4: which clearly have anti Semitism all over them, I don't
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  Speaker 4: buy that there was no antisemitic motivation behind it at all.
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  Speaker 4: And until we find the person behind it, until the
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  Speaker 4: police actually bring in this criminal mastermind that they're talking about,
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  Speaker 4: I don't think we can rule out what was going
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  Speaker 4: through his mind and why he decided to create all
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  Speaker 4: these incidents of pure anti Jewish terror for what reason
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  Speaker 4: his own personal motives or is there a motivation? There
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  Speaker 4: is their due hatred behind these actions?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I mean if I threw a brick through the window
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  Speaker 1: of a black owned business, for example, and the brick
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  Speaker 1: had the N word scrawled on it, and my motivation
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  Speaker 1: for that was not actually creating a racist terror, but
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  Speaker 1: was some other motive of my own, does it actually matter?
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  Speaker 2: No?
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  Speaker 4: And if somebody paid you to throw that brick through
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  Speaker 4: that window. It's a racist attack.
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  Speaker 1: One of the probably unintended consequences of the very emphatic
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  Speaker 1: way in which both New South Wales Police and the
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  Speaker 1: Federal Police have talked about this is that presumably it
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  Speaker 1: gives sucker or ballast to those people who say they
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  Speaker 1: are not anti Semitic, but they are anti Israel, or
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  Speaker 1: that they reserve the right to be extremely critical of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: And that's something that we've heard from the pro Palestinian
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  Speaker 1: group from the beginning. You know, we can criticize Israel,
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  Speaker 1: it's got nothing to do with the Jews. How does
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  Speaker 1: that play out, do you think?
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  Speaker 4: Well, you saw a bit of that play out in
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  Speaker 4: the New South Wales Parliament and budget estimates, where you
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  Speaker 4: had the Greens Sue Higginson basically accusing the Men's government
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  Speaker 4: of using these non existent anti Semitic attacks as a
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  Speaker 4: reason for them introducing what they claim is unnecessary and
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  Speaker 4: outlandish legislation that was designed to protect Jewish communities. So
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  Speaker 4: you've already got people jumping on the assumption that there
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  Speaker 4: is no anti Semitism actually behind these attacks, and I
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  Speaker 4: think we're going to see more of it.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Rice is the Australian's New South Wales edit up.
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  Speaker 1: You can follow that complex and detailed story live at
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot a yu