Reaction to the release and the contents of the Segal report on antisemitism in Australia is at the level of existential damage to social cohesion in Australia.

Other than the Zionist lobby organisations, the response of a large proportion of Australia to that report has been to repudiate its recommendations and condemn much of its diatribe as unfounded overreach.

That is not the same as reaching the peak of unacceptability of Zionist lobby activity by a majority of our society. Much of the mainstream media and most of the politicians are echo chambers of confected outrage at anything branded (though frequently unmasked as false) as antisemitic. The image of a police-car from the silent movies era with several officers hanging off a rope out the back of the police car springs to mind – with the Zionist lobby as the vehicle and the MSM and political toadies as the hangers-on.

It would be funny if it were not so foul. There is nothing remotely humorous about Jillian Segal. A deeper dive into some of the more prominent Zionist lobby organisations in Australia produces nothing about which to have a chuckle.

Given the frequency and range of MSM reporting of opinion from what seems to be an inexhaustible supply of Zionist lobby “spokesgroups” (has anyone ever managed to produce an authoritative list of these? I suspect they may number in double figures at least) it is high time we measured the validation of each one’s claim to authority.

The core of such an examination has to be based on the roles the Zionist lobby organisations actually play. It is impossible to ignore, for instance, that the exhortations of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry — which claims to be “The Voice of the Australian Jewish Community” with nothing more than assertion of such an elevated position — are rejected by a considerable coterie of Australian Jews, including the Jewish Council of Australia.

“Not in Our Name”, indeed. I recommend a reading of the excellent article by Louise Adler as an example of where the non-Zionist Jewish opinion sits, versus the vituperation of Mark Liebler (of the AIJAC ) who called a group of Jews who oppose the genocidal activities of the current Israeli government “ repulsive and revolting human beings". Liebler later “apologised”, following a court case, but to say the least, he has form for his use of power as a lobbyist in the Zonist cause. Had it not come from a member of perhaps the pre-eminent Zionist family in this country that statement would have been a prime case of antisemitic abuse.

The author of the description of antisemitism that has — appallingly — been adopted by the IHRA has called the use of it as the basis for the Segal Report recommendations as a “disaster”. That alone ought to disqualify any further consideration of implementing it in any form here and decency would call for Segal to remove herself and the ECAJ from any formal advisory role to government. This seems highly unlikely.

Imagine for a moment the following conversation:

“If it swims, walks and flies, it must be a duck.”

“Um, no, it could be any one of a wide range of seabirds, just for a start. But why is this important?”

“Because ducks are birds, which carry bird flu, millions of Australians are dying every week from bird flu, we must kill all the ducks.”

“Bird flu is bad, for sure, but I don’t think you are anywhere near correct in your claims nor reasonable in your proposal.”

“I am if I say so! And there has been a 600% rise in the incidence of bird flu in the past few years, so there!”

“Well, yes, but that is actually a rise of from two cases in 2021-22 to 12 in 2024-2025 . Hardly an epidemic.”

‘Aha, you must be a duck lover, you filthy beast. You ought to be put down as well.”

At this point most people would switch off and walk away. Which is not so easy when the duck-hater has the apocryphal grip on that part of your anatomy that demands your heart and mind follow – which appears to be the case of the Zionist lobby with our politicians (apart from some of the Greens and some Independents), our MSM including the ABC, our educational institutions and our police forces. More than faint shades of the Blackshirts in 1922 Italy seem to be appearing in our society – and not just among “elite” police squads.

We absolutely need to differentiate between the Zionist lobby industry that demands to subjugate our society and associations that seek to promote the appreciation of people of Jewish ethnicity by society – and vice-versa.

There are many people in our society who rightfully take pride in their Jewish ethnicity and we are by far the richer for that. In many of the areas that the Segal report intends should be most rigorously subjected to the Zionist imperatum, the Jewish community has been — and hopefully will remain — a generous contributor.

It is beyond time that there was an accounting of the genuine support for the extremist Zionist cause vs Jews who seek peace and a fair go for everybody. Genuine by a verifiable number: how many supporters of the Zionist cause are documented members of any of the Zionist lobby groups? How many are paid-up subscribers to the Zionist fight? I would not be surprised if it turned out to be fewer than people with gym subscriptions.

Using reported figures, people identifying as Jewish comprise less than 0.5% of the population and those identifying as Zionist are perhaps less than 75% of that number: hence, around 0.375% of Australians at most “demand” the right to judge the rest of us. While 0.0% of the population actually being antisemitic is the acceptable limit, it is not acceptable to hand the keys to the henhouse to the foxes.

It is beyond time that we examined the claims of these Zionist lobby groups and require that they give us the verified, audited numbers. The Jewish community, as a whole, needs protection from society’s reaction to extremist ranting.

And it is beyond time that the “squeaky wheel” syndrome stopped driving our societal authorities to take actions that diminish inclusiveness, equality, decency, humanity and generosity in our society – because we are currently heading more towards fascism than nurturing a functioning democracy.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.