Israel demands Australia do more to stop ‘unchecked’ anti-Semitism epidemic

Israel has demanded the Australian Government do more to stop an “unchecked” epidemic of anti-Semitism after the discovery of a caravan of explosives capable of causing a mass casualty event.

On Wednesday, police revealed a caravan carrying enough explosives to create a 40-metre wide blast zone had been discovered north of Sydney on January 19. Also found in the caravan were lists of addresses of Jewish synagogues and a note saying “f**k the Jews”.

The revelation comes after a spike in anti-Semitic attacks in Australia including the firebombing of a synagogue, childcare centre and cars and a spate of offensive graffiti targeting the Jewish community.

Chris Minns, the NSW premier, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have denounced latest plot as an act of “terrorism”, although the NSW Police, who have deployed 100 officers to the investigation, have not yet officially designated it as such.

“It’s clearly designed to harm people, but it’s also designed to create fear in the community,” Mr Albanese told ABC news on Thursday.

On Wednesday he “unequivocally” condemned the act and said the “full might” of the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and the NSW Police had been tasked to a “major investigation” by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team.

But Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar demanded the Australian Government do “more to stop this disease” of anti-Semitism.

“The attempted antisemitic terror attack at a synagogue in Sydney is intolerable. This joins a long list of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including setting fire to a childcare center in Sydney, firebombing a synagogue in Melbourne, and many other antisemitic attacks,” he wrote on X.

“The epidemic of antisemitism is spreading in Australia almost unchecked. We expect the Australian government to do more to stop this disease!”

Overnight, a Jewish primary school and a home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs were attacked with anti-Semitic graffiti.

“You f***ing Jews” was written on the wall of a Maroubra house, adjacent to the Mount Sanai College, which is a short walk from the childcare centre that was attacked last week.

Anti-Semitic graffiti was also found on Thursday morning in Eastgardens and in East Lakes.

The attack came just a day before students were due back at school, and Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker told Sky News the whole community was “absolutely shocked” by the latest attack.

In response to Israel’s criticism, the Prime Minister dismissed the suggestion the Government was not doing enough.

“People are in the clink. People are being arrested, investigations are taking place. The police and authorities are doing their job,” he told ABC.

“We remain concerned about this escalation. We’re doing everything that we can. And the fact that people are being detained, arrested, charged, kept in the clink without bail, indicates that that’s the case.”

Mr Albanese refused to be drawn on when the Government knew about the discovery, saying he would not go into “operational details” about ongoing investigations.

“It’s important that politicians don’t try to score points in order to, if it, undermines those very investigations. And this is ongoing,” he said.

But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused the Government of moving too slowly to address the country’s anti-Semitism crisis.

“People are already living in fear and the scenes we saw on the steps of the Sydney Opera House was the start of it,” he said referring to a controversial protest the day after the October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel.

“The hate spewed, the bile wasn’t stamped out and the red lines keep getting crossed,” he told 2GB.

“Chris Minns has stepped up on this and the Prime Minister has been dragged kicking and screaming.”

“There are armed guards already on patrol outside Jewish schools and people are living in in fear.”

Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson demanded to know when the PM was briefed.

“There is no good operational reason why the Prime Minister should refuse to say when he was briefed about this, and he must be up front today,” he told ABC Radio.

“Was he briefed on the 20th of January like the Premier was? Was he briefed later? And what actions did he take after he was briefed, did he convene the National Security Committee of Cabinet or not? “

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek — whose electorate of Sydney has experienced a spate of anti-Semitic attacks — said it made “perfect sense” for investigations to have been done away from the public.

“If you’re tracking down criminals, your job is to track down those criminals, and some of that has to happen in a way that’s confidential so that you can catch them,” she told Sky news.