The Sydney Massacre Was Antisemitic, But Preventing the Next One Requires More Than a Narrow Focus
The massacre at the Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was driven by antisemitic motives. However, the exclusive focus in the media and public discourse on antisemitism worldwide – and in Australia in particular – fails to address the underlying infrastructure that increases the likelihood of further terrorist attacks and mass killings. This infrastructure is not unique to threats against Jews.
Moreover, there are deliberate distractions. The Benjamin Netanyahu government and pro-Israel actors are attempting to exploit the Sydney massacre to suppress and silence pro-Palestinian protest, portraying the movement wholesale as supportive of terrorism – as though the massacre in Sydney could somehow absolve the policy of destruction, starvation, and killing that Prime Minister Netanyahu has pursued in the war in Gaza. In timing that could hardly have suited Netanyahu better, President Trump, in the aftermath of the massacre, signed an executive order expanding restrictions on the entry of foreign nationals into the United States to include holders of Palestinian passports as well.
In the coming days, Australian authorities will seek to determine whether Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed Akram, acted as “lone wolves” inspired by ISIS or received instructions from official operatives in one of the group’s cells around the world. But in 2025, even if neither received direct orders from anyone, radicalisation is no longer analog – it is digital. Every “lone wolf” can now easily find a “pack,” a community of like-minded individuals, on social media.
Shortly before the massacre, Australia enacted legislation restricting the use of certain social media platforms by young people under the age of 16. Yet, like the rest of the world, it continues to struggle with how to address the ease with which individuals can learn online how to use weapons or build bombs, and be drawn into the “rabbit hole” of racist conspiracy theories.
People demonstrate during the Tommy Robinson-led Unite the Kingdom march and rally in London, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. Photo: AP/PTI
Despite attempts by the Netanyahu government and pro-Israel actors to link the perpetrators of the Sydney massacre to the pro-Palestinian protests that erupted in Australia and around the world following the war in Gaza – even though there is currently no evidence to support this – ISIS and similar jihadist organisations actually bear striking similarities to far-right groups and militias worldwide, which the Netanyahu government tends to overlook. For example, Israel recently hosted an official visit by one of the leaders of Britain’s far right, known as Tommy Robinson. Similarly, President Trump has flirted with far-right organisations and militias in the United States, at times echoing their racist and violent rhetoric – from his comments following far-right violence in Charlottesville to the storming of the Capitol. Immediately upon returning to the White House, he granted sweeping pardons to participants in the assault.
Moreover, for years, Netanyahu and Trump have sought to divert attention from far-right terrorism by levelling unfounded accusations against the domestic and global left. For example, recently, Trump exploited the murder of Charlie Kirk to once again claim that the greatest internal threat in the United States comes from radical left-wing terrorism.
ISIS and far-right organisations and militias share a similar set of targets. They hate, threaten, and attack, among others, Muslims – many of whom ISIS considers apostates, while the far right views them as a threat seeking to replace the white Christian population – as well as Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ people, women, the institutions of Western democratic states and their global allies, universal values, and the international organisations established to defend them.
Beyond their shared list of targets, ISIS and far-right organisations and militias recruit supporters and fighters by immersing them in the world of conspiracy theories. In the post-COVID era, as traditional journalism continues to decline and is increasingly replaced by social media, and as dozens of countries have experienced military coups or the rise of authoritarian regimes and leaders like President Trump – who disregard facts and science – fertile ground has emerged for the spread of conspiracy theories, particularly racist ones.
A stark example of the intersection of hatred toward Muslims and Jews with conspiracy theories is the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre on August 27, 2018. Far-right extremist Robert Bowers, who murdered 11 people there, believed that Jews were part of a conspiracy to bring Muslims into the United States.
Therefore, any attempt to prevent the next massacre of Jews solely through isolated efforts to combat antisemitism is doomed to fail. Instead of being drawn into distractions, forces must be united — Jews, Muslims, and others alike. This includes confronting digital radicalisation, the spread of racist and conspiratorial ideologies, and extremist organisations and militias that incite violence and recruit followers on social media, as well as opposing leaders who cynically and dangerously exploit these phenomena to amass political power and silence critics of their policies.
Eitay Mack is a human rights lawyer and activist based in Jerusalem.
This article went live on December eighteenth, two thousand twenty five, at fifty-nine minutes past two in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
