The Standard You Walk Past...

It's the first night of Hanukkah, but where families should be celebrating together, they're grieving instead.

This afternoon on Bondi Beach, two gunmen opened fire. There was a third gunman, who was disarmed by a bystander before police arrived. IEDs were found in a van nearby, belonging to one of the shooters.

Chanukah by the Sea, a family and community celebration of the first night of the Jewish Holiday, was the target.

At the last count, at least 15 were murdered, and another 29 being treated for injuries, in the biggest massacre in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre.

Massacres, defined as any attack with at least four victims injured or dead, do happen in Australia, as they do everywhere. However, they're usually related to gang violence, or a lone shooter who has had a break with reality and is stopped relatively quickly.

This attack was planned. It was deliberate. It was entirely predictable.

Bondi Beach is the place everyone thinks of when they think of Australian Beaches. Sun, surf, sand, and people enjoying a day out. Aside from the Chanukah by the Sea celebrations, there was a bustling Christmas Market happening nearby, and the usual hundreds of people enjoying a sunny Saturday on the beach.

The location was not a coincidence. A Jewish Celebration, held in a location that is nearly as much of an Icon as the Sydney Opera House.

For more than two years, there have been weekly marches calling for violence against Jewish people, and a resounding failure to condemn the supposed 'fringe extremists' while the mob claims that "Resistance by any means!" and "Globalise the Intifada!" aren't really calls to violence, just peaceful slogans.

For more than two years, there have been swastika graffiti and Nazi slogans in Jewish neighbourhoods. Synagogues have been firebombed. Neo-Nazis march proudly. Yet Jews and any non-Jews with functioning brain cells who try to speak out against it are told that it's "not really Anti-Semetic Hate Crimes".

Even now, as bodies are identified and families informed of the fates of their loved ones, there are already claims that the shooters were IDF soldiers conducting a false flag operation, repeating similar conspiracy theories made in the wake of October 7th, 2023. Comments on posts about the shooting clam it was 'justified because of the war in Gaza'. Some complete lunatics showed up at a vigil held for the victims in a Keffiyah to shout "Free Palestine".

EDIT: Apparently at least one of the lunatics in the Keffiyah was jewish, and decided that since there were Israeli flags in honour of some of the victims who held dual citizenship or were visiting from Israel, it was fine for her to show up like that.

I'm Autistic, I've made plenty of social blunders, and I have NEVER failed to read a room that badly. So I won't be retracting calling her a lunatic, because seriously, WTF?

Unlike Jewish people existing in the vicinity of Pro-Palestine protests, the lunatic in question immediately had police surround to prevent her experiencing the Australian Cultural Response to Being A D*ck In Public*, because of course being loudly anti-semetic can't come with consequences for those who never miss an opportunity to prove themselves a waste of good breathing air.

*Being forcibly removed by whoever gets fed up of listening to your BS first. If you are Being A D*ck In Public in a pub, you may expect your removal to be prefaced by a punch in the face.

Part of me is angry. I want to call out every single person who remained silent while Jewish Australians were targeted, who are now posting about a Muslim man, Ahmed al-Ahmed, who intervened to subdue a third shooter and writing dramatic posts about how this "Isn't their Australia", and ignoring the fact that at least two of the dead were killed trying to do the same thing with the active shooters.

It feels like deflection. #NotAllMuslims. Look at this Muslim Hero (ignore the Jewish victims...)

Perhaps it's because Ahmed succeeded, while the others only bought time. Perhaps it is because the others have yet to be identified. Perhaps I am too cynical.

Part of me is sad. This is a tragedy, a horrible one. Details of the victims are being relased with the consent of their families. A ten-year-old schoolgirl. A Holocaust Survivor who died while shielding his wife of 50 years. Two Rabbis who leave behind families. A French footballer who moved here last year and was active in local football clubs.

Among the wounded, several were shot while protecting children, sometimes their own, sometimes complete strangers. A paramedic was shot while treating the injured.

None of this should have happened.

I do call out the more egregious offenders. Fortunately, having been writing about Anti-Semitism for the past two years, I have most of them blocked by now, and only have to see screenshots.

Part of me is tired. Every Jewish holiday in the past year has coincided with a horrific attack somewhere around the world. I'm not even Jewish, but I wake up on Jewish holidays praying for a low-casualty event. I can't imagine what it is like to be a Jew on their holy day, hoping that they won't hear of a murder or another terror attack.

I'm sick of the hate, of trying to anticipate the next attack. I wish I was more surprised than I am.

Yet, at the same, a small part of me is hopeful.

Today, Monday 15th December, every blood bank and blood donation centre had lines out the door as people rallied to donate. Several centres had to make a public request for appointments, or start asking people to come back tomorrow due to a lack of staff.

Even as the body count rises, so do stories of everyday heroism. Shopkeepers and residents who sheltered those fleeing. People who risked everything to save lives. Social Media groups bringing down the ban-hammer on racists and anti-semites, for once.

People coming together in the wake of tragedy, shutting down those who try to use the tragedy to push a racist or xenophobic agenda.

May the memory of the victims be a blessing.

May the names, but not the actions, of the terrorists be swiftly forgotten, and may they face appropriate justice.

May this be the wake-up call that so many people so desperately need.