“… nothing short of unmistakable convulsions for political change”

Tania, I hope you are right.

But even before all the dead were buried there were voices defending this government’s inaction in the face of obviously increasing, and increasingly virulent, antisemitism; well-known political commentators who claimed the attack had nothing to do with religion; and even those blaming the victims – implying that the Bondi atrocity was an unfortunate but understandable reaction to the war in Gaza.

An unlikely but fiercely toxic alliance of the extreme right, the extreme left and extreme Islamists have combined to normalise antisemitism in large parts of the Australian community, and the moderate centre that could once be expected to repudiate their absurd arguments and point out their moral bankruptcy seems diminished and cowed.

I also fear that the government will feel obliged to act in ways that will not resolve the problem and will reduce the rights and freedoms of all Australians, without necessarily making us safer. Banning hate speech and symbols does not prevent hateful ideology. Defunding universities and arts organisation that promote antisemitism may have merit but could all too easily result in censorship and reduced autonomy.

I would like to live in a society where we do not see nazi swastikas and ISIS flags at demonstrations – not because they are illegal, but because we all know it is abhorrent.

Rhian Simply wants offensive flags removed from demonstrations, the rest ok; and the rest of it which is intolerable to people that actually give a toss about the dying of Australia and its cultural heritage, are the objectors to the swamping of Australia with people that stink like a rotten kebab stored under an unwashed armpit, and show complete and utter contempt for the country “they” now call home; reduce its values to the rank of barbarism, wrap themselves in medieval rags with slits for eyes, and shout for our death at every opportunity that grabs their whim; commonly called Islamists, (Muslims all).

Oh, but there are good ones, so let’s not be too hard on them!

Bondi's a trojan horse.
The real enemy is the Jewish AI total surveillance system they want you to run to and embrace, stupid fools.
It's called STARGATE.

DD

That is not what I meant.

Offensive flags and slogans are not the main issue; the reason why these are deemed acceptable or even virtuous is the problem. The hatred, intolerance, vilification and approval of violence that they represent and celebrate need to be addressed. Symbols and slogans are more a symptom than the cause, and the symptom will disappear if the cause is rectified.

Dear Tania

You rightly denounce our Prime Minister for inaction when protesters at a rally scream "Gas the Jews", yet your silence is defining when Israel's defence minister said about the civilian population of Gaza ":...We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly...".

Your silence is defining when Israel's leading expert on international law declared that there was no fundamental legal difference between the deliberate targeting of civilian individuals and the indiscriminate targeting of civilian individuals.

Excuse me madam, but your hypocrisy is exposed for all to see.

How naive to expect a government to protect you!

If you have done the wrong things and hurt others, then not even the heavenly host of angels can save you from the consequences;
and if you haven't then nothing is going to hurt you anyway.

Aries54

The “human animals” comment referred to Hamas, not the Gazan population in general. I think it’s a fairly apt description.

It is not hypocritical to condemn an atrocity merely because you have not condemned all the other tragic conflicts that might be mentioned.
Tania may not not have condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, or the vicious and murderous civil war in Sudan, or Myanmar’s war on its own population, or China’s genocide of the Uyghurs, or the civil war in Ethiopia, or the war in Gaza, or any of the other horrific conflicts happening right now around the world. But these wars do not justify murdering Australian Chinese, Russian, Sudanese, Burmese, or Ethiopian residents. And the war in the Middle East does not justify the murder of Australian Jews.

What Tania may or may not have said about other conflicts is completely irrelevant.

The writer of the 'article' outlines a serious problem.
Then she rants about this and that.
But I see no realistic solution offered.
So what she said was almost a waste of words.
Rhian was correct.
"Offensive flags and slogans are not the main issue"
So how to deal with the underlying attitude problem?
Explanation and education?
For example:
I think we are programmed to reject difference.
You can see it in the school yard.
It carries on in to adult life, where it can lead to harmful decisions.
We need to educate people so they are aware of this shortcoming.
It is a drawback in a multi-cultural society.
Ok 50,000 years ago. But not now.
Educate people about themselves.
That would be a start.
Would it be so hard to do?

We need to control and direct our instinctive behaviour.
But to do that we need to be aware of it.
We have many instincts which served us well a long time ago.
But in a modern society they can lead us astray.
So I say again, the first thing is to educate people about them.
Starting in the early school years.

Rhian, what on earth has Ukraine, Sudan or anywhere else got to do with this? Tania complained bitterly when the PM railed to condemn hate speech, yet fails spectacularly to do the same when the political leaders she supports spew hate speech themselves. That's hypocrisy

Aries54

I agree that Sudan, Ukraine, and all the other conflicts I mentioned have nothing to do with this. Nor does Gaza. It is as stupid, vicious and bigoted to suggest that Jews in Australia deserve to be persecuted or even killed because of what’s happening in Gaza, as it is to suggest that Australians of Russian ancestry deserve to be persecuted or even killed because of what’s happening in Ukraine. Yet people still try to link Gaza to Bondi. There is a link – that antisemites will use word association to justify their prejudices, and worse. Bit there is no logic or evidence to support it.

You complain about Tania’s supposed hypocrisy about the “leaders she supports”. But in this article, she doesn’t express support for any leader, only criticism of our current one. Her other articles on this forum are very old and on different topics, but don’t express support for anyone. So which “leader she supports” are you actually using to justify your allegation of hypocrisy

In the scheme of things this trojan horse merely passed wind, just brace yourself when it really does business ! For many even that won't be sufficient to think !
Wilful ignorance is definitely a DNA issue now !
Also, consider that a horse or any animal for that matter can't tell ethnicities from race !

Hmh !