Australia’s political left appears so consumed by Israel that one could be forgiven for thinking there are no other issues facing the country.

Forget the disastrous budget delivered by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which further erodes the aspirations of Australians trying to buy a home, build a business, or create the kind of future many post-war immigrants dreamed of for their children and grandchildren. Forget the growing concerns around radical Islamism, the return of ISIS brides who once vowed to destroy Western civilisation, or Victoria’s spiralling youth crime, tobacco wars, and collapsing infrastructure. Instead, the obsession remains Israel.

After decades of foreign money flowing into Western institutions, including from states such as Qatar, the ideological results are becoming increasingly visible. Recent polling shows older Australians overwhelmingly rejecting the Greens, while younger generations are embracing a worldview shaped by anti-Western, anti-colonial, radical gender, and anti-Israel activism that increasingly spills into outright antisemitism.

Why, at a time of economic decline and social instability, is Israel even a central topic at Labor conferences, particularly in Victoria? One would think the priority should be fixing a state burdened by debt, crime, and deteriorating public confidence. Yet we rarely hear the same passion directed toward Christians slaughtered by Islamists in Nigeria, Congo, or Sudan, nor toward the Iranian regime’s executions and brutal repression of protesters. More........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)