OP-ED: Bondi Beach massacre proves nowhere is safe for Jews
"The very same ingredients are present in Canada as they were in Australia: Massive immigration of those who hate the Jews, refuse to assimilate and don’t value life as we do"
It’s hard not to watch the horror of what unfolded on Bondi Beach, Australia, on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, without being concerned that Canada is next.
The very same ingredients are present in Canada as they were in Australia: Massive immigration of those who hate the Jews, refuse to assimilate and don’t value life as we do; a refusal by weak, feckless politicians to acknowledge the rise in Jew hatred and to do something about it; the inability of our politicians to separate rabid anti-Semitism (which exists) from Islamophobia (which doesn’t exist) and perhaps most egregious, the support by Aussie PM Anthony Albanese for a Palestinian state.
Albanese’s backing came on Sept. 21 of this year, the very day our Prime Minister Mark Carney made the same foolish move arbitrarily without taking his plan to the House of Commons.
This past Saturday evening, while hundreds of members of the Australian Jewish community were celebrating the festival of light on the famous Bondi Beach, two men — father and son — arrived by car and began opening fire on the crowd.
Some 15 people were murdered, including the beloved rabbi who organized the event. Dozens are in the hospital.
According to reports and video, the police did not return fire for upwards of 10 minutes.
A hero by the name of Ahmed Al-Ahmed jumped on the father and disarmed him. Al-Ahmed suffered five gunshot wounds as a result and is in hospital.
Ironically, Hanukkah is supposed to be a joyous festival when candles are lit for eight nights, celebrating the victory of the Maccabees over the ancient Greeks for the temple of Jerusalem, as well as a lamp filled with a one-day supply of oil that miraculously burned for eight days.
The tragedy has horrified the world. It has made it clear that there are few places safe for Jews to go.
Clearly, it was an accident waiting to happen.
Even though Jewish leaders pleaded with the Albanese government to address rising anti-Semitism in Australia — huge public protests and a surge in attacks on Jewish properties —their pleas fell on deaf ears.
It’s just like what we face in Canada.
In Toronto we have a mayor who has incited and emboldened Jew hatred by telling a group of Muslims at a speech that Israel perpetuated a genocide in Gaza and by raising the flag of a non-existent country called Palestine at City Hall.
Both events occurred in November.
She has repeatedly not called out anti-Semitic acts and her weak, feckless police chief and his force, likely on orders from her and her council, have allowed the Hamasholes to occupy the city’s streets, shopping centres and Jewish neighbourhoods for more than two years.
If a member of my community dares speak up at a protest or wear an article of clothing that police decide will “incite” the poor Hamasniks, it is the Jews who are removed from the scene or, worse still, arrested.
It is absurd, but my wife and I experienced it during an event at Casa Loma this past May.
When we arrived, 100 screaming terrorist sympathizers were shouting “baby killers” and banging on our car while the police stood by with their arms crossed.
It was shameful.
Premier Doug Ford has been complicit in his silence. His solicitor general, Michael Kerzner, who wears a kippah, has done nothing to order police forces to do their jobs.
For heaven’s sake, he’s a Jew and is too weak to do his job.
Then there’s Mark Carney, who has done everything Albanese has been accused of and more.
The Canadian government has welcomed Gazans into Canada with open arms, even though none of the Arab countries will take them.
Carney’s government just lifted visa requirements for those arriving from Qatar, considered a major funder of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
It seems there’s not much love lost between Carney and Canada’s Jewish community.
Our PM only really cares about voting blocs (there are many more Muslims than Jews) and the ability to make deals (likely with countries such as Qatar).
That’s why I have been absolutely disgusted, since Saturday, with the amount of virtue signalling and mock concern from the very politicians—from Chow right up to Carney— who have created the problems we now face in Toronto and throughout Canada.
Chow, likely based on legal advice to show concern, tweeted that her “heart” was with the people in Australia and those in Canada.
To show she really cared (not!) she didn’t allow people to comment, likely because she know they’d call her out on her lies.
Chow and Evan Solomon, a Jew when convenient, even did a cheesy video about lighting the first candle on a menorah at City Hall.
It was absolutely pathetic.
Ford claimed his “thoughts” were with the people of Australia and in Ontario in the aftermath of the horrible tragedy.
We know he hasn’t given a second thought to how Jews are being treated in his province for the past two years.
And then there’s Carney, the architect of a Jew haters’ paradise called Canada.
He couldn’t even be bothered to construct a complete sentence to express his alleged “horror.”
Trust me, he isn’t the least bit horrified.
I suspect Carney has a heart of stone.
We are no longer fooled by their chutzpah and their hypocrisy.
Still, to use their words, we are horrified that our leaders have allowed anti-Semitic acts to escalate to the point where Jews are being hunted down and killed like game.
It’s not a question of whether it could happen here
It’s a question of when.
They have a country to go to.