Posturing of the Misled Left Enables False Flag Anti-Semitic Attacks

10-02-2025: If we didn’t know any better, Australia is apparently being swept by a wave of anti-Semitic hatred verging on terroristic violence. On the 6^th of December last year, the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea was firebombed in a seeming attempt to burn it down. Only two people were in the Synagogue at the time, and they managed to escape unharmed. Australian Labor Party (ALP) Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned anti-Semitism while Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) Opposition leader Peter Dutton blamed the PM for “condoning” a climate of rising anti-Semitism since the October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023. Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory claimed that the ALP has stood by while ugly anti-Semitic protests have taken over the streets week after week.[1]

Caravan of explosives?

On the 11^th of December last year, cars were torched and properties vandalised with anti-Semitic slogans in the well-heeled Sydney suburb of Vaucluse.[2] One of the slogans was “Kill Israiel” (sic).On the 11^th of January, the Allawah Synagogue in southern Sydney was vandalised with several Nazi swastikas spray painted onto the exterior walls. On the same day, a house in Queens Park in Sydney’s east had been spray painted with “F**k Jews”. New South Wales (NSW) ALP Premier Chris Minns immediately announced a $340 000 grant to the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies to go towards temporary security measures.[3] On the 21^st of January, a childcare centre in Maroubra in Sydney’s south-east was set alight and spray painted with anti-Semitic graffiti. Chris Minns described the vandalism as “disgusting” and a “vicious hate crime”.[4]

On January 30, anti-Semitic graffiti was sprayed on three sites in Sydney’s east including the Mount Sinai College, in an area with a significant Jewish community. This was one of almost a dozen such incidents in Sydney in recent months, with police saying that they appear to be coordinated.[5] On the same day the police announced the discovery of a caravan on a semi-rural road in Dural (a suburb 30 minutes north-west of Sydney) 10 days earlier. Police stated that it was not announced at the time for tactical reasons. Reportedly, the caravan contained Powergel explosives which are commonly used in the mining industry. If set off, such explosives can create a 40 metre wide blast radius.[6] The caravan also allegedly contained a note scrawled with “F**k the Jews” and the names and addresses of some Jewish people and institutions. Not surprisingly, the incident has been described an act of terrorism, and the police were reported to have assigned more than 100 counter-terrorism detectives to investigate those behind the plot.

The federal election pretext

So what is really going on? The whole set of scenarios scream out as a contrived false flag. A false flag event, or series of events, is not one that did not happen, but one which is deliberately brought about by state or non-state actors for a particular political goal. This set of attacks, which are certainly aimed at the Jewish community, nonetheless give the aura of being orchestrated. The amateur nature of the graffiti seems to indicate that some errant teenagers have been paid a several hundred dollars to obtain a few cans of spray paint, slap on some anti-Semitic graffiti and run away. On several occasions they have spelled Israel as “Israiel”. Wouldn’t genuine anti-Semites know how to spell Israel? Or is this part of the set up? Similarly, the setting on fire of buildings and expensive cars do not necessarily need professional hit men to be hired in order to have them carried out.

Some are speculating that these attacks are part of a campaign to help the election prospects of Peter Dutton and the conservative Liberal Party at the federal election, which must be held by May. The fact that the Murdoch press is printing lurid stories pumping up the anti-Semitic attacks is potentially an indicator that this wing of the ruling class wants to ensure the Labor Party does not win a second term in office. It does appear taylor made for the Liberal Party and their campaign. Peter Dutton has claimed that anti-Semitism in Australia has surged by 700%, and that the Labor Party PM has done nothing to stop the hatred that began on October 9, 2023, at the Sydney Opera House.[7] On that day, pro-Palestine protestors gathered to protest against Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas led terrorist attacks two days prior. Video footage taken of the protest at that time appeared to record protestors chanting “gas the Jews”, but NSW police later stated that after an analysis of the footage that they found no evidence that this chant did take place. Instead, they claimed that the phrase was “where’s the Jews”, although other offensive slogans such as “f**k the Jews” were spoken.[8]

It is implausible that anti-Semitism is making a huge resurgence in Australia, despite the efforts of politicians and the corporate media to fan its flames. The Jewish community in Australia is very small, and estimated to be around 100 000 people, or 0.46% of the population.[9] The vast majority of working people in Australia don’t care what religion other people have, as long as everyone respects each other’s rights. However, the political context is one where there have been weekly protests in some towns and cities across the country ostensibly in solidarity with Palestine since October 7, 2023. As with other Western countries, this movement has mobilised large numbers and has included many young people. A protest movement to defend Palestine was certainly needed, given the scale of the massacres against civilians carried out by the Israeli state purportedly in response to October 7.

Pro-Palestine or pro-war?

Unfortunately, in the West the leadership of the pro-Palestine movement contained appalling politics, which did not reasonably reach the level of being anti-war. To be sure, thousands of people who joined this movement did so out of a genuine desire to defend Palestine against the onslaught of the Israeli state which is fully backed by US and Western imperialism. Yet the leaders of this movement were silent on the barbarous terrorism of Hamas, and not just on October 7. The so-called left parties which led the pro-Palestine protests were well aware of the crimes and the utterly reactionary politics of Hamas – but chose to barely mention it out of empty liberal solidarity. This is not all one way, as the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) undoubtedly collaborated with Hamas on October 7, as it had done for years in Syria alongside ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and Al Qaeda on behalf of Washington.[10] There was an urgent need to defend Palestine despite Hamas, but the misled left parties capitulated almost entirely to the imperialist narrative, as was the arguable intention of the Western elites.

Socialist Alternative (SAlt) largely led the pro-Palestine movement and even admit in their journal that Hamas suppresses the class struggle of Palestinian workers and, amongst other crimes, executes homosexuals.[11] Yet for opportunistic reasons, they did not mention Hamas while leading any rally on the streets. SAlt actively backed US led regime change in Syria and cheered the eventual Al Qaeda takedown of the neighbouring country last December.[12] The fact that US/NATO funded regime change in Syria worsened the defence of Palestine a thousand-fold was of no significance for them. Solidarity also welcome the “triumph” of the renamed ISIS in Syria, and do not digress from the position that the pro-Palestine protests are only about opposing a genocide.[13] This moralising stand is hypocritical, for in backing the terrorism of Hamas by default, they are arguably calling for a genocide to be carried out in reverse. The Socialist Alliance (SAll) claim there is no evidence that the current anti-Semitic attacks are linked to the pro-Palestine protests.[14] This is true in itself, but the fact is that the awful politics of the pro-Palestine protests have provided the pretext for the setting up of the false flag firebombings.

The Spartacist League (SL), to their credit, do recognise that Hamas are unhinged terrorists who cannot be supported in any way. But their new found gross overemphasis on “national liberation” throws them into the camp of the reformist left parties they critique.[15] The Revolutionary Communist Organisation (RCO), to give them some due, do understand that “there exists no basis for the formation of a separate Palestinian state”.[16] However, in amongst their calls for class struggle across the Middle East, they call for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran – which is one of the main pillars of support for Palestine. The Stalinist Communist Party of Australia (CPA) do condemn the anti-Semitic attacks and recognise that it is being overblown by politicians for political purposes. However, as reformists par excellence, they call for the banning of arms sales to Israel – by writing a personal letter to the Prime Minister (!).[17] The Trotskyist Platform (TP) draws an equal sign between Hamas and Hezbollah,[18] displaying a terminal lack of awareness of both Islam and the Middle East. Hamas is an imperialist backed Sunni extremist death squad, whereas Hezbollah is a Shia based political party and genuine resistance movement, which is popularly supported in Lebanon.

More attacks on free speech

A clue as to why the anti-Semitic false flag firebombing and graffiti attacks on synagogues, cars and houses may have been organised was the introduction and rapid passing through federal parliament of the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2025[19] within 24 hours on February 6. This shocking legislation effectively criminalises free speech under the guise of combatting terrorism. It enables mandatory sentencing for those convicted, potentially overriding the interpretation of circumstances by judges. For example, it enables a minimum sentence of one year for displaying prohibited symbols i.e., Nazi symbols, the Nazi salute and terrorist symbols. This means that any pro-Palestine protestor waving a Hamas or Hezbollah (wrongly listed as “terrorist”) flag could face one year in prison. The Bill enables a six-year term for committing, planning or preparing terrorism, and six years for promoting, encouraging or being a member of a terrorist group. It lists a one-year sentence for associating with a terrorist group, and a 3-year sentence for financing or “recklessly” providing funds for a terrorist organisation.[20]

The misled left has, in other words, handed the capitalist state the perfect pretext to ban protests – especially for their pet issue of Palestine – by displaying de-facto support for Hamas led terrorism. Talk about walking into a trap! The faux left postured as anti-imperialists, while in practice remaining politically subordinated to precisely that which they claimed they were protesting. After graphically siding with the capitalist state on “Covid” and joining with them in suppressing anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine mandate protests, this self-described left now cries foul when the very same capitalist state uses the cloak of anti-terrorism to suppress pro-Palestine protests. They only have themselves to blame. While it is true that the conservative right condemned the terrorism of Hamas in order to validate the state terrorism of the Zionist Israeli state, the synthetic left apologised or even justified the terrorism of Hamas which voided their claims to be anti-war or even left-wing.

The problematic political approach of the pro-Palestine movement in the West was also that it was based on a fixated hatred of the entire nation of Israel – while remaining silent on the crimes of imperialism for funding and arming the Israeli state. This led to rallies “against hate” which were pro-Israel and pro-imperialist.[21] By misunderstanding how Hamas is used by imperialism to build support for Zionism – to deflect blame away from Washington and London – the misinformed left ended up bolstering political support for the very forces it reckoned it was fighting. Calling for the effective destruction of Israel as a whole, by military means or by means of terrorism, can be interpreted as anti-Semitism – even if this is not the intention. And, almost predictably, we now have false flag anti-Semitic attacks being set up, and “anti-terrorist” laws which further suppress free speech.

What is required is a genuine anti-war and anti-imperialist movement. The real way to defend Palestine is to offer military support to the Axis of Resistance (Iran, the now remnants of secular and multi-faith Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansar Allah in Yemen, Shia resistance militias in Iraq etc.) while maintaining conditional and tactical political defence of the now 10 member BRICS bloc[22] against Anglo/US led Western imperialism. In Israel and Palestine, socialists must urge the combination of Arab, Israeli, Palestinian and Jewish workers rising against capitalism with the aim forging a bi-national workers’ state. This requires the repudiation of any Palestinian faction which engages in homicidal terrorism. In addition, a military only battle based on Palestinian nationalism can only lead to death and defeat. On the streets, flag waving Palestinian nationalism above all else leads to a political dead end. The Israeli state is wholly backed by US led imperialism, but the Israeli working class can be potential allies provided they receive assurance that the Palestinian resistance does not wish them any harm. These potential wars in the Middle East, Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific must be linked to the dramatic cost of living and housing crisis for working people in the West, so that workers can know and feel that the anti-war position is not just a moral stance. Marxist leadership today is the key factor which can take advantage of the decay of imperialism and the rising forces of socialism.

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@redfireonline.com

[1] www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/worshippers-flee-as-synagogue-in-melbourne-is-set-on-fire-in-targeted-attack/news-story/e1d4d126e4d40cb39b741d17973874f5 (05-02-2025)

[2] https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/crime/cars-torched-antisemitic-graffiti-scrawled-on-properties-in-sydneys-east/news-story/61a68169674fb3403957e458bbc8f315 (05-02-2025)

[3] www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-11/offensive-graffiti-sprayed-on-synagogue-and-house-sydney/104806956 (05-02-2025)

[4] www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-21/maroubra-anti-semitic-graffiti-fire-childcare-centre-nsw-police/104840416 (05-02-2025)

[5] www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/sydney-cars-houses-sprayed-with-anti-semitic-graffiti-in-latest-attack-on-australian-jews (05-02-2025)

[6] ww.sbs.com.au/news/article/what-we-know-about-the-explosive-laden-dural-caravan-and-the-investigation/mea0xcjmx (05-02-2025)

[7] x.com/PeterDutton_MP/status/1880027465869115718 (05-02-2025)

[8] https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/police-review-finds-no-evidence-antisemitic-phrase-chanted-at-sydney-opera-house-protest-20240202-p5f1v7.html (05-02-2025)

[9] www.jca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Jewish-Population-of-Australia-Report_2021-Census-1.pdf (05-02-2025)