EDITORIAL: How the Greens are part of the post-Bondi problem

The turmoil around the legislative responses to the hatred which culminated in the Bondi massacre has tended to obscure the reality around the still significant issue at play.

But a few kernels of truth have emerged.

Firstly, the laws will not be perfect. But it would be churlish not to acknowledge that they are, for the most part, a genuine attempt to improve this country by offering some protection for Jewish Australians.

Secondly, whatever we end up with after Canberra has finished its somersaults is likely to be challenged and undermined.

It is clear the legislative response is but the start of the fight back against what is often called anti-zionism but which for some is merely linguistic camouflage for Jew hatred.

It was Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser who outlined the size of the task ahead when he spoke during the Bondi condolence motion in the House of Representatives on Monday.

“The sad reality is, if we don’t change, then Bondi won’t have changed anything,” he said. “Will our leaders continue to treat anti-Semitism and violence against Jews as a political problem to manage, rather than the moral and cultural problem that it is.”

“Bondi will either be the crescendo to a bad chapter in our history or the midpoint to a story that gets worse without change,” Mr Lesser said.

The issue was further illustrated by how the day of condolence for the atrocity against the Jewish community was treated by Greens senators, who, while condemning the massacre, also argued that measures enacted in response should not be just for Jews but for others, including women, gay or trans people.

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi went so far as to lean in to the ancient trope about Jewish influence, referring to Jewish friends being angered at “politicisation” of the Bondi attack and how their grief had been “exploited by powerful forces to achieve narrow political ends”.

The Greens went even further at a press conference on Tuesday.

“When we have the Murdoch press, the Coalition, State premiers, One Nation and the Prime Minister of Israel trying to weaponise and politicise a horrific, violent event and a tragedy, then it is pretty obvious that there are powerful forces at play,” Senator Faruqi said.

This conveniently ignores the heartfelt and widespread outpouring of grief and support across the nation for the Jewish community, which forced Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to eventually give in to calls for a royal commission.

It is now clearer than ever that in their alliance with radical Islamists and the misguided and dangerously influential cultural Left which have taken hold of our university campuses, the Greens have become part of the problem.

And there was another display of the depth of the problem in Melbourne on Monday night when a group of Jewish teens was chased and abused by occupants of a vehicle who chanted “Heil Hitler” and performed Nazi salutes.

Even after bloody confirmation at Bondi of what the Jewish community has long warned of, it goes on.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.