A Royal Commission into antisemitism will have little credibility if it investigates everyone except those who were responsible for Australia’s response to the worst surge in anti-Jewish hatred since the Second World War.

Since October 7, Jewish schools have become fortresses, synagogues have required unprecedented security, businesses have been vandalized, individuals harassed, doxed and attached and many Australian Jews have come to question whether their own government truly appreciated the scale of the crisis.

That should concern every Australian. History has repeatedly shown that antisemitism is rarely confined to Jews alone. It is often the first indicator that a society’s democratic values and social cohesion are beginning to erode.

If the Commission is serious about identifying how Australia reached this point, it cannot simply catalogue antisemitic incidents or prosecute individual offenders. It must examine whether government decisions, public messaging and institutional leadership adequately responded to the warning signs.

That means hearing from the people who led the Government’s response: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

Former Australia Jewish Association president David Adler has argued that the Albanese Government should answer for decisions that “significantly incited antisemitism and emboldened activists.” He has singled out Albanese, Wong and Burke as the ministers he believes bear the greatest political responsibility for the Government’s response.

I certainly agree with Adler’s assessment but that’s beside the point. His criticism raises questions that a Royal Commission exists to answer, not through political argument, but through evidence.

One example deserving close scrutiny is the Government’s response to the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza in October 2023. Hamas-run authorities immediately........

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