Netanyahu Blames Synagogue Arson at Melbourne on Australia’s Hostility to Israel

Is Australia — once a staunch supporter of Israel but much less so now — encouraging antisemitism? That is Prime Minister Netanayahu’s conclusion following a Friday morning synagogue torching at Melbourne.“I have zero tolerance for antisemitism. It has absolutely no place in Australia,” Prime Minister Albanese said following the arson attack that gutted the insides of Melbourne’s Adas Israel synagogue. As the premier spoke, Jewish leaders examined Torah scrolls that miraculously remained intact in the ashes. The entire scene was reminiscent of Europe’s darkest days. Hours later in Israel, Mr. Albanese’s Jerusalem counterpart called the attack “abhorrent,” and linked it to the policies of Canberra’s left-leaning government. “Unfortunately,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement, “it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia.”Two recent events have alarmed Jerusalem. At the United Nations, Australia veered away from earlier voting patterns and backed an anti-Israel resolution. Late last month, Canberra denied an entry visa to a former Knesset member, Ayelet Shaked, over fears that her planned speaking tour would “seriously undermine social cohesion” in the country. Shortly after the October 7, 2003, Hamas atrocities, Sydney emerged as one of the first large Western cities where a significant number of keffiyeh-clad protesters poured into streets in daily “Free Palestine” demonstrations. As the anti-Israel sentiments grows, the opposition is now accusing Canberra’s ruling party of altering Australia foreign policy to appease the streets. Mr. Albanese “sold the Jewish community out for ‘green’ votes,” the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said during a heated parliamentary debate. He spoke after Australia, among 156 countries, supported a Palestinian-initiated resolution at the UN General Assembly. The resolution called on Israel to “bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible.” It set up a UN conference next June to hasten the establishment of a Palestinian state. Before winning the 2022 election Mr. Albanese promised not to shift Australia’s position on key UN votes, Mr. Dutton of the right-of-center Liberal Party said. Now the premier and his leftist foreign secretary, Penny Wong, are “prepared to sacrifice the well-being of the Jewish community here in Australia,” he added. The current Australian government is “extremely anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian and some of its members are antisemitic,” Ms. Shaked, a past member of Israel’s Zionist Spirit Party, said last month. A former interior minister, she reacted to Canberra’s refusal to let her enter the country, where she planned to attend an international conference, followed by a speaking tour.“My department has been refusing visas of people who want to come here and talk about the conflict if we think that they are going to seriously undermine social cohesion when they’re here,” Australia’s home affairs minister, Tony Burke, told Sky television. “Ms. Shaked has said that all the Palestinians should leave Gaza.”Last December, as shocked Israelis were reeling from the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the former politician proposed that once the city of Khan Yunis “has turned into a soccer field,” Israel must encourage all countries to take in Gazans. Two million Palestinians would then be encouraged to leave the Strip. Such statements, uttered in Israel at a moment of extreme national distress, are seen in countries as far away as Australia as undermining “cohesion” and hurting feelings. A year after Israel’s trauma, on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, protesters flooded Australia’s largest cities. Typical banners claimed “Zionism is Genocide” and repeated the phrase “from the river to the sea.”Anti-Israel rallies are increasingly targeting Australia’s Jews. On Wednesday, protesters carrying Palestinian and Hezbollah flags put under siege Sydney’s Great Synagogue, the country’s oldest Jewish institution, where an event marked the 100th anniversary of Israel’s Technion. As congregants were trapped inside the synagogue, police defended the rowdy crowd’s right to protest. The only arrests targeted two men carrying Israeli flags, who according to a police statement were “not associated with the event.”On Friday only a handful of people at Melbourne were praying inside Adas Israel at 4:10 a.m. when the synagogue was “engulfed in flames,” as Victoria’s top cop, Chris Murray, described the event. It took 60 firefighters and 17 fire trucks to put out the fire.The few early congregants reportedly saw liquid pouring inside the building, and then heard a “loud bang.” They managed to get out and only one man suffered a slight burn. Had the attack occurred an hour later, though, “there would have been hundreds of people inside,” a board member, Benjamin Klein, told Australian television. In his statement Mr. Netanyahu implicitly accused the Albanese government of complicity in the attack. Citing Australia’s UN vote and the denial of a visa to Ms. Shaked, he said, “Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism.”

Netanyahu Blames Synagogue Arson at Melbourne on Australia’s Hostility to Israel

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