Revulsion at Israel’s actions in Gaza is driving a global rise in antisemitism, while efforts to conflate criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews are deepening the danger.

The evidence is overwhelming that the spike in antisemitism around the world is driven by revulsion over the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Time and time again when it suits, the Zionist lobby blurs the distinction between Jews and the State of Israel. Some Jews say they feel threatened by Palestine protestors when they should feel shame.

The odious and dishonest response is that it is all antisemitism. Even our prime minister falls for this canard and appoints a Royal Commission on antisemitism. And he wonders why his poll numbers keep falling.

The lobby pushes the association with Israel as if it is its “home country”?

Is its loyalty to Australia or Israel? Does it think it unusual for Israeli flags to be prominently displayed at the memorial for the Bondi victims? How does it defend over 600 Australians with dual or multiple passports who have joined the IDF and are perhaps party to war crimes?

The lobby funds scores of politicians and journalists for “educational” visits to Israel. The only party that resists the brainwashing is the Greens.

Almost all its activities are ways to build the relationship with Israel. Celebrating Israel’s ‘independence’ day in Jewish schools and stitching together the Holocaust stories of student’s grandparents with the ‘refuge’ that Israel provides.

But the lobby avoids the link to Israel when it comes to genocide. It wants us to believe that the genocide in Gaza has nothing to do with antisemitism in Australia. In different circumstances this hypocrisy would be treated as a joke but for the tragedy unfolding every day in Gaza and the West Bank.

For over two years we have had hundreds of peaceful protests across Australia against the genocide. There have been very few antisemitic incidents. I have attended several rallies in Canberra. I never heard any antisemitism. This is also the view of many others who have attended and spoken at Palestine rallies. Antisemitism is scarcely mentioned at all. If it is referred to it is to make clear that the criticism is of Israel, not Jews. Speakers go out of their way to make that point. Jews have been very prominent at these rallies that our mainstream media, as defenders of the genocide, choose not to report.

Some of the antisemitic behaviour by misfits in Australia is homegrown. Most of it, however, is the result of the barbaric cruelty inflicted by Israel on the Palestinian people. It is time Albanese and others sheeted home responsibility to Israel for the spike in antisemitism which is occurring around the world. It will continue until there is peace with justice for Palestinians.

Peter Slezak put the issue very frankly: “Years ago in an interview the late Israeli parliamentarian Shulamit Aloni said “antisemitism - it’s a trick, we always use it" and “then we bring out the Holocaust” to silence the critics of Israel…. 50 years ago the distinguished Israeli diplomat Abba Eban said “one of the chief tasks or any dialogue with the…(non-Jewish) world is to prove that..anti Zionism is merely the new antisemitism".”

Emeritus Professor Robert Manne headlined his article, Don’t mention the war. He added “the sharp rise in antisemitic acts (since October 7) – insults, tweets, graffiti, doxxing, arson but no physical violence so far as I am aware before Bondi did not occur for no reason. They are self-evidently connected in ways we must try to understand in open, non-censorious discussion to the character of Israel’s war in Gaza following the murder of 1200 and the kidnapping of 250 of its innocent citizens at the hands of Hamas.”

Professor Henry Reynolds in Pearls and Irritations on 24 January, 2026, wrote: “surveys of opinion in the Jewish community have found that 76 per cent considered themselves Zionists while 86 per cent feel a sense of responsibility that the state of Israel continues to exist….. It would greatly facilitate social cohesion if the leaders of the mainstream Zionist organisations could trace the true source of discomforting community criticism back to Israel rather than the broader Australian community."

A September 2025 YouGov poll for the Campaign Against Antisemitism found that 45 per cent of Britons believe Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated Jews, rising to 60 per cent among 18–24-year-olds.

Recent polling by Hart Research in the US shows that support for Israel has dropped substantially from 47 per cent in 2023 to 32 per cent today. A February Gallup poll found that, for the first time, more Americans sympathise with Palestinians than Israelis.

It’s the Gaza war that is driving antisemitism and reduced support for Israel.

The Anti-Defamation League in the US established by Jewish supporters reported in January 2025 that 46 per cent of the world’s adult population holds significant antisemitic beliefs, more than double the level recorded a decade earlier. It also found that antisemitic incidents in the United States surged by around 360 per cent in the three months following the October 7, 2023 attacks. That comes as no surprise.

The upsurge in antisemitism over the last decade has occurred at the same time as the genocide in Gaza. The two are closely linked. But the Zionist lobby dishonestly refuses to recognise the context of genocide in Gaza which is driving antisemitism. Context is essential.

That context includes the appalling fact that five million people in Muslim lands in the Middle East have been killed in US led wars since 2001. A further 38 million people have been displaced. Israel has supported all these wars. Its presence in the region has brought widespread death and chaos. It doesn’t want peace with Palestinians. It wants to get rid of them.

And a recent Gallup International poll showed that of six world leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu is the most disliked. Interviewing 58,000 people in 58 countries Gallup ranked leaders as follows: Pope Leo +24 points, Modi -12, Xi Jinping -23, Trump -31, Putin -41 and Netanyahu -42. The world marks Netanyahu down for his murderous behaviour, on a par with Putin.

The Zionist lobby

When will the Zionist lobby do some honest soul searching? Has it ever crossed their minds that Jews are less safe because of Gaza and their misuse and abuse of the term antisemitic?

The lobby has been exercising destructive power for decades. Its role as an agent of foreign influence for Israel should be publicly examined.

Former Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg went into hyperbole after the Bondi tragedy. He referred to the “litany of failures” by Anthony Albanese and the government to urgently tackle antisemitism. He described anti-Israeli protests around Australia as “incubators of hate” towards the Jewish community. He demanded “a Royal Commission into the Bondi attack and the rise of antisemitism in this country”.

Eleven Australian Jewish organisations were then called into battle to defend Israel and the genocide. They organised business, law, academic and political groups to lobby for the Royal Commission on Antisemitism. The media – and particularly the Murdoch group – on the Zionist drip feed for decades, ran a campaign in support of the lobby. Even a group of sports people supported the lobby campaign, including Dawn Fraser who volunteered to do another lap on her specialty, antisemitism.

Even after the announcement of the Royal Commission, the lobby called into question the suitability of the Commissioner. Sky News told us that “Jewish community leaders are quietly fuming over Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to appoint former High Court justice Virginia Bell to lead the Commonwealth Royal Commission into the Bondi terror attack…. News of her likely appointment was greeted with strong criticism from some Jewish leaders and prominent community members." Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg was scathing, declaring it was “unthinkable” Mr Albanese would appoint a candidate who did not enjoy the complete backing of the Jewish community. It is all about “us”.

The lobby invited the Israeli President Herzog to visit Australia. Then, true to form, the Australian government followed and issued a formal invitation for the visit. The tail wagging the dog!

The Zionist lobby in the US effectively commands the support of the two major parties. On Iran, Trump has been led along like a poodle by the Netanyahu and Zionist lobby.

The same is true in Australia. Few opinion leaders in Australia are prepared to defy the lobby.

John Lyons of the ABC in Pearls and Irritations on 4 October 2021  said: “In 40 years of journalism I’ve dealt with some smart and powerful lobby groups. But none compares to the pro-Israel lobby in Australia. It is formidable, well-funded and effective” …. Says senior journalist Peter Greste: “personally I think the pressure that the Israeli lobby places on Australian journalists is frankly outrageous”."

Speaking of Zionist lobbying, Bob Carr – former Premier of NSW and Foreign Minister – put it this way in Pearls and Irritations on 2 December 2021: “My experience as Premier and Foreign Minister confirms that the (Israeli) lobbying exceeded that marshalled by any other diaspora community."

In a speech to the Jewish Community Centre in Perth on 24 July 2018, Mark Leibler boasted of his lobbying power. He gave some case studies: “a good example is the advocacy we undertook at the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council in relation to the recently returned ABC correspondent Sophie McNeill’s coverage of the Middle East".… he added that ahead of an ALP’s national conference, Bob Carr and his associates we’re making worrying “in-roads on the diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state. A great deal of sustained behind the scenes lobbying was done with the leader and with individual politicians whose voice carried weight to ensure the damage was limited.”

Antoinette Lattouf was fired by the ABC. The federal court judge hearing her case found that the decision of the ABC was made to appease pro-Israel lobbyists.

At the instigation of the lobby, the Adelaide Writers Festival withdrew an invitation to Palestinian novelist Randa Abdel-Fattah. There is also ongoing litigation instigated by the Lobby against renowned journalist Mary Kostakidis over alleged antisemitism.

Pressure was also applied by the Zionist lobby to university managements to quell protest, call in police and treat peacefully protesting students as terrorists at the time of the Gaza Solidarity Encampments throughout 2024 and later.

The lobby always plays the ‘victim’ and refuses to acknowledge that the victims of the Holocaust in Europe are now the perpetrators of a new Holocaust in Gaza.

If I criticise Israel over genocide that does not make me antisemitic. If I criticise India that does not make me anti Hindu. If I criticise Indonesia that does not make me anti Muslim.

But the weaponisation of antisemitism, the use and misuse of the term, stores up danger for the future when there is a serious problem of antisemitism. And there will be. When language is debased truth is obscured.

By denying the genocide, Zionists make Jews less safe.