** Royal Commission on anti semitism and social cohesion.**

The weaponisation of antisemitism by the Zionist Lobby Is to hide the genocide.

“Antisemitism — it’s a trick, we always use it.” So said the late Israeli parliamentarian, Shulamit Aloni. Associate Professor Peter Slezak, who drew attention to it, added the observation of distinguished Israeli diplomat Abba Eban fifty years ago: “one of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the non-Jewish world is to prove that anti-Zionism is merely the new antisemitism.”

The trick is still being used. It has led to this Royal Commission.

The evidence is not in dispute

The global rise in antisemitism is real and documented. In January 2025, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League in the US reported that 46 per cent of the world’s adult population holds deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes, more than double the level recorded a decade earlier. Antisemitic incidents in the United States surged following the genocide.

Emeritus Professor Robert Manne, writing under the headline “Don’t mention the war,” put it plainly: “the sharp rise in antisemitic acts since October 7 — insults, tweets, graffiti, doxing, arson — did not occur for no reason. They are self-evidently connected; in ways we must try to understand … to the character of Israel’s war in Gaza….”

Hart Research polling in the United States shows support for Israel dropping from 47 per cent in 2023 to 32 per cent. A February 2026 Gallup poll found that, for the first time, more Americans sympathise with Palestinians than Israelis.

A recent Gallup International survey of 58,000 people across 58 countries ranked six world leaders by net approval: Pope Leo plus 24, Modi minus 12, Xi Jinping minus 23, Trump minus 31, Putin minus 41, and Netanyahu minus 42. The world has rendered its judgement.

The upsurge in antisemitism and the conduct of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza have occurred simultaneously and are plainly connected.  The refusal of pro-Israel lobby organisations in Australia to acknowledge it is dishonest. Ihttps://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/the-weaponising-of-antisemitism-is-to-hide-the-genocide/

Context includes not only Gaza but US violence and Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Five million people in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East have been killed in US-led wars since 2001, with a further 38 million displaced. Israel and Australia have supported all these wars. In 1948 Palestinians owned 94 per cent of all land in Palestine. Then came the Nakba. Now Palestinians own only 18 per cent. Not surprisingly Arabs and Muslims are hostile to the US and Israel.

The lobby and its methods

The pro-Israel lobby in Australia is formidable, well-funded, and effective*.*  They are the words of John Lyons, a senior ABC journalist writing in Pearls and Irritations in 2021. Senior journalist Peter Greste said that “the pressure the Israeli lobby places on Australian journalists is frankly outrageous.”

Former NSW Premier and Foreign Minister Bob Carr described his experience in Pearls and Irritations in December 2021: “My experience as Premier and Foreign Minister confirms that the lobbying exceeded that marshalled by any other diaspora community. As Foreign Minister, on my first visit to the UN, I released a very routine statement noting the latest burst of Israeli settlement activity was not helpful to the peace process. From Australia arrived a request that I make myself available for a telephone conference with community leaders who would patiently explain to me that Australia was not entitled to criticise settlements — even though they represent a clear breach of international law.”

In a 2018 speech to the Jewish Community Centre in Perth, Mark Leibler of AIJAC described his organisation’s lobbying power: a sustained behind-the-scenes campaign ahead of an ALP national conference to limit progress toward diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state, and direct intervention over ABC correspondent Sophie McNeill’s coverage of the Middle East.

The lobby funds study tours to Israel for scores of politicians and journalists — an intensive program of influence that only the Greens have resisted.

 The lobby organised eleven Jewish community organisations into a coalition lobbying for this Royal Commission following the Bondi tragedy. The government was initially opposed to a Royal Commission but gave way to the pressure of the Zionist Lobby.

 When the government appointed former High Court Justice Virginia Bell to lead the commission, lobby members declared the appointment “unthinkable” because it did not enjoy the community’s backing. Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg said so explicitly.

The lobby invited Israeli President Isaac Herzog to visit Australia before the Australian government had considered the matter — and the government duly issued a formal invitation. The tail wagging the dog!

The lobby has seduced and neutered almost any criticism of Israel. This Royal Commission is evidence of that.

Zionist interests have campaigned relentlessly for a definition of anti semitism that suits their view and shut down criticism of their settler /colonial project in Palestine. Sara Dowse in Pearls and Irritations commented as follows on the definition.

https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/war-words-and-denial/

The 2016........

© Pearls and Irritations