The massacre of Jews this week on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia has sent shockwaves across the global Jewish community. Sydney’s Jews had gathered at the iconic beach to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah—the “Festival of Lights.” The celebration quickly turned into darkness, death, and suffering when two radical Islamists launched a terror attack. This father and son team sprayed the beach with bullets, killing fifteen and wounding forty others (one of the gunmen also was killed by police). Among the dead were children, at least two rabbis, and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Anyone observing the growing toleration of antisemitism in Western nations, including Australia and, sadly, here in the United States, was not surprised by the bloodbath on the beach. In fact, the Israeli government had warned Australian authorities about the festering radicalism in heavily Muslim immigrant communities in Australia. More than a year ago, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in California accused the Australian government of “failing to act against the demonization of Jews, Israel and Zionism on the streets of Australian cities.”1 Some experts believe this attack and others in Australia have been directed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Every major European city, including Rome, Berlin, Brussels, and Paris, as well as London, have experienced rising antisemitic violence. Also, there have been mass demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of people calling for “globalizing the intifada.” “Intifada” is the name for the campaign of terror that has been waged against Israel over many years. “Globalizing” is a call to deploy violence against Jews wherever they are, not just in Israel.
Here in the United States, major elite universities have been sites of anti-Jewish violence. The Trump administration has warned university administrations to safeguard Jewish students or face a cut-off of federal funding if they fail to do so.
It is not a coincidence that as antisemitic violence has increased, so too have attacks on Christians in Europe and elsewhere. On the same weekend as the Bondi Beach carnage, German authorities prevented a planned terror attack on a traditional Christmas market. Five men were arrested—three from Morocco, a Syrian, and an Egyptian. Multiple deadly attacks on these markets by radical Islamists have occurred in recent years. On other occasions, Islamists have marched through the markets, intentionally spreading fear of violence.
In the aftermath of the Bondi Beach attack, the FBI announced that five members of a pro-Palestinian extremist group have been arrested for planning to carry out coordinated bombings in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. The group on social media called for “Free Palestine,” “Free Hawaii” and “Free Puerto Rico” and was also planning violence against federal immigration police.
The growing hatred and violence toward Jews and Christians in the West largely spring from immigrant populations migrating from countries where there is majority support for radical Islam.
Virtually every Western government has failed to adequately examine whether mass migration is importing individuals whose worldview is incompatible with our Judeo-Christian values.
While there are many decent law-abiding Muslims, Islam is not just a religion. It is also a political, cultural, and legal construct that rejects Judeo-Christian culture and values.
The US government is currently working on reforms to ensure immigrants embrace American concepts of ordered liberty under God, tolerance, and our constitutional framework of liberty. The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute urges lawmakers to ensure we are not importing hate into our country.
The Trump administration is also in the process of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.
The hour is late. Countries across the Western world must act to defend Western Judeo-Christian civilization. Our civilization has brought more freedom and more opportunity to more people than any competing civilization in the history of the world. It is not “compassionate” to import millions of people from countries that support radical Islamic ideas and reject our fundamental values. Rather, it is the height of folly.
- David M. Weinberg, “Skunking the Jews Down Under,” The Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, December 15, 2024, https://www.misgavins.org/en/weinberg-skunking-the-jews-down-under
