Australia Expels Iranian Ambassador
Two anti-Semitic attacks in Melbourne and Sydney last year were the work of Iran’s elite paramilitary force, a yearlong inquiry has found.
The first attack was an October 2024 fire started by arsonists at Bondi’s Lewis’ Continental Kitchen. The second was the December 2024 firebombing of the Addass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization just pinned blame for the attacks on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (irgc). In response, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday that Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, would be expelled, along with three other Iranian dignitaries. This marks the first time a foreign ambassador has been kicked out by the Australian government since World War ii.
The prime minister also announced that the irgc would be officially listed as a terrorist organization.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Bourke said the government’s actions “send a clear message, a message to all Australians, we stand against anti-Semitism, and we stand against violence.”
Some, though applauding the action, remain critical. The adage “too little, too late” certainly comes to mind. But it’s more than that. As the prime minister himself highlighted, “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”
This raises the question, why launch these attacks in Australia? Why did the Iranians think they could “undermine social cohesion” in a nation so far removed from the Middle East? How could they hope to “sow discord in our community”?
Is it because there is a serious problem with anti-Semitism in Australia?
According to the United States’ State Department’s 2023 International Religious Freedom Report for Australia, “The Executive Council of Australian Jewry recorded 657 reported anti-Semitic incidents from October 7, the date of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, to November 30, more than seven times the number during the same period in 2022.”
Does the irgc know it can act with impunity under the lax scrutiny of a decidedly anti-Israeli Aussie government? After all, relations between Israel and Australia are at an all-time low.
No Friend in Australia
Following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack—Israel’s 9/11—U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration led an international effort to produce a statement condemning Jew-hatred. Nearly three dozen nations signed it. According to an unnamed former official, Canberra did not.
The Nov. 6, 2023, statement called Hamas’s attack “barbaric” and “the most lethal assault against the Jewish people since the Holocaust” with “an immense impact on Jewish communities worldwide.”
The official told Jewish News Syndicate, “We definitely asked the Australians, and they didn’t. In retrospect, that was actually a much bigger deal than it seemed at the time, I guess.”
Those nations that did sign the statement added that they would “do everything in our power to see that hatred against Jews is rebuked and that Jewish life flourishes in peace” and that “anti-Semitism and all forms of hate are incredibly harmful and unacceptable.”
The Albanese government’s refusal to back such a claim no doubt signaled an opportunity to Israel’s enemies: If you’re looking for a sympathetic ear for terrorist regimes, come down under.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s 2024 report on Jew-hatred in Australia found a 316 percent increase in anti-Semitic events compared to 2023. Clearly this is fertile ground for Israel’s number one adversary in the Middle East.
Whatever Iran’s motives, it is clear that the declining Australia-Israel relationship is reflected by an increasing level of anti-Semitism.
Yesterday’s announcement, while positive, doesn’t heal the relationship with Israel. Nor does it excuse the current administration’s blatant rejection of the Middle East’s only democratic state. And the expulsion doesn’t change the reality that if Iran’s goal is to keep the fires of anti-Semitism burning in Australia, it has succeeded.
Who Hates Israel the Most?
Where is this rise in anti-Semitism leading, and who is really behind it? For answers, we must look at history and to the future as laid out in the Holy Bible.
“Satan can stir up vicious hatred,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in his book The Key of David. “He loves to use out-of-control emotions. A religion taken to the extreme—such as radical Islam—gives him a great field to work in. Nazi Germany exhibited fanatical hatred for the Jews. The Nazis also used emotion to stir up a repugnant hatred. The coming beast power [a political-religious empire prophesied to rise in this end time] will exhibit the same hatred for the Jews as well.
“Most people who hate the Jews don’t even know why they do. Can we see Satan behind such lies and hatred?”
Most people don’t stop to consider why the Jews have been so despised throughout history, even back to antiquity. Those who do often fall back on conspiracy theories or the very propaganda used by those Jew-haters of yesteryear.
But as Mr. Flurry points out, there is a devil who works on the minds of men. Even Aussie men and women! And he has a special hatred for the Jews. If you would like to know why, and where the uptick in anti-Semitism is leading, read “The One Minority Society Loves to Hate,” by Richard Palmer.
He concluded his article by writing, “Revelation 12:9 tells us that shortly before Christ’s return Satan is at his worst wrath ever. He is about to whip anti-Semitism up to its worst point ever. But that same verse tells us that Satan has only a short time left to do so. Growing Jew-hatred is a satanic backlash against the truth of God and the efforts of a loving Father to bring all mankind into His Family. Thankfully, though, it will prove to be a violent, vicious but ultimately vain effort to thwart the inevitable plan of God.”