No link between Bondi Beach shooting to Palestinian recognition, Australia's Albanese stresses - Shir Perets

 

by Shir Perets

"And overwhelmingly, most of the world recognises a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East," he said.

 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attends a press conference following a shooting at Bondi Beach, at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, December 14, 2025.

(photo credit: AAP/LUKAS COCH/VIA REUTERS)

 

There was no link between Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state and the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that claimed the lives of at least 15 people and wounded another 40, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said during an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.

"And overwhelmingly, most of the world recognises a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East," he added.

"This has been an extraordinarily traumatic 24 hours. My job is to provide support for the Jewish community, is to make it clear that Australians overwhelmingly stand with the Jewish community at this difficult time."

Albanese's response came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that part of the blame for the attack belonged to the Australian prime minister, as "Antisemitism spreads when leaders stay silent."

"I call upon you to replace weakness with action, appeasement with resolve. Instead, prime minister, you replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement," Netanyahu said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a 40 signatures debate, at the plenum hall of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on December 8, 2025 (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)

"Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia. You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country."

Australian Jewish leaders say Bondi Beach terror attack was 'long dreaded'

New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip and Executive Council of Australian Jewry CEO Alex Ryvchin stated the massacre was the expected progression of two years of rising antisemitic actions and rhetoric.

The escalation in antisemitism in Australia since the October 7 massacre was minimized, according to Ossip and Ryvchin, and the Sunday attack was a logical progression of previous events. Ossip said that Jews had been ostracized on campuses and artists ostracized from their fields.

Shir Perets

Source: https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-880359

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