I lunched with my neighbour HH yesterday. She has a close friend who she has known for over sixty years, and this friend is Jewish.
I broached the subject of the recent racially based massacre of innocent Jewish Australians, and a couple of people from overseas. HH, gave me the Jewish perspective as described by her friend. She said she felt fear, she felt isolated and threatened, with nowhere to turn aside from her own Jewish friends. She felt threat from Australia, which of course was never there.
As the week subsequent to the massacre went on, she was overwhelmed by the public support and love from Australia and Australians themselves.
I further questioned HH. Have you ever heard any multi generational white Australians like us be anti Jewish? No. We concluded we were just not really that interested in who among us are Jewish. Ray and I lived in the suburb of Balaclava for about nine years, surrounded by Jewish people. No one ever told us they were Jewish, but we know many were. There were the funny men a train station along in Ripponlea who walked around on Friday nights in tall black hats and strange clothing, but so?
While the attack may have been by radical Muslim men targeting Jews, in my view, Australians have reacted with the appropriate sympathy and support; seeing the massacre more as an attack on Australians by radical and fanatical religious terrorists.
Our quite strong gun laws have been found to be wanting. The laws are old and have not been updated for a long time. Guns have moved on to be faster and smarter. New South Wales, where the event happened is going to reduce the number of guns owned from six to four. What a laugh. Two guns, maximum. A single shot rifle and a shotgun is quite enough. There is a polling result with 80% of Australians wanting stronger gun laws. Bite the bullet PM Albanese and take advantage of the situation to restrict guns a lot further.
Joining a gun club or sporting shooters club seems to be a way around restrictive gun ownership. This needs to be strongly addressed.
The tv broadcast of a memorial one week later was brilliant. I had no intention of watching it, yet I was mesmerised. How this first class memorial, broadcast by tv, was put together in a few days was truly amazing. Well done, that girl and boy.
We now need to move on and allow consequences take their course.
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What a heartbreaking incident.
ReplyDeleteMy son-in-law's brother's family was in Sydney when the attack took place. They suddenly saw lots of people running and followed them to safety. Frightening.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I've never known any anti-Jewish sentiment in Australia. I think Jewish people stay under the radar: no anti social behaviour, no crime, no gangs. They're model citizens and respected for it
ReplyDeleteI was dumbfounded by the attack. But what was even more dumbfounded to me was Australia's immediate reaction was to tighten up the laws so that it never happens again. I would cry to see such a response in my country.
ReplyDeleteIMO Australians are not antisemitic at all, but a majority are anti what Netanyahu is doing to Gaza. I wish some prominent Jews would speak out against that.
ReplyDeletePoliticians just want Muslim votes.
ReplyDeleteHatred made its way into Australia through overseas wars and personal hatred
ReplyDeleteYou only need a gun .for your legitimate job like policing or farming and that should be managed by secure storage facilities
Guns machetes and drugs are coming in through borders that are not being policed or through the wharves so there must be organised crime happening despite border screening on the controlled entry points. Criminals will not give up their weapons and so it won’t cost the government a# much as they say so don’t hang your hopes on that.
What happened at Bondi was terrorism .
What happened afterwards from ordinary Australians was what happens when we unite against pure evil . Jewish people are part of our fabric, , they are living ordinary lives just like every one of the various faiths and of course atheists and agnostics .