동아시아의 평화와 화해의 정치학 Scrapbook: My community’s security will not be possible at the expense of others.

2026-01-21

My community’s security will not be possible at the expense of others.

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Jewish Council of Australia

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"My community’s security will not be possible at the expense of others. That is not safety. It is scapegoating."
Our executive officer Dr Max Kaiser explains in the Sydney Morning Herald today why Jewish safety has never existed in isolation and using antisemitism as a justification for censorship and expanded state power will make none of us safer.

==Opinion

As a Jew who knows antisemitism, I need answers, not the stifling of free speech

Max Kaiser

Jewish Council of Australia executive officer

January 13, 2026 — 3:30pm

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I’m writing as someone who has studied antisemitism for decades, and as a Jew living through its resurgence. Like many in our community, I’m desperate for answers. I want to know how the Bondi massacre was allowed to happen, and I believe that a royal commission could help us to understand this, but its terms of reference thoroughly misunderstand the wider problem of antisemitism.

Supporters of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and elements of the media have steadfastly defended the indefensible – the atrocities against Palestinians – and this campaign has deliberately created a serious confusion in our national discussion about what antisemitism is.

The flower memorial for massacre victims at Bondi Beach.

The flower memorial for massacre victims at Bondi Beach.Oscar Colman

Antisemitism is not criticism of Israel or Zionism, nor is it a timeless or mystical hatred. It is not something caused by migration. It’s a political and historical form of racism that takes different shapes in different contexts. Right now, it is real, escalating and sometimes lethal – but it is being tackled in exactly the wrong way.

We have heard calls not only to investigate how a massacre occurred, but to place universities, protest movements, migrants, cultural institutions and human rights bodies under suspicion. As though they are responsible for bloodshed.

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I want antisemitism confronted. I want it named and addressed with urgency. But I do not want it treated as a political tool, a justification for silencing dissent or expanding state power in ways that will ultimately harm us all.

There is a temptation, in moments like this, to believe that safety comes from control. But antisemitism has never been defeated by widening the circle of suspicion. It thrives when governments and media normalise fear politics – and when far-right and racist networks are allowed to spread antisemitic propaganda with impunity.

Jewish safety has never existed in isolation. It has always depended on the health of the broader society we live in. On whether racism is resisted or rewarded, whether power is accountable or unchecked. Jews are safer as a result of robust protest movements that have expanded freedoms and rights for all.

Sections of the media and politicians have been relentless in erroneously associating the Bondi attack with Muslims, migrants and the Palestine solidarity protest movement, resulting in the Islamophobia Register Australia reporting a 740 per cent rise in Islamophobic incidents since the Bondi attack. That’s what happens when tragedy is framed as a licence to suspect whole communities.

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My community’s security will not be possible at the expense of others. That is not safety. It is scapegoating.

The royal commission’s terms of reference appear to frame antisemitism as an issue of “religiously motivated” extremism that can be solved through security responses and migration settings. Such an understanding demonises faith groups and migrants and fails to see antisemitism as one expression of a deep problem of racism in Australian society.

If we turn this inquiry into a spectacle we will pass right by the very answers we say we seek. We will harden divisions, inflame resentment, and make it harder, not easier, to confront antisemitism as a lived reality.

Jewish safety is inseparable from the safety of Muslims, Palestinians, migrants and everyone targeted by racism. If antisemitism is treated as a justification for suppressing protest, expanding surveillance, or scapegoating minorities, Jewish people will not be safer – we will simply be living in a more authoritarian society.

If the royal commission becomes a stage for ideological hearings about religion, universities, protest movements or migration, it will fail its core purpose and deepen the racial divisions that make all of us less safe.

Dr Max Kaiser is executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia and a researcher of antisemitism and Australian Jewish history.

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Jewish Council of Australia

Read the article in full at: https://www.smh.com.au/.../as-a-jew-who-knows...

SMH.COM.AU

As a Jew who knows antisemitism, I need answers, not the stifling of free speech

Phrancke Astar

You guys are a beacon of light in a dark time. I am non religious, but when being anti genocide is framed as being antisemitic, it creates a cruel view of the religion. What you are doing is one of the things required to correct this view.

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Pamela Rose

Keep representing. Many of us are concerned that the loudest and well funded Jewish groups are flooding the space and not representing the majority of the Jewish community.

Jonathan Prendergast

This is so great to read. A much more balanced approach than the “blame the PM” and cancel protests brigade

Tony Souter

Do you have a press secretary? Getting a bit of coverage by ABC and SBS news would be great.

Frederik Keppens

Thank you so much for noy only speaking up around all that happens, but more importantly for forming the JCA after recognizing the need that there is something tragically wrong with the voice of the classic mainstream Jewish organizations which seem to be captured by a Zionistic Israel first/only mentality. You recognized there was a need for speaking up more permanently and organized it. Hats off to you all

(Edit: fixing a typo)

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Rex Taylor

Excellent that diverse Jewish opinions are appearing in mainstream media.All people have a basic humanity unless goaded into hate by politicians or radical leaders blaming the other.Rushed tough new laws just mean weak politicians having a kneejerk reaction.Free speech should be paramount but there are always risks of legal ramifications within reason. Lets take our time ,listen carefully to all opinions,and then critically make any new laws needed.

Simon Henley

I agree that antisemitism is real, escalating, and dangerous. Where this piece falls down is not in saying antisemitism exists, but in how selectively it treats where it is currently manifesting.

The article repeatedly acknowledges antisemitism in the abstract, while never once engaging with the well-documented rise of antisemitism in left-wing and pro-Palestine spaces. That omission matters. Naming antisemitism without naming where Jews are experiencing it functions as dismissal, even if unintentionally.

Criticism of Israel is not inherently antisemitic. Most Jews agree with that. But antisemitism often operates through Israel discourse, via collective blame, eliminationist language, double standards, and the treatment of diaspora Jews as proxies for a foreign state. The article never grapples with that dynamic, despite it being central to what many Jews are reporting right now.

Framing antisemitism primarily as a byproduct of general societal racism also risks erasing its specificity. Antisemitism is not just “another form of racism” that dissolves when all prejudice is addressed. It has distinct histories, tropes, and mechanisms, including its ability to present as moral or political critique.

You can oppose securitisation, Islamophobia, and collective suspicion and still acknowledge that some protest movements and activist spaces have failed to police antisemitic rhetoric. The article treats those as mutually exclusive, which they are not.

Jewish safety does depend on broader social health. It also depends on listening to Jews when they point to concrete, uncomfortable sources of harm, not only when those sources align neatly with a preferred political narrative.

Acknowledging that tension would have strengthened this piece. Avoiding it is its central flaw.

Bruce Carmichael

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love the Jewish Council. If we are serious about combating discrimination go with this organisation.

Gail Baxter

I had no idea about antisemitism until fairly recently. We all just got along.

My how things have become toxic because of the genocide

Christine Hale

Government trying to defend Zionism which is TOTALLY different to Judaism

Angela Ballard

The only morally authoritative collective Jewish voice in this country. Thank you JCA

Chris Tugwell

I am amazed that being against genocide is even slightly controversial.

Robin Bryant

an interesting take on it thanks. Rick Morton has written a very good article today as well. I am wondering if what we are seeing is antisemitemic but a reaction to Gaza and a conflation of the two. Reading the RC terms of reference I suspect the issues will be exposed and discussed but with extreme sensitivity. I can see why they were written as is and why the RC commissioner was chosen. The extreme politicisation of this issue immediately following the event made many sick. Not the way to handle things unless there is another agenda. A character on RN this morning was strange. Thanks for the article our nation needs to think hard. Dr Louis Peachey has also posted a very good article drawing in the aboriginal context.

Patrick Benjamin

A very good article

Gerard Wiebrecht

Do all Israeli's identify as Jewish?

Serious question, I don't know the answer to. My understanding is Jewish people are people who practice Judaism, however can anyone do this or do you have to be Israeli descended?

Now, another question, do Semites believe that all Israeli people are descended from Noah's (the Ark) Family, hence why most Israelis think they are Jewish?

I dont understand.

Dulce Lander

Thank you Max for your commonsense and your humanity. We are all migrants, we are all different yet we are very similar. We all came here for a better life, so let’s be kind to each other

Gary Davis

Isn't that what the Royal Commission is about. But of course that is going to take years, so they get things rolling and everyone whinges. This is up for debate and negotiation it isn't set in law.

Teresa Dowding

Thank you. I would hope that the very furst thing the RC will do is define what is meant by anti semitism. Because if it is the Zionists definition that suggests any criticism of the state of Israel is antisemitic because they are jewish state.

Ami Na

Spot on

Well said

Harry Dewar

Thank you Max

Tim West

Spoken like an Australian Statesman!

Mark Ambroz

Such a rational opinion. As a non Jewish Australian I find the currency of present divisiveness appalling. The historical misunderstanding of cultural Judaism is the problem. In Australia, the average non Jew understands, (and thinks) little of the Jewish diaspora. Many Australians only see Judaism as a somewhat isolationist community who live in enclaves within major cities. They see this in an almost cultish way and that, as is has been historically, is inclined to breed apprehension. There is no fault with the Jewish diaspora in this, but with the ignorance of the wider population. The same can be said for other minority religions, and especially Islam after ISIS and the appalling actions their radical followers. The simplistic view that is very current is that all Muslims are the same and they have no place in our country. That position is shared by those who have conflated the actions of the current Israeli government with Jews everywhere, which of course, is not true. I grew up in 1950s Australia, a place divided again by religious difference, which was then centered in Protestantism and Catholicism and those mistrusts and even hatreds were a constant. Hopefully the Royal Commission will recommend education in cultures from a very young age. It will take more than time, because historically, that does not heal all. The Jewish Council of Australia needs a loud voice.

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Chris Gibbings

Thankyou JCA. We so need rational, humane voices like yours

Robyn Newstead

exactly what I think. So well put!

Barbara Heath

Antisemitism has been here since the first Jewish settlers arrived in 1880.

Sam Charlton

We have laws regarding the inciting of violence. Free speech has to be defended. You may not like what someone is saying. But what happens when the powers that be don’t like what you are saying ?

Lucy Hamilton

Excellent essay. Thank-you,

Alan J Maurice

Well felt. It’s created more fear and sub conscious fear is constant.

Claire Imladris

The government is next going to have a public book burning because history shows us banning things always equals desired outcomes...

Karen Borowinski

Excellent article Max, thank you

Steve Paterson

The Jewish community represents only 0.5% of the Population

Bravo

Thank you Max

How true

Well said

Thank you for your voice of reason!

Gerard Meijnen

thank-you for this broader perspective. It is is helpful. As a non-semite I am still navigating my way throough all this

Lauren B Stern

I just don't know understand why the Jewish Council of Australia wants Israel to be completely dismantled. I don't understand where they think the Jews are going to go? Can someone explain?