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Netanyahu Links Melbourne Synagogue Attack to Australian Government’s ‘Extreme Anti-Israeli Position’
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a press conference at the Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 17, 2024. Photo: Lukas Coch/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday condemned the torching of a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, arguing the “abhorrent act of antisemitism” was linked to what he described as the Australian government’s “extreme anti-Israeli position.”
Earlier on Friday morning, arsonists set ablaze the Adass Israel synagogue in the suburb of Ripponlea, injuring one person and causing extensive damage to the building.
Australian police said the assailants were wearing masks and they were searching for two people suspected of deliberately starting the fire.
“The burning of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne is an abhorrent act of antisemitism,” Netanyahu said in a statement in response to the incident. “I expect the state authorities to use their full weight to prevent such antisemitic acts in the future.”
The Israeli premier then suggested that the Australian government’s increasing hostility toward Israel has contributed to a surge in antisemitism across the country.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible,’ and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country,” Netanyahu said. “Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism.”
His statement and the arson attack came three days after Australia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, breaking a two-decade pattern of opposing such a measure.
The resolution, which called for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “based on the pre-1967 borders,” characterized Israel as an “occupying power,” demanding the Jewish state end its presence in Gaza, the West Bank, and eastern Jerusalem — areas described as “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” It also called on the UN to recognize the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self-determination and the right to their independent state.”
Australia has not voted for such a measure at the UN since 2001.
The UN vote came amid already flaring tensions between Israel and Australia.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar summoned Australia’s Ambassador to Israel, Ralph King, for an official reprimand following Canberra’s decision not to grant Israel’s former Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, a visa to enter the country last month.
Saar charged that the decision to prohibit Shaked from visiting Australia was based on “baseless blood libels spread by the pro-Palestinian lobby.”
Shaked told Israel’s Channel 12 News that the decision was due to “the anti-Israel and radically pro-Palestinian” policies of the Australian government, which has been led by the left-wing Labor Party since 2022.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke explained that his decision to refuse Shaked’s visa application was rooted in concerns that she would “seriously undermine social cohesion” by speaking about the war in the Middle East, noting her past comments about Palestinians.
In a statement posted on X/Twitter, Saar lambasted Friday’s arson attack in Melbourne as “abhorrent,” adding, “Antisemitism must be relentlessly confronted. I urge Australian authorities to act swiftly and ensure the despicable perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the incident and expressed his “firm condemnation” of the arson attack.
“Following the atrocities carried out by Hamas against Israel on and since Oct. 7, 2023, there has been an intolerable wave of attacks on Jewish communities in Australia and around the world,” Herzog said in a statement. “I noted to the prime minister that this rise and the increasingly serious antisemitic attacks on the Jewish community required firm and strong action, and that this was a message that must be heard clearly from Australia’s leaders. I thanked him for his ongoing efforts to combat antisemitism, and expressed my trust that the local law enforcement would do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
While investigators have not yet identified a motive for the synagogue torching, Albanese blamed antisemitism.
“This was a shocking incident to be unequivocally condemned. There is no place in Australia for an outrage such as this,” Albanese told reporters. “To attack a place of worship is an attack on Australian values. To attack a synagogue is an act of antisemitism, is attacking the right that all Australians should have to practice their faith in peace and security.”
Friday’s incident came just days after the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) published a new report showing that antisemitism in Australia quadrupled to record levels over the past year, with Australian Jews experiencing more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024
The data included dozens of assaults and hundreds of incidents of property destruction and hate speech. Physical assaults recorded by the group jumped from 11 in 2023 to 65 in 2024. The level of antisemitism for the past year was six times the average of the preceding 10 years.
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, the number of attacks on Jews — digital, political, and physical — has skyrocketed in Australia since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
In one notorious episode in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, hundreds of pro-Hamas protesters gathered outside the Sydney Opera House chanting “gas the Jews,” “f—k the Jews,” and other epithets.
Many of the antisemitic outrages documented by the ECAJ appeared to be connected to anti-Israel animus, such as a brutal attack on a Jewish man in a park in Sydney last October. The man was walking through a children’s playground in Arncliffe when he spotted an advertisement for a pro-Palestinian rally that had already been held and was mostly torn, according to Sky News Australia. He “absent-mindedly” tore the rest of it down, the report noted, but a father at the children’s playground saw him and approached, asking if he supported Israel and threatening, “I will murder you.”
Frightened, the man called the police, but they did not arrive before an anti-Israel mob of men and women quickly encircled him, shouting slurs and insults. Someone reportedly thumped him on the back of his head, knocking him to the ground. Then, three men joined in and proceeded to punch and kick him while calling him a “pro-Jew dog” among other names.
Anti-Israel sentiment has also led to vandalism. In June, the US consulate in Sydney was vandalized and defaced by a man carrying a sledgehammer who smashed the windows and graffitied inverted red triangles on the building. The inverted red triangle has become a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies. The Palestinian terrorist group, which rules Gaza, has used inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “the red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”
That same month, the office of Australian lawmaker Josh Burns was vandalized, with the perpetrators shattering windows, lighting fires, and graffitiing “Zionism is Fascism” on the building.
Weeks later, multiple memorials near the Australian War Memorial were defaced with anti-Israel graffiti. The messages included “Free Palestine,” “Free Gaza,” “Blood on your hands,” and “From the river to the sea” — the last of which is a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Around the same time in July, anti-Israel activists vandalized the oldest synagogue in Sydney, displaying a large banner outside the front entrance reading “Sanction Israel,” along with flags of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in April that Canberra would consider recognizing a Palestinian state. The current government has also walked back the decision by the previous Liberal Party government to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The post Netanyahu Links Melbourne Synagogue Attack to Australian Government’s ‘Extreme Anti-Israeli Position’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.