It was politically driven and halfhearted at best. Australia’s Prime Minister issued an apology to the Jewish community after the Bondi Beach attack. I have serious doubts as to his sincerity.

As Carol wrote here, the horrific terrorist attack against Jews gathered on Bondi Beach for the first night of Hanukkah, has been sadly brewing for years now. Ignoring rampant antisemitism and the recognition of the so-called Palestinian state are definitely contributing factors. 

I would also argue that it IS a policing failure in that authorities had the son on their radar and then quit monitoring his movements. Furthermore, it’s a policing failure when authorities gave a NON citizen a gun license and six permits to aquire guns?! 

Why would Australia give a non-citizen on a Visa, SIX gun licenses?

And why would he be given six licenses when his son has known links to ISIS?

Then he trains for a month with ISIS in November, and he STILL has six guns?

Big questions to answer. https://t.co/4VuyvFs28M

— 0pinionistNZ (@OpinionistNZ) December 21, 2025

No one in authority in Australia seems to want to answer THAT question. What they are doing instead is blaming the guns and Albanese has announced a gun buy back program. 

Which does not address the larger issues at all regarding this terrorist attack.

The father and son accused of killing 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration threw four homemade explosive devices at the Bondi Beach crowd before the mass shooting, investigators alleged in court documents released Monday.

The two suspects, 24-year-old Naveed Akram and his 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, conducted training ahead of the attack and recorded a video stating their justification, Australian police said. The new allegations about the preparations for the massacre were made public Monday as Naveed Akram appeared in court via video from a Sydney hospital, having been charged with murder and terrorism.

Authorities are probing whether the suspects, who they have said were inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group, received any external support. They are focusing on their travel in November to the southern Philippines, seen in the past as a hot spot for extremism.

Read that again. It took barely a week for the authorities to uncover this information. Information they SHOULD have had if they hadn’t stopped monitoring Naveed Akram a few years ago. 

Blaming the guns instead of the rampant antisemitism is the path Albanese has chosen. I can completely understand his getting soundly booed by mourners on Bondi Beach.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was met with boos while attending a vigil honoring the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting on Sunday.

An estimated 10,000 mourners, including Albanese and various Australian politicians and members of the Jewish community, gathered on Bondi Beach to commemorate the victims. David Ossip, who serves as president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, remarked on Albanese’s presence to the crowd and received a chorus of boos.

“This has to be the nadir of antisemitism in our country,” Ossip said. “This has to be the moment when light starts to eclipse the darkness.”

Members of the Jewish community in Australia, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned the Australian government that recognition of the so-called Palestinian state was going to have grave consequences. But I’d venture to guess no one could’ve imagined a terror attack like this. One that could’ve been far worse if those pipe bombs they threw had actually detonated. 

Today Prime Minister Albanese apologized. Sort of. 

“Emotions were raw, and a lot of people in the community are hurting and angry, and some of that anger was directed towards me, and I understand that,” Albanese said as he addressed the crowd’s furious reaction toward him.

“As prime minister, I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened while I’m prime minister,” he added.

“And I’m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced.”

Yet he’s still going to blame the guns. He doesn’t even address the antisemitism that is being excused and essentially encouraged in his country. The sincerity was lacking in his statement. 

Oh wait, he will put forth some new laws about hate speech. Except Australia’s current hate speech laws have been all about policing wrong think against those poor starving Palestinians. 

Sounds like Albanese will use the Bondi Beach massacre as an excuse to tighten speech laws. I seriously doubt that hateful rhetoric aimed at Jews will be prosecuted under the new legal regime. https://t.co/8wp3wv57B5

— Katya Sedgwick (@KatyaSedgwick) December 22, 2025

Hate speech against the Jewish community hasn’t been policed prior to this attack. What makes anyone think the NEW hate speech laws will be any different?

Albanese wants an investigation into why there was such a policing failure into this. I’d say the demand for a royal commission is warranted. The terrorist son was on law enforcement’s radar and then they dropped the issue. Father and son posted VIDEOS of their training and plans. Yet no alerts showed back up to the authorities?? Or did they ignore the signs? I’d say its all of the above. 

Albanese apologized. It was a halfhearted apology at best in order to save his political ass. Gun buy backs and reworking hate speech laws won’t cut it. 

Until he and leaders the world over address and put actual consequences in place for antisemitic attacks, we will see this happen again and again. 

Feature Photo Credit: Official portrait via Wikimedia, cropped and modified