Ever since the Hamas atrocities of October 2023, it’s not been easy being Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Following the infamy of 7 October, Albanese’s government presided over a surge in anti-Semitism that is a huge and indelible stain on Australia’s international reputation and moral character.

The government’s policies on the Israel-Gaza conflict were designed to appease Australia’s significant Muslim minority – which, uncomfortably for Albanese’s Labor party, largely is concentrated in a sizeable cluster of Labor federal seats in the western suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. Labor’s foreign policy progressively abandoned any pretext of support for Israel’s campaign to defend itself from the nest of terrorist vipers on its doorstep. Domestically, the government paid lip service to condemning anti-Semitism, but mostly stood by anti-Semitic incident after incident.

In trying to please everyone, you please nobody

In trying to please everyone, you please nobody

Then came the Bondi Hanukkah massacre by two alleged Islamist jihadists last December. For weeks, Albanese was a rabbit in the headlights, slow to respond to the grief of Australia’s Jewish community and bewildered by the anger so many showed,........

© The Spectator