analysis

Australian Jews wonder if Iran’s terror campaign goes beyond a synagogue and catering shop

Headshot of Aaron Patrick
Aaron Patrick
The Nightly
Religious hate crime has returned to Melbourne with three separate anti-Semitic attacks across the city.

Last Thursday a man from a northern Melbourne suburb with a thriving Muslim community was arrested over the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue, an attack considered by some Jews as the nadir of their 237-year presence in Australia.

The 20-year-old was charged with arson, endangering life and stealing a car. It is unclear if the arrest led to the Monday’s breakthrough into the crime, which the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation determined on Monday was orchestrated by an arm of the Iranian state, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Some Jewish leaders believe ASIO may have received information from Israel’s foreign intelligence service, Mossad, that convinced ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess of the IRGC’s responsibility for Adass in December and a similar attack on the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, a well-known Jewish business in Sydney. There was also a report in The Australian today that ASIO and the Australian Federal Police traced the plots from encrypted communications, cryptocurrency and financial transactions into Australia from overseas.

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Mr Burgess believes the IRGC outsourced the attacks using offshore criminal gangs who recruited local criminals. Iranian diplomats in Canberra were not involved, the Government said.

From Jerusalem to Canberra

Despite open hostility between the Australian and Israeli governments, sources say the flow of information and analysis about security threats continues to flow from Jerusalem to Canberra.

Israel demonstrated through its targeting of Iranian leaders, military officials and nuclear scientists during June’s 12-day war that it has thoroughly penetrated the Iranian government, likely making it a rich source of information for the West.

With its embassy in Tehran now closed, Australia will have to rely even more on its allies - and Israel - for information about the hostile intentions of Iran’s intelligence services. One of the outstanding questions is why they decided to target Jews in a country so far away, which is not a participant in Iran’s war with the Jewish state.

Some Jewish leaders speculate the distance provided the cause. What better way to strike terror than by threatening Jews living in a cosmopolitan nation on the far side of the world they previously considered a haven?

“What’s clear is that Iran’s objective here wasn’t just to attack those Jewish institutions and the Jewish community but to really attack Australian values of social cohesion that we have always had in this country,” Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler told The Nightly from the Middle East. “ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess says they are still assessing likely attacks on two others.”

People gather outside the Adass Israel Synagogue after the firebombing in Melbourne.
People gather outside the Adass Israel Synagogue after the firebombing in Melbourne. Credit: CON CHRONIS/AAPIMAGE

Who’s paying

Some Jews believe high-profile anti-Semitic attacks, including the Adass fire, inspire further violence. If they are correct, the Iranians contributed to a wave of vandalism, property damage and verbal abuse that has left some Jews afraid to walk the streets of Australian cities.

Large rallies for the Palestinian cause have contributed too. At the front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge march on August 3, over the shoulder of journalist Mary Kostakidis, a man held a large photograph of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Holding protests is not free. They are time-consuming to organise, require logistical and legal expertise and public-address equipment. A recent pro-Israel rally in Melbourne attended by 5000 people cost $15,000.

Some 90,000 people marched across Sydney Harbour. Last weekend, the pro-Palestine movement organised 21 rallies in towns and cities, from Pine Gap to Warrnambool, demanding sanctions be imposed on Israel. The organisers claimed 350,000 attended. Police estimates were far lower.

Either way, an intimidated pro-Israel lobby wondered if foreign money was behind them. “Who the f... is funding these rallies?” one Jewish leader said today.

Given Iran’s acts of terror against Australia, that seems a reasonable question.

The image posted to Bob Carr's X account from the Sydney Harbour Bridge protest march included a participant holding up a poster of Ayatollah Khamenei in the background.
The image posted to Bob Carr's X account from the Sydney Harbour Bridge protest march included a participant holding up a poster of Ayatollah Khamenei in the background. Credit: supplied/X

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Iran’s evil exposed: Tehran behind unprecedented terror campaign on Australian soil.