Israeli officials blame Australia for Sydney Hanukkah event shooting

Israeli officials were quick to lay the blame for the deadly shooting in Sydney, Australia, at the feet of the nation’s government on Sunday, saying it had ignored “countless warning signs” of anti-Semitism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu read aloud at a government meeting a letter he sent to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier this year when Albanese declared his support for a Palestinian state.

“Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the anti-Semitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It encourages those who threaten Australian Jews and encourages the hatred of the Jews who are now stalking your streets. Anti-Semitism is a cancer. It spreads when leaders are silent; it retreats when leaders act. I call on you to replace weakness with action, apply resolve.

“Instead, Prime Minister, you replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement. Your government did nothing to prevent the spread of anti-Semitism in Australia. You did nothing to stop the cancer cells that were growing in your country. You did not take action. Let the disease spread and the result is the horrible attacks on Jews that we have seen today,” said Netanyahu.

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also issued unusually harsh statements after Sunday’s shooting, which killed at least 11 people and injured 29.

“Again and again we called to the Australian government to act and fight against the huge wave of anti-Semitism plaguing Australian society,” Herzog said in a statement on social media, posting an image of a blood-stained prayer shawl.

Saar was even more critical of the Australian authorities, arguing that they had ignored obvious signs of Islamist extremism and anti-Semitism.

“I am appalled by the murderous shooting attack at a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia. This is the result of the anti-Semitic fury on the streets of Australia over the past two years, including the anti-Semitic and inciting calls to ‘Globalize the Intifada’, which were carried out today,” Saar said in a statement, sharing the same photo as Herzog.

“The Australian government, which has received countless warning signs, must come to its senses!” he added.

Police say at least two gunmen were involved in Sunday’s attack, which targeted a Jewish “Chanukah By The Sea” event on Sydney’s popular Bondi Beach. One of the alleged gunmen was killed in the attack, and the other is hospitalized. Police are investigating whether there was a third shooter.

Police say they also found evidence of several improvised explosive devices in a vehicle near the scene of the attack.

“We have our backup bomb disposal unit here at the moment working on it,” said the police commissioner for New South Wales.

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Albanese condemned Sunday’s attack and the targeting of Australian Jews.