Earlier today, a mass shooting took place near Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Authorities have described the attack as a terror incident targeting the Jewish community, reportedly during a Hanukkah gathering. At least eleven to twelve people were killed, with many others injured. One attacker was killed at the scene, another was arrested in critical condition, and police also responded to bomb threats and a suspected improvised explosive device.
This was an attack on civilians. It deserves full condemnation. Targeting people based on religion or identity is violence, plain and simple. Jewish communities should be protected, without qualification.
But within hours of the attack, the politics began.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly revisited an old letter he sent to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, accusing Australia’s policy of recognizing Palestine of “fueling antisemitism.” He framed the Bondi Beach shooting not as a crime committed by individuals, but as the result of diplomatic choices made by another government.
This move matters.
It turns a tragedy into a geopolitical tool. It shifts responsibility away from perpetrators and toward foreign policy disagreements. And more importantly, it continues a long-standing strategy of collapsing all criticism of Israel’s state actions into antisemitism itself.
If people want to play the blame game, then responsibility should be traced honestly, not sideways.
The Zionist political project under Netanyahu has spent years framing permanent war, occupation, and mass civilian violence as “Jewish security.” Gaza has been reduced to rubble under this logic. Dissent is labeled hatred. Accountability is treated as betrayal.
The consequences do not stay contained.
Middle Eastern civilians pay in blood. And Jewish communities outside Israel are increasingly forced to carry the political backlash of actions they did not choose, defend, or control. When a state insists on speaking in the name of all Jews while waging endless war, it puts those communities at risk.
Condemning antisemitic violence and condemning Zionist militarism are not contradictory positions. They are connected. Protecting Jewish lives does not require protecting Netanyahu’s policies. In fact, confusing the two makes everyone less safe.
That distinction matters. And it is exactly the distinction political leaders like Netanyahu work hardest to erase.
Some of the past popular posts, just in case you missed,
Trump’s Meeting With Mamdani: The Limits of American Democratic Socialism
A warm White House moment that reveals a colder reality
The Hero China Remembers, And Canada Forgot: The Life and Legacy of Norman Bethune
He wasn’t Chinese, but he died in China.
