The only thing I’ve learned—and, I’d say, the only thing Zionists who care about the threats to and the fate of the Jewish people in the past 24 hours have learned—from the Bondi Beach massacre is this: Bondi is pronounced BOND-aiii, not BOND-eee. Otherwise, from a global perspective, the horror, while blood-chilling in its extent, comes as no surprise. After all, the very same day the father-and-son Pakistanis took up their machine guns and spent 11 uninterrupted minutes picking off Jews on the beach while Australian law enforcement stood by watching, there was a violent demonstration in Amsterdam outside a Hanukah concert—and did you even know about it? You likely didn’t, because such things are now the opposite of “news.” After the past two years, there’s nothing new about them.
“Red and green smoke bombs were set off during protests at Amsterdam’s Museumplein, near the Concertgebouw, as Israeli cantor Shai Abramson performed in private Hanukkah concerts at the nearby venue, De Telegraaf reported on Sunday evening,” reported the Jerusalem Post. “Police were deployed in large numbers as demonstrations continued under court-approved restrictions.” You may not have known about the Amsterdam matter because the world press downplayed the run-up to it. Here was Nina Siegal writing about the growing “controversy” in Amsterdam just two days ago in the New York Times:
“The annual Hanukkah concert in the Concertgebouw hall has been a longstanding tradition, but this year’s event drew an outcry when its organizers invited the cantor, Shai Abramson, to lead the event. Critics objected to his involvement with Israel’s army—given its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, where a humanitarian crisis has grown as tens of thousands of civilians and fighters have been killed since the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel—and to YouTube videos in which he sings prayers arm in arm with Israeli soldiers. An initial concert featuring Abramson was canceled, although as a compromise he is now scheduled to sing at two private evening performances for guests of the organizers, the independent Chanukah Concert Foundation, but not at a public Hanukkah family concert on Sunday afternoon — an outcome that some on both sides are still unhappy with.”
Oh, both sides unhappy! Nina Siegal, who’s an American stringer of Jewish origin whose bio informs me she has lived in the Netherlands for 20 years “with her daughter and her dog,” just loves both-sides-ism, as an Instagram post she put up two years ago at the start of the war in Gaza demonstrates: “Two years ago, just after the beginning of the war in Gaza, she posted this on her Instagram account: “Everyone has a right to justice, equality, dignity and self defense. Peace is in the interests of Israelis, Palestinians, Muslims, Jews and humanity.” Yes, both sides rioted at the thought of a Jew from Israel singing “Mao Tzur,” Nina. Hey, which side set off smoke bombs, Nina–? I’m sure she loves Amsterdam…you know, the way the deracinated converso Jewish characters in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt just loved Vienna. Amsterdam is an old hand at Jew-hatred, of course, and I don’t mean because someone there turned Anne Frank in back in ’44. Just a year ago, there was an out-and-out pogrom there, with Muslims on the rampage after a soccer match, their actions coordinated in part through Uber. And, as was the case in Sydney, the police force seemed frozen rather than determined to shut the violence down.
We know why the cops froze. Do I even have to say why? We see it in every European city—police forces instructed by their higher-ups not to intervene when there is an anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic scene on the streets for fear of inflaming the Muslim populace. That’s either due to rank politics (i.e., the British Labour party cannot afford to alienate what has become its root base), or the multiculturalist brain disease that has overtaken the liberal European mind (i.e., who are we to judge the anger of those whose imams are inciting them to acts of violence, not to mention the correspondents for the BBC, many of whom we have learned were literally Hamas operatives).
My point here is that while the horrors on Bondi Beach are unendurable, they happened on just another day ending in Y for the Jews on this planet. As I read the testimonies of Australian Jews on or near the beach, one sentiment stands out. It comes from Julie Szego, writing at the Free Press: “’Now do you believe us?’” I imagine screaming at Australia’s progressive intelligentsia, political, and media class.”
Szego concludes ruefully: “It has become a source of dark humor within the Jewish community that after almost every antisemitic incident over the past two awful years, [Australian Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese has insisted there was ‘no place for antisemitism in Australia.’ This time, the facts so tragically contradicted the sentiment that we didn’t hear it from the prime minister. It turns out there is plenty of space for antisemitism in Australia. Lethal antisemitism. And if the Jews are to have any future here—and after a sleepless, terrible night I can’t be sure they do—the first step is to finally admit as much.”
Now do you believe us, world? Do you believe us, Zohran Mamdani—or do you want it to happen here? As Bret Stephens says, this is what “globalize the intifada” looks like, and New York City has more targets of opportunity for terrorism against Jews than any place on earth. Economists tell us that when you subsidize something, you get more people to act on it. The incoming NYC mayor’s refusal to separate himself from the idea of globalizing the intifada—”that’s not language I use,” he says, without saying it’s language that shouldn’t be used—will begin his tenure on January 1 having drawn a target on my city and its Jewish population.
Everywhere are could be Sydney for Jews. And remember: Because of the international date line, things happen there first.
