EDITORIAL: Two years on, the tragedy of October 7 continues to compound

A fundamental part of the Jewish experience is to understand that a not-insignificant segment of the world hates you.

History is littered with tragic examples of this hatred manifested, when Jews were demeaned, dehumanised, exterminated by the millions.

No nation on earth has been free from this stain, including our own.

But Australia was as close as it came. Jews came here from around the world, seeking safety from horrors and prejudice in their old lands.

And they found it. They built lives and communities, and became embedded into the social fabric of our country.

They still carried with them the collective memory of that hatred, but the everyday normality and security of their lives meant they could push it aside — a rare luxury among the world’s Jews.

Until the aftermath of October 7, 2023 ripped away that scab, and exposed the festering sore of latent anti-Semitism beneath.

Until a mob descended on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, gleefully rejoicing in the murder of 1200 Israeli Jews.

Until synagogue firebombings, graffiti attacks and abuse became expected events.

Until authorities told Australian Jews to stay home and out of sight, instead of stepping up to protect them from the fetid hatred that was bubbling over onto our streets.

Until weekly anti-Israel rallies in our major cities served as heartbreaking reminders that anti-Semitism was now an entrenched Australian affliction.

Two years after Hamas militants penetrated the Israeli border on a mission to cause as much death and pain as possible, the tragedy of October 7 continues to compound.

The families of the original victims continue to grieve their lost loved ones. Forty-eight hostages remain imprisoned by Hamas, though only about 20 are believed to be alive.

Tens of thousands of Gazans are dead, martyred by a Hamas leadership whose desire for a sovereign Palestine runs a very distant second to their desire to see the state of Israel wiped from existence.

And around the world, hatred against Jews — which the shame of the Holocaust had rendered for decades a great taboo — became commonplace again.

In Australia, that hatred is often couched as “anti-Zionism”. This is a fig leaf; a veneer of acceptability behind which hides anti-Semitism, as ugly and as despicable as it has always been.

This is what Hamas wanted — to spread their doctrine of hate against the Jews. Its mission has been successful beyond what they could have imagined.

Previously cohesive Western societies such as Australia have turned on their own Jewish members.

A decent society is one that protects its members from discrimination and persecution and upholds their human dignity.

We must remember who we are as a nation, and who the true enemy is.

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