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After Massive Arson Attack, We in Australia’s Jewish Community Are Under Siege
Arsonists heavily damaged the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 6, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
On Friday morning, the world of the Australian Jewish community changed forever. The confidence that the community has always known has vanished — replaced with a new reality of uncharted, dangerous waters, where tolerance and security are no longer guarantees.
The impact of seeing a holy place of worship burning in the very heart of Jewish Melbourne, was like a stab in the heart of the Jewish people.
A synagogue represents so much more than a house of worship. It is a sanctuary for reflection, for learning, and for community gathering. For Jews, it is a cornerstone of identity and faith. An attack on such a place is not only an assault on Jewish life, but an assault on the core values that define Australia as a tolerant and inclusive society.
Australia’s relationship with its Jewish population has long been defined by warmth, mutual respect, and shared values — tracing all the way back to the early days of the country’s formation. It was the first country to vote in favor of the 1947 partition plan that paved the way for the establishment of the modern-day State of Israel. It was also the famed Australia Light Horse brigade that conquered Beersheba in October 1917, which enabled British forces to break the Ottoman line, leading to the end of Ottoman rule in the Land of Israel.
But the deliberate firebomb attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne reflects a broader, troubling trend. In recent times, the social fabric of Australia has come under severe strain, mirroring challenges in other parts of the world. The dramatic rise in antisemitism, up 316% since the October 7, 2023 Hamas pogrom — and Israel’s defensive response — has been particularly heartbreaking, given the country’s history as a refuge for Jewish people fleeing persecution.
Melbourne’s Jewish community, for instance, has a large number of descendants of Jews who escaped the horrors of the Holocaust. And the country has the largest population of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel. Many found safety in Australia, a land free from the deep-seated prejudices of Europe. They rebuilt their lives and became integral contributors to Australian society. For these families, the attack on a synagogue in Melbourne echoes the dark past their ancestors sought to leave behind.
Yet the legacy of antisemitism is not one bound by geography, distance, or time. Its tentacles reach far beyond its origins in the old world, and are able to penetrate every fabric of society in every corner of the new world, including here in Australia. While Australia’s ruling government has become more hostile to Israel in recent years, it is also the changing demographic nature of the country — including people from places where antisemitism is much more normalized — that helps account for the negative changes happening here.
But political leadership has a responsibility too, and the failure of the government to act decisively against the growing wave of antisemitism has exposed the Jewish community to these acts of hostility.
This rise in antisemitism has coincided with the government’s decision to undermine decades of bipartisan diplomatic support for Israel, leaving many in the Jewish community to feel abandoned. Since October 7, 2023, the sitting government has constantly criticized Israel’s conduct in the war, failing to understand the existential threat Israel faces. Just last week, it supported a biased one-sided resolution at the United Nations that demanded Israel unilaterally withdraw from every inch of territory Palestinians want for their state, including all the holy places of Jerusalem, while demanding nothing of Palestinians — not even the cessation of terrorism.
And the Australian government has failed to crack down on weekly anti-Israel protests, which are often violent and intimidating, and take place in our major cities.
The flames of antisemitism are burning in Australia, just like they are burning in Canada and France and many places across the world. But to douse these flames requires a willpower, strength, and a moral clarity that this government has so far not shown.
If Australia’s leaders fail to act, it will not just be a single synagogue consumed by these flames — but the very fabric of Australian society itself.
Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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