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Australia’s Spy Chief Warns Surge in Antisemitism Across Country Has ‘Not Yet Plateaued’
Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah, Australia, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
The head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency has revealed that five major terrorist plots were prevented over the past year, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents in recent months that has alarmed the country’s Jewish community.
Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), delivered his annual threat assessment on Wednesday, warning that Australia has never faced so many serious national security threats at once. The agency declassified its security outlook for the next five years, raising concerns about the increasing threat of state-sanctioned murder.
Burgess disclosed that his organization had identified “at least three” countries plotting to “physically harm people” living in Australia over the past 12 months.
“It goes without saying that plots like these are repugnant,” he said. “They not only involve plans to hurt people — obviously bad enough — they are shocking assaults on Australian sovereignty and the freedoms we hold dear.”
Based on the agency’s predictions, the coming years will be more volatile and dangerous as countries like Russia and Iran become increasingly aggressive, the spy chief asserted.
“Over the next five years, a complex, challenging, and changing security environment will become more dynamic, more diverse, and more degraded,” Burgess said during his speech at ASIO headquarters in Canberra on Wednesday night.
“If the spy game has a rule book, it is being rewritten. If there are red lines, they are being blurred — or deliberately rubbed out.”
When speaking about the shocking surge in antisemitic attacks that have been spreading across Australia since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Burgess warned these incidents might only get worse as extremists are increasingly self-radicalizing and “choosing their own adventure” toward potential terrorist activity.
“Threats transitioned from harassment and intimidation to specific targeting of Jewish communities, places of worship, and prominent figures,” he said. “I am concerned these attacks have not yet plateaued.”
Several Jewish sites in Australia have been targeted with vandalism and even arson in recent months, continuing a rise in antisemitism that began with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. A recent report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) found that antisemitism in Australia quadrupled to record levels following the outbreak of the Gaza war, with Australian Jews experiencing more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024.
Burgess described how narratives originally centered on “freeing Palestine” have expanded to include incitements to “kill the Jews.”
Last week, Australia experienced its latest scandal in which two nurses were caught on video vowing to kill Israeli patients, prompting outrage from authorities.
At Bankstown Hospital in Sydney, two nurses, Ahmad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, were seen making inflammatory statements in a video that surfaced online, during a night-shift discussion with Israeli social media personality Max Veifer.
The footage featured Lebdeh stating she would refuse to treat an Israeli patient and would instead kill them, while Nadir used a throat-slitting gesture when he confessed to having already killed many.
“It’s Palestine’s country, not your country, you piece of s—t,” Lebdeh told Veifer. “One day your time will come, and you will die the most disgusting death.”
After the video went viral, both nurses were suspended and permanently barred from employment within the New South Wales state health system.
Following the incident, the health minister of the state of Victoria, Mary-Anne Thomas, directed health-care facilities across the state to remove anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian badges and markings, declaring that political displays in hospitals are “unacceptable” and “will not be tolerated.”
Jews in Australia have questioned their safety at hospitals across the country amid a flurry of anti-Israel and even anti-Jewish animus coming from health-care facilities.
Last year, ASIO raised the national terror threat level from possible to probable and warned Australian defense personnel about being targeted by foreign spies.
“Australia has entered a period of strategic surprise and security fragility,” Burgess said on Wednesday.
As the country’s federal elections approach in the coming months, the federal government warned foreign embassies about attempts to interfere, including planting news stories about candidates or instructing people on how to protest.
Burgess warned that “high-impact sabotage,” such as attacks on nuclear-powered submarines or major cyberattacks, is becoming more likely, along with “state-sponsored or state-supported terrorism.” He singled out Russia, which could target Australia due to its support for Ukraine, and Iran as potential threats to Australia and its allies.
“A small number of authoritarian regimes are behaving more aggressively, more recklessly, more dangerously,” he said. “More willing to engage in what we call ‘high-harm’ activities.”
Burgess’s comments came after law enforcement in Australia last month started an investigation into the origins behind the spree of recent antisemitic crimes, announcing they suspect individuals outside the country have coordinated the campaign of hate.
Burgess also revealed that cyber units from at least one nation-state “routinely try to explore and exploit Australia’s critical infrastructure networks, almost certainly mapping systems so they can lay down malware or maintain access in the future.”
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Trump Administration Planning $510 Million Cut to Brown University Budget, Report Says
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with journalists onboard Air Force One en route to Miami, Florida, U.S., April 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
The Trump administration reportedly plans to terminate $510 million worth of federal contracts and grants awarded to Brown University, according to media reports.
Brown University’s failure to mount a satisfactory response to the campus antisemitism crisis, as well as its embrace of the diversity, equity, and, inclusion (DEI) movement — perceived by many across the political spectrum as an assault on merit-based upward mobility and causing incidents of anti-White and anti-Asian discrimination — prompted the alleged pending action by the federal government, according to the right-leaning outlet The Daily Caller.
The announcement comes as Brown scrambles to cover a $46 million budget shortfall and other universities across the country have faced similar funding cuts.
Brown University officials, however, denied that the university had received any directives from the Trump Administration.
“We have no information to substantiate these rumors,” Brown University provost Francis Doyle issued a statement. “We are closely monitoring notifications related to grants, but have nothing more we can share as of now.”
Meanwhile, Brown’s Jewish community rushed to the university’s defense, issuing a joint statement with the Brown Corporation which said that the campus is “peaceful and supportive campus for its Jewish community.”
The letter, signed by members of the local Hillel International chapter and Chabad on College Hill, continued: “Brown University is a place where Jewish life not only exists but thrives. While there is more work to be done, Brown, through the dedicated efforts of its administration, leadership, and resilient spirit of its Jewish community, continues to uphold the principles of inclusion, tolerance, and intellectual freedom that have been central to its identity since 1764.”
Brown Divest Coalition — an anti-Zionist group which recently saw its campaign for the university to adopt the boycott, divest, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel defeated by the Brown Corporation — weighed in too, denouncing the reported cut as “a means of suppressing all forms of popular dissent to the renewed violence of the US war machine abroad.” US Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) also criticized the move, accusing the administration “of a broader pattern of behavior…that will negatively impact communities across the country and lead to layoffs, restrict research, and more.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Trump administration is following through on its threats to inflict potentially catastrophic financial injuries on colleges and universities deemed as soft on antisemitism or excessively “woke.” The past six weeks has seen the policy imposed on elite universities including Harvard and Columbia, rattling a higher education establishment that has for better and worse operated for decades with little interference from the federal government even as it polarized the public and contributed to a growing sense that elites are contemptuous of Americans who live outside of their cultural enclaves.
In March, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal contracts and grants for Columbia University, a measure that secured the school’s acceding to a slew of demands the administration put forth as preconditions for restoring the money. Later, the Trump administration disclosed its reviewing $9 billion worth of federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard University, jeopardizing a substantial source of the school’s income over its alleged failure to quell antisemitic and pro-Hamas activity on campus following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. Princeton University saw $210 million of its federal grants and funding suspended too, prompting its president, Christopher Eisgruber to say the institution is “committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.”
Additionally, 60 universities are being investigated by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights over their handling of campus antisemitism, a project that will serve as an early test of the administration’s ability to perform the essential functions of the agency after downsizing its workforce to increase its efficiency.
One of those universities, Northwestern University, on Monday touted its progress in addressing campus antisemitism, noting that it has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, a reference tool which aids officials in determining what constitutes antisemitism, and begun holding “mandatory antisemitism training” sessions which “all students, faculty, and staff” must attend.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Belgium Joins Hungary in Rejecting ICC Warrant Against Netanyahu, Signaling Shift in International Stance
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Belgium announced it would not enforce the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza, should he visit Brussels—marking a significant shift from the government’s previous policies.
In an interview with Belgium’s VRT broadcaster on Thursday, Prime Minister Bart De Wever was asked about Hungary’s decision to not act on the ICC warrant against Netanyahu during the Israeli leader’s visit to Budapest this week.
“To be completely honest, I don’t think we would either,” De Wever said during the interview.
“There is such a thing as realpolitik, I don’t think any European country would arrest Netanyahu if he were on their territory. France wouldn’t do it, and I don’t think we would, either.”
As Hungary welcomed Netanyahu to Budapest with full military honors on Thursday, ignoring the ICC arrest warrant against him, the country also announced its decision to withdraw from the international court.
After their meeting, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he believes the ICC is “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”
“I am convinced that this otherwise important international judicial forum has been degraded into a political tool, with which we cannot and do not want to engage,” Orban said during a press conference.
In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and now-deceased Hamas terror leader Ibrahim al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza war.
The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for starvation in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians — charges vehemently denied by Israel, which until a recently imposed blockade had provided significant humanitarian aid into the enclave throughout the war.
Israel also says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Belgium’s center-right government, led by De Wever’s National Flemish Alliance party, took power this year after defeating a left-wing coalition led by the Socialist Party, known for its anti-Israel stance.
Under the previous government, Belgium joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Since December 2023, South Africa has been pursuing its case at the ICJ accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Last year, Belgium’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Petra De Sutter, said, “War crimes and crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished,” referring to the ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu.
“Europe must comply. Impose economic sanctions, suspend the Association Agreement with Israel and uphold these arrest warrants,” De Sutter wrote in a post on X.
In line with this position, former Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in November that Belgium would “assume its responsibility” towards the ICC, emphasizing that “there can be no double standards.”
After the ICC’s decision to issue the warrants, several countries, including Hungary, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, France, and Italy, have said they would not arrest Netanyahu if he visited.
Germany seems to have a conflicting stance on this matter. During a press conference, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he could not imagine the ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu being executed during a potential visit to Berlin.
However, Germany’s Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, criticized Hungary’s refusal to enforce the arrest warrant against the Israeli leader this week.
“This is a setback for international criminal law,” Baerbock said during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
“In Europe, no one is above the law. And this applies to all areas of law,” she said.
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Kanye West Releases Track List for New Album ‘WW3’ Featuring Songs About Hitler After Dressing In Full KKK Outfit
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, dressed in a full black leather KKK outfit during his interview with DJ Akademiks that was shared on YouTube on March 31, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, shared on Thursday the track list for a new album titled “WW3” and it includes songs with titles that reference Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The seventh track on the album is titled “Heil Hitler,” which is the greeting praising Hitler that given as part of the Nazi salute, while the eighth song is titled “Hitler Ye and Jesus.” The “Runaway” rapper, 47, has previously made comparisons between himself and Jesus, and said in an interview this week with DJ Akademiks:”I’m the closest thing to God on Earth and I act just like how God acts.” The musician and Yeezy creator has also repeatedly praised Hitler in interviews and on social media. In February, he wrote on X, “Hitler was sooooo fresh. Me loving Hitler is old news,” as well as ““Im a Nazi” and “I am God Jesus Hitler Ye Like I told you.”
Early Thursday morning, Ye posted on his X account a photo of a paper that features the names of the 11 songs on “WW3.” Also on the paper is a drawing of two black swastikas, which was the symbol of Hitler’s Nazi Party and is still used by white supremacists and extremists. There is also a song on the album titled “Bianca,” after his estranged wife Bianca Censori. In the song, which he revealed on a livestream with DJ Akademiks, the rapper give details about the Australian architect leaving him because of his recently unhinged and antisemitic social media posts. It’s been reported since mid-February that Censori left Ye and wants to divorce him because of his disturbing antics, which included selling a shirt with a swastika on it.
“She’s having a panic attack and she is not liking the way that I tweeted,” Ye raps in the song about Censori. “Until Bianca’s back I stay up all night I’m not going to sleep / I really don’t know where she’s at.”
The track list for Ye’s album “WW3.” Photo: X/Screenshot
Ye also shared on X the cover art for “WW3.” It features a man and a woman in red and white Ku Klux Klan robes. According to the music website Genuis, the photo was originally taken during a KKK wedding in a barn in Tennessee in July 2015, but was edited by Ye so that the man’s skin color is Black. The real like couple’s dog is also edited out of the image.
Ye – who has four children with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian – did an interview with DJ Akademiks earlier this week and when greeting the disc jockey at the start of their conversation, he wrote a necklace that featured an oversized, diamond encrusted swastika. Ye later changed into a black leather Ku Klux Klan outfit for the reminder of the interview. He said he wanted to wear the KKK ensemble the day before out in public but was worried “they would put me in the hospital for my outfit.”
Ye released last week on YouTube a song titled “WW3” in which he addresses his antisemitic comments on X and calls for him to be removed from the social media platform because of his hateful remarks. He also denies similarities to Hitler. “They tellin’ me that I’m a bully/I’m antisemitic, fully/They sayin’ I’m actin’ like Hitler/But how am I actin’ like Hitler?/When I am a f–king ni–a,” Ye raps in the song. “They tellin’ me, ‘Get up off of Twitter’ … Rockin’ swastikas ’cause all my ni–as Nazis/Readin’ ‘Mein Kampf,’ two chapters ‘fore I go to sleep.”
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