2002? 2026? What’s the difference?
Antisemitism, in whatever form it tries to take or morph into, did not begin in the aftermath of 7 October, nor will it end tomorrow.
Ron Weiser
In Australia, we have experienced periods of greater and lesser antisemitism over decades and decades, but nothing like the intensity, ferocity and sheer naked overt hatred that we have been subjected to these past two years or so.
However, antisemitism can be fought, it can be made unacceptable to decent societies and it can be dramatically reduced.
It depends on leadership. Genuine leaders learn from the consequences of past actions and inaction, both their own and others.
They gain an understanding of the difference between freedom of expression and incitement to violence. One of the consequences of allowing hate to fester for decades is behaviour that eats away at and corrodes social cohesion.
Their lived experiences help them to mature and develop policies that improve the societies they lead and that make life safer for all Australians.
That is why a royal commission into antisemitism in Australia is needed. To shine a light on and understand the root causes of antisemitism.
In 2002, Islamist terrorists murdered 202 people, including 88 Australians, in Bali. The greatest loss of Australian life due to terror.
2025, in what we thought was impossible on Australian soil, Islamist terrorists carried out the worst terrorist attack ever inside Australia. It was targeted specifically at the Jewish community, celebrating Chanukah, at an Australian icon, Bondi Beach.
Below is a speech I gave in Melbourne twenty-three years ago, three days after the Bali attacks, when introducing the then Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd at a public function.
It is archived on the Federal Parliament House website.
The battle for the narrative remains unchanged.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Royal Commission now!
Dr Weiser introduced Shadow Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd at a meeting in 2002. JohnHoward was the prime minister at the time.
Below is the transcript of his introductory remarks:
Australia has a proud and long-standing record of bipartisan support for the State of Israel. We recall the Labor Party’s then Foreign Minister, Doc Evatt and his Chairmanship of the Partition Vote at the United Nations on the 29th November, 1947. We note also that the bi-partisan support extends to Israel’s security whilst at the same time, recognising the need to deal justly with the aspirations of the Palestinians.
We do hear great words from some members of the ALP, people like Michael Danby, Senators Forshaw, Hutchins and others, but we also hear others who call Israel a ‘rogue state’. We also see Anthony Albanese marching in Palestinian rallies in Sydney, while elements of the crowd carry Hizbollah and Hamas flags and others have their children wearing plastic suicide vests.
I look forward to hearing tonight the clear and precise recognition that we do hear from the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, of the following three points:
- That the barriers and realisation of this bi-partisan position is precisely that there is no visible Palestinian leadership that is willing to accept a State for their own people alongside Israel, but rather seeks to have their State instead of Israel.
Yasser Arafat’s strategy is not to win Palestinian freedom, but to deny Israel’s freedom. The long-term goal is not to establish a Palestinian State, but to destroy the Jewish State.
We need to hear clear and unambiguous recognition from our Australian leaders that Israel accepted partition in 1947, offered it again in 1967 and again in 2000 at Camp David and each time, sadly, Abba Eban’s dictum was proven correct that “the Arabs have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity”.
And this desire for peace and willingness to make painful concessions for peace are exemplified by the current Prime Minister of Israel, who enjoys the support of the vast majority of the Israeli people and a truly huge majority in the Knesset. I remind you all of Prime Minister Sharon’s words on 23 September 2001 in his historic speech at Latrun.
He said, “The State of Israel wants to give the Palestinians what no one else has heretofore given them: the possibility of establishing a State. Neither the Turks, the English, the Egyptians, nor the Jordanians gave them such a possibility”.Prime Minister Sharon continues: “All that Israel has asked, and Arafat has committed himself to this continually in empty promises, is to stop terrorism, to live in peace, to live in calm”.
So we need to hear that it is time for the Palestinians to stop the terror and to return to the negotiating table, that it is they who chose violence over dialogue.
- That there can be no moral Terrorism is terrorism. We know what it is. It is the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians and tragically we saw it manifest itself once again in Bali this weekend. It is not freedom fighting. One man’s terrorist can never be another’s freedom fighter.
Freedom fighters do not blow up buses containing non-combatants. Terrorist murderers do. Freedom fighters do not blow up pizza parlours, discotheques, and nightclubs. Terrorist murderers do. Terrorists do not aim to build anything whatsoever, but just to destroy.
The Bali bombers did not exist in a vacuum, and they are no different from the bombers Israel faces. These terrorists are nurtured and are dispatched. Whether we like to admit it or not, today’s terrorists, whether they be Hamas, Hizbollah, JI, Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Moslem Brotherhood, etc., etc., are Muslim fundamentalists. They are State-sponsored, State-supported, State-funded, and State-encouraged. And it is not limited to The Sudan, or to Libya, or to Syria or to Iran or to Saudi Arabia or to Iraq or to the Palestinian Authority and so on, and so on.
Islamic fundamentalism is a totalitarian, despotic, hate-filled, venomous ideology, based on a fight between it and the infidel – that is, everyone else. And be not mistaken, everyone else. And it is not a passing aberration and it not something that one can negotiate with. Islamic fundamentalism is a fight against modernity, a fight against freedom, a fight against democracy and a fight against civil rights.
- The true recognition of what Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East really means. The fact that there is a freely elected leadership, that there is an independent judiciary and that there is a free and vibrant and critical And the fact that these are not just words.
They invest a nation with responsibilities and privileges and values and morality. And they shape a society that a non-democratic entity can not even begin to understand, nor conform to nor act in accordance with and therefore, wishes to destroy.
There needs to be a recognition that Israel’s one million Arab citizens ironically enjoy more rights in Israel than Arab citizens do in Arab countries. And there has to be a recognition of the corruption, the moral decay and the incitement, the baseless, evil, racist, rank anti-Semitic incitement and anti-Western incitement and anti-democratic incitement in thePalestinian controlled press, the Palestinian controlled education system and throughout the mosques in the West Bankand Gaza and indeed in many parts of the Arab world and yes, sadly, even in some places here in Australia today.
Friends, the Australian Jewish community needs to be able to take comfort from the fact that our Australian leaders understand terror, reject moral equivalence and have empathy with the only democracy in the Middle East, as she continues her search for peace in a neighbourhood of despotism, dictatorship and corruption.
There needs to be a determined wall-to-wall coalition against terror. These terrorists attack democracy because democracy guarantees individual liberty. Those who treasure freedom must unite and do so now. The time for even-handedness when it comes to terrorism has ended. This terrorism targets all of us.
I am reminded of those famous words that “all it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to remain silent”.
Ron Weiser is the Honorary Life Member ZFA Executive and Honorary Life President, ZC of NSW
