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Did Mossad help our spies catch Iran? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, August twenty seven, twenty twenty five. The CEO
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  Speaker 1: of commercial property giant JLLL is abruptly leaving the company
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  Speaker 1: after revelations in The Australian about a culture of harassment.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Jonni Bashan, editor of our business column Margin Call, has
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  Speaker 1: the scoop and you can hear Yonni talking about jll
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  Speaker 1: by scrolling back in your feed for our full episode.
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  Speaker 1: Yonnie story is live right now at the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: com dot au. For the first time since World War II,
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  Speaker 1: Australia is expelling an ambassador. Iran's representative is on his
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  Speaker 1: way back to Tehran. That's as Australia says the Islamic
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  Speaker 1: Revolutionary Guard orchestrated the firebombing of a Bondidelli and a
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  Speaker 1: Melbourne synagogue. Today. Foreign editor Greg Sheridan on how Australia
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  Speaker 1: likely cooperated with Israel's spy agency Mossad on this investigation
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  Speaker 1: and why Iran's all powerful ruling elite will target Jews.
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  Speaker 1: On the other side of the.
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  Speaker 2: World, Palestinian militants from the Armed Group of Mass launched
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  Speaker 2: a surprised coordinated attack on Israel by land, sea and air.
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  Speaker 3: Flares were thrown, anti Semitic slurs chanted and an Israeli
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  Speaker 3: flag set on fire during that illegal pro Palestinian rally
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  Speaker 3: last night at the Opera House. Four o'clock this morning
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  Speaker 3: when Lewis's Continental kitchen caught fire.
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  Speaker 4: This is on KERL.
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  Speaker 1: Lewis Street here in Bondai. Melbourne's Jewish community is in
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  Speaker 1: shock after a fire bomb attack on one of Australia's
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  Speaker 1: busiest synagogue.
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  Speaker 5: Wishop has reigned for their lives as a sanctuary built
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  Speaker 5: by Holocaust survivors sixty years ago, was destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a dramatic two years and now the government
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  Speaker 1: says the twenty twenty four firebombings of a Sydney Jewish
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  Speaker 1: deli and a Melbourne synagogue were the work of the
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  Speaker 1: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Iran's all powerful military rulers. Now
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Government will outlaw the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
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  Speaker 3: They have sought to harm and terrified Jewish Australians and
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  Speaker 3: to so hatred and division in our community. The actions
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  Speaker 3: of my government send a clear message, a message to
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  Speaker 3: all Australians that we stand against Danish Semitism and we
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  Speaker 3: stand against violence.
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  Speaker 1: Spyboss Mike Burgess.
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  Speaker 5: Iran's actions are utterly unacceptable. They put lives at risk,
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  Speaker 5: They terrified the community, and they tour at our social fabric.
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  Speaker 5: Iram and its proxies literally and figuratively lit the matches
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  Speaker 5: and fanned the flames.
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  Speaker 1: Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
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  Speaker 4: We have suspended the operations of our embassy in Iran
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  Speaker 4: for the same safety of our officials and Australians Border Security.
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  Speaker 4: Australia's officials are, as the Prime Minister said, now in
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  Speaker 4: a third country.
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  Speaker 1: So how did they allegedly do it well. Police have
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  Speaker 1: charged two Victorian men with arson, carfift and conduct day
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  Speaker 1: during life over the Adas Israel Synagogue attack. Police believe
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  Speaker 1: another conspirator is still at large. In relation to the
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  Speaker 1: Sydney Delhi attack, New South Wales police have charged two
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  Speaker 1: men with firebombing and another with directing the attack. That's
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  Speaker 1: Sayed Masawi, a former senior BIKEI with the Nomads, who
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  Speaker 1: police say use the code name James Bond and told
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  Speaker 1: the others he was to be paid at twelve thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars for organizing the attack. He's pleaded not guilty.
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  Speaker 5: There is a layer cake of cutouts between IRGC and
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  Speaker 5: the person or the alleged perpetrators conducting crimes. In between them,
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  Speaker 5: they tap into a number of people agents of IRGC,
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  Speaker 5: people that they know in the criminal world, and work
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  Speaker 5: through there. There is an organized crime element offshore in this,
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  Speaker 5: but that's not suggest organized crime are doing it. They're
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  Speaker 5: just using cutouts, including people who are criminal and members
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  Speaker 5: of organized crime gangs, to do their bidding or direct
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  Speaker 5: their bidding.
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  Speaker 1: Asio believes the Revolutionary Guard may have orchestrated more attacks.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is the Australian's foreign editor Greek. How significant
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  Speaker 1: is it for Australia to expel an ambassador.
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  Speaker 6: It's hugely significant. Clear this marks a significant point in
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  Speaker 6: our diplomatic history. Not since World War Two have we
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  Speaker 6: expelled an ambassador. A very serious move to take, and
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  Speaker 6: I'm full of praise for the Albanesi government. I think
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  Speaker 6: they should have booted this ambassador out earlier for the
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  Speaker 6: things he himself was saying about Jews and Israel. But
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  Speaker 6: this shocking Iranian perpetration of terrorism on our soils deserves
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  Speaker 6: a reaction as strong as this.
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  Speaker 1: The government's being very careful to say that they believe
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  Speaker 1: it's the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and not the Iranian
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  Speaker 1: government's representatives in Australia, the diplomats working at the embassy
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  Speaker 1: who are responsible for these but Greek practically, what's the difference.
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  Speaker 6: Well, in a sense, there's no difference, because Iran is
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  Speaker 6: a little bit like the People's Republic of China. Everybody
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  Speaker 6: works for the central government, but the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
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  Speaker 6: Corps is the most powerful institution within Iran and it
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  Speaker 6: runs Iran's international terrorism. A lot of terror analysts have
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  Speaker 6: held for some time that Iran is now the biggest
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  Speaker 6: state sponsor of international terrorism. It harasses and sometimes murders
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  Speaker 6: Iranian dissidents or members of its diaspora community who are
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  Speaker 6: opposed to the Iranian regime. Well, that's a shocking thing.
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  Speaker 6: That is state sanctioned murder, that is state sanctioned terrorism.
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  Speaker 6: Knowledge is often very compartmentalized. So similarly with the Russians,
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  Speaker 6: it wouldn't be the case that the Russian ambassador would
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  Speaker 6: necessarily about every operation that was being carried out by
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  Speaker 6: Russian intelligence on foreign soil. Similarly, with the Chinese, the
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  Speaker 6: ambassador would have a good general sense of what the
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  Speaker 6: nation is doing. But these clandestine operations are very much
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  Speaker 6: on a need to know basis similarly in our system,
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  Speaker 6: not that we are remotely morally or functionally or equivalent
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  Speaker 6: in any way to the Iranians. But if ASIS was
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  Speaker 6: conducting an operation in some other country, it wouldn't necessarily
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  Speaker 6: be the case that our ambassador knew all the operational details.
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  Speaker 6: It's not surprising that the ambassador himself may not have
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  Speaker 6: had knowledge. And if Mike Burgess, that's the director of Asia,
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  Speaker 6: tells us it wasn't the embassy involved, well that's okay,
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  Speaker 6: no reason to doubt Burgerses were there.
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  Speaker 1: Now from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard course perspective, they've got
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  Speaker 1: a lot of fish to fry. They've got a lot
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  Speaker 1: of enemies around the world, mainly in the Middle East.
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  Speaker 1: How significant an operation is this, Why would they be
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  Speaker 1: bothering blowing up a Delhi in Bondai and a synagogue
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  Speaker 1: in Melbourne.
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  Speaker 6: So they are a very big organization. They've got a
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  Speaker 6: kind of a worldwide mission where accustomed to Iran harassing
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  Speaker 6: and an extreme cases assassinating dissidents in the diaspora community.
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  Speaker 6: Iran also has a record of anti Jewish terrorism. There
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  Speaker 6: have been cases where Jewish sites there was a famous
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  Speaker 6: one in Buenos Aires have been blown up and ultimately
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  Speaker 6: the fingerprints go back to the Iranian government. The thing
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  Speaker 6: that is very difficult for Australians to understand is that
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  Speaker 6: there is a very deep tradition of Islamic anti Semitism.
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  Speaker 6: As I'm ashamed to say, there is quite a strong
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  Speaker 6: tradition of Christian anti Semitism, and the Iranian regime is
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  Speaker 6: very ideological. It is an extreme Islamist regime. Most Muslims
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  Speaker 6: don't follow these ideas, but the Iranian regime has a
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  Speaker 6: she version really of the Muslim brotherhood ideology and Jews
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  Speaker 6: and the West and Israel are among the villains in
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  Speaker 6: that cosmology. So there is a hatred of Jews which
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  Speaker 6: motivates this. But also, according to Mike Burgess, there's also
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  Speaker 6: a desire to disrupt social cohesion in Australia. Australia is
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  Speaker 6: seen as part of the West, as an ally of
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  Speaker 6: the United States, which is the great Satan. You know,
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  Speaker 6: even today in Iran there a chance of death to America,
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  Speaker 6: and America is the great Satan in israelis the little
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  Speaker 6: Satan and so on, and where the Great Satan's helper.
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  Speaker 6: So they're quite happy to try to cause social division
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  Speaker 6: in Australia, and the tragic events in Gaza and the
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  Speaker 6: conflict there makes this a propitious time for them to
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  Speaker 6: stir up anti Semitic sentiment. They are much more concerned
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  Speaker 6: with nations of the Middle East and then with cities
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  Speaker 6: like London and Paris, very very concerned with the United States.
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  Speaker 6: But the fact that they would go to the trouble
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  Speaker 6: of doing this in Australia shows their sort of global
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  Speaker 6: reach and their global ambition.
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  Speaker 1: Not mentioned during the press conference on Tuesday was Israel,
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  Speaker 1: but Mike Burgess did say that ASIO had cooperated with
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  Speaker 1: its partners overseas. Presumably the one that knows the most
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  Speaker 1: about the Revolutionary Guards is Mossad.
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  Speaker 6: Well, that's absolutely right. Clear. So part of the tragedy
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  Speaker 6: of everything that's happening at the moment is the decline
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  Speaker 6: of the Australia Israel relationship. Australia and Israel go back
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  Speaker 6: a long way. It was Australian troops who liberated Bearsheba
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  Speaker 6: from the Ottoman Turks and that really led the way
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  Speaker 6: to the expansion of the Zionist movement in Israel. The
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  Speaker 6: word kobber comes from the Hebrew word keva, which Australian
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  Speaker 6: diggers picked up while they are in the Middle East.
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  Speaker 6: This is a very long standing relationship, with a very
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  Speaker 6: intimate relationship. Now there is no country on Earth which
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  Speaker 6: knows more about every aspect of Iran than Israel. The
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  Speaker 6: smartest Israelis there are spend their lives studying Iran. We
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  Speaker 6: have a very deep and intimate intelligence exchange with Israel,
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  Speaker 6: which I hope and trust has not been disturbed by
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  Speaker 6: the recent coldness between the two governments. Now we also
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  Speaker 6: pass information to Israel. It's not a one way street. However,
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  Speaker 6: it is the case that they know more about threats
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  Speaker 6: to us than we know about threats to them. Australians
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  Speaker 6: are alive today because Israel has given the Australian government
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  Speaker 6: information on terrorist networks in our region. And I don't
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  Speaker 6: know who Burgess was referring to when he talked about
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  Speaker 6: cooperation with the sympathetic foreign agencies, but you would have
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  Speaker 6: to think, as you say, Claire, the agency of the
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  Speaker 6: whole world which knows most about Iran is the Israeli
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  Speaker 6: government and Mossad and Shinbet and the other analytical agencies within.
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  Speaker 1: Israel coming up. How should Jewish Australians interpret all this?
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  Speaker 1: The Jewish community has been on a hell of an
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  Speaker 1: emotional rollercoaster since October twenty twenty three, haven't they? Greg?
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  Speaker 1: You know, first on October nine, we saw the protests
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  Speaker 1: outside the Opera House with Chance that they found deeply disturbing.
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  Speaker 1: Then a series of attacks, including these two the Lewis's
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  Speaker 1: Continental Kitchen and the Adas Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. But
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  Speaker 1: then the Federal Police came out and indicated that well,
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  Speaker 1: there's really nothing to see here. This is a criminal conjob.
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  Speaker 1: It's a hoax being pulled by a crook who wants
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  Speaker 1: to negotiate a change in his criminal status. That left
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  Speaker 1: a lot of Jewish people feeling as though their concerns
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  Speaker 1: about those attacks were being minimized. How should Jewish Australians
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  Speaker 1: do you think, Greg interpret what author already are saying now,
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  Speaker 1: which is that at least some of these attacks, maybe
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  Speaker 1: more were coming from Iran, and as you say, we
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  Speaker 1: have an undoubtedly anti Semitic intention.
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  Speaker 6: Yes, Claire, I think Jewish people in Australia would be
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  Speaker 6: reassured by the federal government's actions. Even when the Federal
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  Speaker 6: Police were telling us that some of these attacks were
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  Speaker 6: directed by a foreign based Australian criminal seeking to negotiate
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  Speaker 6: a better outcome on a sentence, it seemed just wildly
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  Speaker 6: implausible on its face that that was the deep explanation
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  Speaker 6: that might have been the surface of things. But if
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  Speaker 6: he was overseas, why was he trying to negotiate a
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  Speaker 6: better outcome on a sentence in Australia. I mean, it
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  Speaker 6: just don't come home to Australia if you're going to
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  Speaker 6: go to jail. And how did he think that that
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  Speaker 6: series of actions was going to help him? But also
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  Speaker 6: even if all that was true, it was almost certain
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  Speaker 6: that he was acting also from anti Semitic motives. I mean,
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  Speaker 6: the fact that the anti Semitism comes from a criminal
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  Speaker 6: doesn't mean that it's not anti Semitism. And Australian authorities
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  Speaker 6: at one level understandably, but I think mistakenly are always
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  Speaker 6: inclined to downplay this because they're trying to reassure communities.
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  Speaker 6: They don't want to exaggerate a problem and they want
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  Speaker 6: people to stay calm. But you've always got to deal
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  Speaker 6: with reality.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 6: I have been very critical of the Albanese government for
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  Speaker 6: not understanding even before October seven that there was a
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  Speaker 6: burgeoning crisis of antisemitism around the world. There is a
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  Speaker 6: right wing anti semitism, you see it in some of
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  Speaker 6: these insane quasi neo Nazi movements in the United States,
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  Speaker 6: and there is a left wing antisemitism which regards Israel
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  Speaker 6: as simply the source of all evil. Now, sadly, all
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  Speaker 6: those toxic, terrible streams of hatred of Jews, the oldest
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  Speaker 6: and most terrible hatred we know in our civilization, come
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  Speaker 6: together into a giant river of anti Semitism. Now, at
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  Speaker 6: no point at all ever has the federal government looked
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  Speaker 6: like it understood that. The New South Wales Premier Chris
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  Speaker 6: Mens seems to have got the idea pretty quickly. But
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  Speaker 6: now I would say the federal government responded with proportionate, serious,
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  Speaker 6: real intent to one element of this crisis. So Iran
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  Speaker 6: is not just a difficult nation which causes trouble. It
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  Speaker 6: is a nation motivated by an ideology which is anti
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  Speaker 6: Semitic in its core, and therefore a government like Australia
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  Speaker 6: which wants to safeguard its Jewish community and safeguard Australian
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  Speaker 6: cohesion and all the rest of it has to confront
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  Speaker 6: the government of Iran. There's some value in having an
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  Speaker 6: Australian embassy in Iran, but not if you give away
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  Speaker 6: your basic internal decency, and we were seeming to do
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  Speaker 6: that in allowing the ambassador endless scope to just say
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  Speaker 6: and do the most vile things. We should have said, well,
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  Speaker 6: you can hold those views if you like, but you
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  Speaker 6: can't live in a Australia and hold them. So, you know,
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  Speaker 6: a bit late, but they've got there, and they're also
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  Speaker 6: right to expose this all publicly, to tell us all
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  Speaker 6: about it, and therefore that makes you ran pay a
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  Speaker 6: certain reputational price. People around the world will see what
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  Speaker 6: Iran has been doing in Australia, so you know, I
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  Speaker 6: think on the whole they haven't been a very good
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  Speaker 6: government dealing with anti Semitism, but this is a very
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  Speaker 6: good day.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor. The Australian's been
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: doing groundbreaking reporting about the Iranian diaspora and how they've
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  Speaker 1: been targeted to You can read all about that and
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: all our analysis right now at the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot au