The lights are twinkling once again on the giant Christmas tree in Bethlehem’s Manger Square after a two-year blackout, but all that glisters is not gold. In the city where the baby whom Christians call the Saviour was born in a stable, children are going hungry amid the West Bank’s worst economic crisis in at least half a century. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since October 2023 precipitated the suspension of celebratory events in the West Bank – including weddings and religious milestones – in sympathy with Palestine’s besieged kindred.

In Australia last weekend, other people were unknowingly tasting their last latkes in celebration of Hanukkah when two men riddled them with gunfire on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. A child of 10 with her face painted for a party was among 16 people who died, including one of the perpetrators. They had targeted their victims, simply and grotesquely, because they were Jewish. Reports that police found Islamic State flags in the alleged gunmen’s car have raised concerns about a potential Islamaphobic backlash.

Hatred is splintering our world, and there is scant hope of stemming it while those who foster it are allowed to play the innocent. After Saturday’s massacre, Israel’s prime minister blamed the Australian government’s recognition of Palestinian statehood for spreading anti-Semitism. But Binyamin Netanyahu is far from faultless. His and his ministers’ constant accusations of anti-Semitism against critics of his war on Gaza have defused the unique vileness conveyed by a word engraved on millions upon millions of history’s headstones.

Netanyahu has said he warned his Australian........

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