OP-ED: Bondi was not an aberration. It was a warning. Canada Is next

"On December 14, 2025, a massacre took place on Bondi Beach in Sydney during a Chanukah celebration organized by the local Jewish community."

Source: Rawpixel

Author: Dotan Rousso

On December 14, 2025, a massacre took place on Bondi Beach in Sydney during a Chanukah celebration organized by the local Jewish community. The attack was carried out by an Islamist extremist motivated by antisemitic ideology, who deliberately targeted Jewish civilians in a public space. Families, children, and community leaders were murdered for one reason only: they were Jews.

This was not a random act of violence, nor can it be dismissed as the work of an isolated individual detached from his environment. While the attacker acted alone, the conditions that made such an act conceivable were shaped collectively over time.

In the months preceding the massacre, Sydney witnessed massive demonstrations, including a widely publicized march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. These were not politically neutral gatherings. They featured explicit antisemitic and eliminationist slogans. Jewish symbols were demonized. Israel was portrayed as a uniquely evil entity. By extension, Australian Jews were increasingly framed as representatives of that evil.

What made the Australian case particularly dangerous was not only the role of hardened extremists, but the mass participation of ordinary citizens who had little understanding of the conflict and even less interest in moral complexity. For many, joining these demonstrations offered an easy reward: instant moral clarity, instant belonging, instant virtue. Israel became the villain of the moment. Jews became acceptable collateral. Hatred became fashionable.

Instead of confronting this escalation, Australian institutions largely chose denial. They pretended not to understand what was unfolding in front of them. They allowed the language to radicalize, the boundaries to dissolve, and the legitimacy of antisemitic hostility to grow. Bondi was the result.

Canada is now following the same path.

Public discourse in Canada is increasingly shaped by social media fragments, slogans, and activist pressure rather than knowledge or responsibility. Israel is routinely described as a demonic force. Zionism is portrayed as inherently criminal. And because the vast majority of Canadian Jews support Israel’s existence, identify with it, and care deeply about its security, Canadian Jews are increasingly treated as moral suspects and legitimate targets of intimidation.

This is not theoretical. It is visible across Canadian streets and campuses, where intimidation of Jewish students, disruptions of classes, and the normalization of anti-Israel agitation have become routine rather than exceptional. Politicians, local enforcements, and university administrations increasingly respond not by enforcing boundaries, but by retreating behind vague appeals to “free speech,” even when that speech crosses into harassment and exclusion. The message is clear: Jewish discomfort is a price institutions are willing to pay for ideological quiet.

This is where Canada stands today.

Anyone who believes this trajectory cannot culminate in violence similar to the Bondi massacre is either profoundly naive or willfully blind. Social atmospheres have consequences. When demonization becomes legitimate, and institutions refuse to draw lines, violence does not remain hypothetical.

I am stating this clearly: the warnings were visible and ignored in Australia. They are visible and being ignored in Canada. Canadian officials, Canadian institutions, and large parts of the Canadian public are choosing to look away.

Do not pretend you did not know.