Netanyahu blames Labor over synagogue fire
Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the Melbourne synagogue attack on social media, blaming the Australian Labor government’s “extreme anti-Israeli position”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on Sept. 2, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.
The Australian government’s support for a UN resolution calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of Gaza is to blame for a widely condemned arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, the Jewish state’s prime minister says.
It is impossible to separate the reprehensible arson attack from the federal government’s “extreme anti-Israeli position,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on social media early on Saturday.
“Including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible’, and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country,” he wrote on X.
“The burning of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne is an abhorrent act of antisemitism,” he said.
The Adass Israel synagogue at Rippon Lea in Melbourne’s southeast had two of its three buildings gutted after suspected masked intruders allegedly broke into the building and set it alight in the early hours of Friday.
Two congregants preparing for morning prayers, were inside. They were evacuated, with one sustaining minor injuries.
Police have not ruled out terrorism as a motive, believing the attack was targeted.
The suspects had poured accelerant on the floor inside the synagogue and set it on fire before fleeing when they were disturbed by a congregant, police said.
Israel President Isaac Herzog said he firmly condemned the horrific arson amid an intolerable wave of attacks on Jewish communities when he spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday night.
“I noted to the prime minister that this rise and the increasingly serious antisemitic attacks on the Jewish community required firm and strong action, and that this was a message that must be heard clearly from Australia’s leaders,” he said.
“I thanked him for his ongoing efforts to combat antisemitism, and expressed my trust that the local law enforcement would do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Political and religious leaders have widely condemned the attack on the synagogue, built by Holocaust survivors.
Mr Albanese said he had no tolerance for antisemitism.
“This deliberate, unlawful attack goes against everything we are as Australians and everything we have worked so hard to build as a nation,” he said in a statement.
But Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, does not agree with Netanyahu’s conndemnation. He said: “Australia is so much more than the government of the day. We have been overwhelmed with messages of support for Israel from across Australia by people who share our view that the government is wrong on this issue. The people of Australia love freedom and democracy as much as Israelis do, and should always be regarded as a key friend by Israel even when the government lets us down.”
And Israel’s ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon said at a press conference reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. “I don’t hold the government, the Albanese government, as responsible for the rise [in antisemitism].”
Maimon said he was “disappointed” with Labor’s change in voting positions at the UN but added: “You don’t measure a relationship based on one or two votes.”
Australian Federal Police will provide all requested resources to Victorian authorities, he said.
By: Jack Gramenz/AAP with J-Wire scenario
