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Australia: Childcare Center Set on Fire in Antisemitic Attack in Sydney

Australia: Childcare Center Set on Fire in Antisemitic Attack in Sydney

Australia’s “Federal police are investigating if antisemitic attacks in Australia are being funded by “overseas actors” paying local criminals, sometimes in cryptocurrency.”

Just days after Israel agreed to a hostages-for-terrorists deal and implemented a Gaza ceasefire, a daycare center was set on fire in an antisemitic attack in Sydney, Australia.

“The childcare centre set alight in Sydney on Tuesday after being sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti is the eighth such anti-Semitic attack in the past three months,” Australian public broadcaster ABC reported. “The building is a short distance from the Maroubra Synagogue.” The building was empty at the time of the attack and no injuries were reported.

The daycare center was in an area associated with the Jewish community, and the attackers left no doubt about their motives. “The words ‘Fuck the Jews’ were spray-painted on an external wall of the centre, which does not have religious affiliations but is close to both the Maroubra Synagogue and the Mount Sinai college,” UK’s Guardian newspaper reported.

The news agency Reuters reported the details of the attack:

A childcare centre in Sydney was set alight early morning on Tuesday and antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the wall, authorities said, the latest in a spate of attacks in Australia targeting the Jewish community.

The childcare centre, located near a Jewish school and synagogue in the city’s east, suffered extensive damage but there were no reports of injuries in the attack which occurred around 1 a.m. (1400 GMT, Monday), police said.

It was the second antisemitic attack on property in four days in Sydney, and comes amid a spate of similar crimes targeting the Jewish community in Australia’s most-populous city. (…)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the latest attack as “a vicious crime.”

Albanese is facing a national election due by May and antisemitism is shaping as a key issue, with the opposition criticising him as “weak” for not doing enough to prevent hate crimes against Jews.

This is not the first attack of its kind. In early December, masked attackers firebombed the country’s largest synagogue in the city of Melbourne while the worshipers were offering morning prayers. The fire destroyed priceless handwritten Torah scrolls and caused millions of dollars of damage.

Australia has seen a sharp surge in antisemitic attacks since the October 7 massacre. “Police said 181 people had been arrested under Operation Shelter since October 2023, resulting in 456 charges. Of the 181 people, 36 were charged with antisemitism-related offences, including eight people charged under Strike Force Pearl with 59 offences,” the Guardia noted.

With Australia’s fast-growing Muslim population, the country has witnessed a spike in Antisemitism. Since October 7, 2023, there has been a wave of anti-Israel demonstrations nationwide.

Two days after the October 7 massacre, Hamas supporters in Sydney were heard chanting ‘Gas the Jews’ outside the city’s landmark Opera House. Australian university campuses have allowed student demonstrations calling for Intifada, a reference to Palestinian terror campaigns against Jews and Israelis in the early 1990s and early 2000s.

Despite a ceasefire, protesters vowed to continue anti-Israel demonstrations across the country. “Large crowds have gathered at pro-Palestine demonstrations in cities across Australia mere hours before a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was due to come into effect,” the broadcaster ABC reported Sunday. “Many of the protesters say that now-delayed deal does not go far enough and some say they have no plans to end their weekly rallies.”

Australian police: suspected “overseas actors” behind recent antisemitic attacks

According to Australian police, the recent wave of antisemitic violence could have been financed by unnamed foreign players. Iran and Qatar have been accused of funding antisemitic activists and outfits in the U.S. and Europe.

“Federal police are investigating if antisemitic attacks in Australia are being funded by “overseas actors” paying local criminals, sometimes in cryptocurrency,” Australia’s Nine News TV network revealed Tuesday. “The Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed tonight that officers suspect there could be overseas interference driving some of the antisemitic crime in Australia.”

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Comments

One suspects that the Australian government and police are eager to focus on “overseas actors” at least in part to deflect attention away from their domestic problem of Islamofascists and Muslim supremacists who’ve settled in Australia.

Islamofascists and Muslim supremacists don’t require monetary compensation in order to engage in genocidal, goose-stepping and rabid Jew-hate and Christian-hate — theological inspiration is sufficient.

    CommoChief in reply to guyjones. | January 21, 2025 at 1:24 pm

    That and the not so subtle attack on crypto. Gov’t hates the idea of transactions or just value flowing between parties that govt can’t monitor and take a bite out of.

It’s illegal to set child care centers on fire whether it’s antisemitic or not.

    Milhouse in reply to rhhardin. | January 21, 2025 at 2:50 pm

    Yes, it is, but it’s a far greater problem when it’s a manifestation of a wave of antisemitic violence that has gripped Australia for the past 15 months, while state and federal governments stood by and did almost nothing, and the federal government has been getting ever more hostile to Israel, thus encouraging the mobs.

    Melbourne’s downtown has been occupied every Sunday by these mobs, and the police are effectively telling Jews that the city center is now a Jew-free zone on Sundays. Visibly Jewish people are being stopped by the police and ordered to leave for their own safety.

This is not the first attack of its kind. In early December, masked attackers firebombed the country’s largest synagogue in the city of Melbourne while the worshipers were offering morning prayers. The fire destroyed priceless handwritten Torah scrolls and caused millions of dollars of damage.

Thankfully it was not “while the worshipers were offering morning prayers”. It happened at about 4 am, when only two early risers were there. One escaped immediately, one stayed to shout at the arsonists, thus likely scaring them away from doing more damage, but at the cost of some minor injuries. Had it been an hour later there would have been a lot more people there.

Also, thankfully none of the Torah scrolls were ruined. They did suffer some smoke and water damage, and some will need a few parchment sheets replaced, but in general they all survived.

    alaskabob in reply to Milhouse. | January 21, 2025 at 7:15 pm

    Would be interesting the see the numbers of immigrants to OZ over the past 50 years, where they came from and what they believe. The largest Muslim population lives right next to them. It’s a numbers game…. a small but fervent set of believers can be a problem.

      Milhouse in reply to alaskabob. | January 22, 2025 at 1:01 am

      Indonesians are not really a problem. Australia has long had a Lebanese community, but it was Christian Lebanese. Moslems started coming in in large numbers in the 1980s, and very soon started causing trouble.

      Australia’s major ethnic violence problem used to be Croatians and Serbs. Since the 1990s it’s been Moslems.

      But things have got a lot worse in the last 15 months.

        alaskabob in reply to Milhouse. | January 22, 2025 at 2:31 pm

        Indonesia, as a whole, is a very tolerant Muslim country. As I noted, by percentages, one can expect about 15% being all for jihad.. and not the personal daily struggle over right and wrong.

Australians have an antisemitism problem that has nothing to do with “foreign actors” and everything to do w/ their own culture. They need to look in the mirror and see how their own society is a big part of the problem. I lived there in the 2010’s and I experienced quite a lot of in your face hate from just ordinary white Aussies. I had coworkers who thought I was in the Mossad and others who refused to collaborate with me on cases because I’m a “dirty Jew.” I also had the more subtle stuff like people quoting Seinfeld to me, making me the treasurer of our office groups because “i’m good w/ money,” or asking me if I’m related to Joe Lieberman; that stuff I don’t care about it’s just ignorant but not hateful. But my point is that Aussies are very sheltered and isolated and they have a state controlled media that reinforces an anti-Israel and highly pro-China agenda. They are very vulnerable to any antisemetic messaging because it basically aligns with their existing preconceptions about the world.

Dolce Far Niente | January 21, 2025 at 2:54 pm

Can’t imagine how much “foreign financing” a Molotov cocktail or a can of spray paint requires.

Just the leftist Oz government inventing a foreign boogie man rather than admitting to their own coddling of islamofascist Australians.

I agree with all the above statements. We have a left wing Govt. In power at present here and they have done absolutely nothing to halt the ever present anti-semitic screaming from hamas and islam supporters.
I rue the day when the sitting ministers allowed all these “religion of peace” immigrants to enter our shores.
We now have areas of Melbourne and Sydney where a white Christian person cannot walk down the street for fear of their safety.
Poor fella my country.

The problem is that Australia has both a Leftist federal government that struggles to condemn, let alone actively stop, anti-Semitism, as well as Leftist governments in charge of most states, and likely city councils.

Add that the media are, like America, largely split between Left and Far Left, and there is a significant issue with those responsible for conveying information or responding to the crisis, being biased.

Now where regular Australians lie in regards to the pro-Israel and pro-Jew versus anti-Semitic spectrum, that’s far far harder to say. Maybe I’m projecting too much, but I think there’s more pro- than anti- but the anti- are the side that tend to be loud and active.

The only reaction to October 7 that I’m aware of is sympathy for Palestinians, even from members of the Jewish community. So, what did they expect?

    schmuul in reply to CincyJan. | January 22, 2025 at 2:00 pm

    Then you aren’t aware of much, maybe try broadening your horizons. There are plenty of other reactions after 10/7 besides “sympathy for the Palestinians.” Why would anyone be sympathetic for the “palestinians” after 10/7, as they weren’t the ones attacked. Israel didn’t even launch a counter attack until a full 4 weeks later. So what did they expect?

      CincyJan in reply to schmuul. | January 23, 2025 at 9:03 am

      I should have specified the only reactions from Australia I’m aware of were sympathetic to the Palestinians. And if you’re reading this web site, then you are certainly aware of the massivce pro-Palestinian reaction throughout academia. Your retort above makes no sense.

And today the ABC is reporting that “a Sydney man” has been arrested. Dreadful anti-semites, those “Sydney men”. Sure, his name is prolly mohamed, but that’s just normal for “Sydney men”, and not worth reporting.

Appeasement in response to aggression is the first reaction of a significant part of many societies, often generated by the ones who think they have the most to lose from any changes in the status quo. They do not want to recognize the dismal historical evidence, and thereby set themselves up for far greater suffering when the aggression escalates. Most come around once the pain strikes them personally, though there will always be a smaller contingent who prefer to surrender or who try to identify or even join in with their tormentors. Democracies tend to default to appeasement until things get bad enough, then they select and rally around strong leaders who will fight back. Looks like we’ve turned that corner in the U.S., and we hope Oz does so soon, as well!