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“Two alleged gunmen who killed 15 people at a Jewish celebration in Sydney's Bondi Beach were a father and son, police said on Monday, as Australia mourned victims of its worst gun violence in almost 30 years. The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in critical condition in the hospital, police said at a press conference on Monday. Officials have described the shooting on Sunday as a targeted antisemitic attack.” Reuters
The left is alarmed by increased hatred of all kinds.
“People of color do the ‘prayer,’ first for the victims and then for our own communities. We hope the shooter doesn’t share our identity because we know collectively we will be blamed for the violent actions of one individual. Right-wing movements and governments, both here and abroad, will ‘politicize’ the tragedy to fuel the engines of their never-ending culture war…
“MAGA influencers such as Laura Loomer and Republican Senator Tuberville used the tragedy to blame Islam and Muslims. They were joined by Rep. Randy Fine, who recently said all mainstream Muslims should be ‘destroyed.’… However, a stunning video revealed that an unarmed hero was able to bumrush one of the terrorists, disarm him, and hold him at bay while being shot at by the second shooter. The hero is a 43-year-old vendor named Ahmed el Ahmed, a Muslim father.”
Wajahat Ali, The Left Hook
“Important questions remain. Why was an unarmed hero needed to restrain a gunman? Were Australian police adequately prepared for such an event? What has the Australian government done to rein in antisemitism? Has the country effectively screened immigrants and facilitated their assimilation? And, most importantly, what is being done to prevent this from happening again — in Australia and around the world?”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
Some argue, “I wonder if the people marching through London weekend after weekend chanting ‘globalise the intifada’ can see the link. I wonder if they realise that slogan is a call for violence against Jews, wherever they may be in the world and whatever their position on Israel. The hopeful part of me wants so desperately to believe they do not. A smaller, darker part… has concluded they don’t care…
“That at least some of them believe random Jewish lives are expendable for the sake of some greater cause. Or perhaps that by dint of our heritage and our history, we simply deserve it. That’s certainly what some of the posts I see on social media seem to suggest. Social media is not the real world, I try to remind myself. But there is no getting away from the fact that there are real people behind the accounts. And real people with guns at Bondi Beach.”
Rachel Cunliffe, New Statesman
The right is alarmed by the increase in antisemitic attacks.
The right is alarmed by the increase in antisemitic attacks.
“The chilling thing is that this barbarous act feels both shocking but also not surprising. It didn’t happen in a vacuum. Australia – like Britain, Europe, the US – has been beset by the delirium of anti-Semitism in the two years since Hamas’s 7 October pogrom. Synagogues have been set on fire. Jewish schools have been daubed with racist graffiti. ‘Murder your local Zionist’ has been scrawled on walls…
“In Colorado six months ago an elderly Jewish lady was burnt to death by a man shouting ‘Free Palestine’. In Washington, DC in May, a young man and woman were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, also by a man shouting ‘Free Palestine’…
“In Manchester in October, two Jews were killed. And now this unspeakable atrocity. Under the Palestinian colours, the world’s oldest racial hatred has found a new and lethal lease of life.”
Brendan O’Neill, Spectator World
“Though we’ll probably learn more in the weeks ahead about the mind-set of Sunday’s killers, it’s reasonable to surmise that what they thought they were doing was ‘globalizing the intifada.’ That is, they were taking to heart slogans like ‘resistance is justified,’ and ‘by any means necessary,’ which have become ubiquitous at anti-Israel rallies the world over…
“For many of those who chant those lines, they may seem like abstractions and metaphors, a political attitude in favor of Palestinian freedom rather than a call to kill their presumptive oppressors. But there are always literalists — and it’s the literalists who usually believe their ideas should have real-world consequences. On Sunday, those consequences were written in Jewish blood. History tells us that it won’t be the last time.”
Bret Stephens, New York Times
“Why is it that two people can terrorize hundreds? Because they are armed, and the hundreds aren’t. I think Jews all over the world need to arm themselves and think in terms of defending themselves at all times. Sometimes police respond effectively, sometimes they don’t. And usually police aren’t there when you need them; not right away, anyway.”
John Hinderaker, Power Line Blog
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