It is hard to see how this helps a Jewish community that feels threatened, attacked and misunderstood. Could it be that the Segal report’s only contribution to the necessary battle against antisemitism will be to fuel the growth of the antisemitism it is meant to combat?
If the ironies are endless, the dangers are profound.
It is not simply that these things are absurd, it is that they are a threat to us as a democratic people. That the prime minister has unwisely put himself in a position where he now must disavow something he previously seemed to support is unfortunate. But disavow and abandon it he must.
Antisemitism is real and, as is all racism, despicable. The federal government is right to do all it can within existing laws to act against the perpetrators of recent antisemitic outrages. Earlier this month, the Federal Court found Wissam Haddad guilty of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act with online posts that were “fundamentally racist and antisemitic” but ruled that criticism of Israel, Zionism and the Israel Defence Forces was not antisemitic. It is wrong to go beyond our laws in new ways that would damage Australian democracy and seem to only serve the interests of another nation that finds its actions the subject of global opprobrium.
10 senate seats and 12% of the vote is a bit more than a handful mate. My primary vote usually goes to parties around 0.1% before ending up at the Greens. Greens actually have some institutional platform and power, and the two main parties are no longer a majority of primary votes.
The electoral change has been slow, and too slow to have faith in if we want to save the planet (like you said, radical politics is needed), but it’s real and indicative.