In 1932, Australia was caught off guard by an unusual threat. The danger was so severe that the government was forced to deploy the army to confront what was seen as one of the gravest crises the country had ever faced. Thousands of emus migrated into Australia’s wheat-growing regions. They trampled fields, devoured crops, and broke through fences – posing a genuine existential economic threat.
The emus did not invade the wheat fields by chance. They were drawn to unguarded frontier areas: open land without fences, a lack of predators, readily available water sources, and above all, the complacency of farmers who failed to fortify their agricultural zones or take preventive measures in advance. The birds exploited negligence, not coincidence.
The economic damage became so severe that the government deployed military units to fight the persistent pest. Yet by then, the emu population had grown so large and was spread across such vast areas that the Australian army suffered an embarrassing defeat – the only war in history in which a military force was beaten by animals.
The murderous terrorist attack in Sydney should not have come as a surprise to many around the world, and certainly not to Australian Jews. For years, severe antisemitic incidents have steadily increased, intensifying further during the war in Gaza. The attackers, along with other radical Muslim activists who threatened and harmed Jews in Australia, found fertile ground for their religious hatred.
The Australian government ignored rampant incitement on social media, escalating threats against Jews, and repeated violent attacks. This neglect allowed radical Islamist and antisemitic groups to infiltrate the public sphere, terrorize Jewish communities for years, vandalize synagogues, and assault Jews in restaurants and public spaces.
The number of incidents continued to rise – reaching as many as 1,700 antisemitic events in a single year. Once again, Australia woke up too late. Nearly a century after being surprised by the emu invasion, it now found itself shocked by a deadly terrorist attack – this time on the first night of Hanukkah.
When neglect creates the conditions for violence
The Australian government bears direct and substantial responsibility for this horrific murder. Over many years, it created what in Hebrew is known as an “atmosphere of offense.” This does not refer to a single criminal act, but rather to the construction of a social, political, and moral environment that enables antisemitic violence.
When authorities fail to take clear action against antisemitic or radical Islamist infiltration, boundaries blur, extremist rhetoric becomes normalized, and the next violent act becomes inevitable.
However, the murder in Sydney is not merely an Australian failure – it is a flashing red warning far beyond Australia. In the past, threats to Jews were primarily associated with extremist regimes or radical Muslim regions. Today, that reality has crossed borders.
The next attack is only a matter of time in many Western cities that, like Australia, have delayed confronting the dangerous infiltration, including Europe, North America, and, increasingly, major cities in the United States, most notably New York.
Zohran Mamdani condemned the massacre in Australia. But the real question is not what Mamdani – or any Western mayor – says, but what they do. Will they continue to avoid setting firm boundaries for violent groups? Will they keep allowing inciting rhetoric under the banner of free speech? And how will this dangerous vacuum once again create an environment in which words turn into violence and into the next massacre of Jews?
Recent events once again underscore that even in the modern era, after 2,000 years of persecution in exile, Jewish communities remain vulnerable. If in the past Jews were murdered due to the active hostility of local regimes, today they are murdered because of governmental passivity – moral paralysis and permissiveness fostered by leaders and governments.
Sooner or later, these events will no longer be seen as a Jewish problem alone but as a much broader one. Violence against Jews will be remembered as a milestone in the wider war waged by Islamist terror against Western civilization as a whole.
The murder in Australia is a painful and urgent wake-up call. If the West does not regain its resolve – by waging a determined fight against local terror cells, enforcing the law against hate groups, and systematically confronting incitement on social media and in the public sphere – then an October 7 in the Diaspora is no longer a question of if, but when.
The writer, an IDF reserve lieutenant colonel, is CEO of the Israel Defense & Security Forum (IDSF).