The persistence of extremism is a demonstration of the importance of leadership – or more importantly, the consequences of the absence of it.

As the dust settles, the Albanese government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state is one of the most perplexing in Australian foreign policy.

Until recently there was bipartisan consensus for a two-state solution based on reasonable preconditions: Israel’s right to exist in safety, an elected government, no role for Hamas and the release of hostages. It was not long ago the Prime Minister said those preconditions had not been met and therefore recognition was premature. Nothing has changed, yet government policy has.

Ninety thousand people marched across the Harbour Bridge and Labor’s policy seemed to march with them. This was politics, not principle.

Whether they were spooked, or made a choice, the government saw a political moment, and the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister grabbed it.

There may have been a moment in the future where bipartisan recognition was possible, but it would have been contingent on changed conditions. Instead, the Prime Minister abandoned those preconditions entirely. They have made it clear that if they are not met, their current decision stands.

If anything, the case against has strengthened. Hamas’s sponsor, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been connected by Australia’s intelligence agencies to the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue and sewing social division within our country.

Hamas boasted that Labor’s decision vindicated the atrocities of October 7. One of the most distressing moments in Australian foreign policy has been turned into one of its most shameful.

What this also showed is that when the government chooses to act, it can. Which makes its inaction since October 7, and its failure to confront the explosion of antisemitism in Australia, even more damning.

From the Opera House steps, where there was hesitation to condemn chants of “gas the Jews” or “where’s the Jews”, the tone was set. That vacuum of leadership has echoed through protests outside synagogues, intimidation on university campuses, firebombings, the attack on Miznon restaurant, and even harassment of people in a Melbourne hair salon.

Antisemitism has been unleashed like the inflationary form of bigotry – easy to release, hard to contain.

We all believe in a free society and free speech. But with rights come responsibilities. And one of the responsibilities is on people to exercise their speech with mindfulness.

But more importantly we all carry the responsibility to exercise our speech, to stand up for the type of community we want to be, and to call out despicable conduct. This burden falls harder on those with the biggest platforms in public life.

This is what has been missing.

It remains an abject failure of leadership that too often the only voices that have stood up and spoken out against antisemitism have been those from the Jewish community. This is not just an issue for Jewish Australians.

Extremism once normalised spreads quickly across society. As someone with Armenian heritage, I know too well how indifference to the first genocide of the modern era emboldened those who perpetrated the greatest crime in human history.

But I rarely speak of my personal life and how that intersects as well. As the records at Yad Vashem state, “Many who were found to be habitual homosexuals were sent to concentration camps, where they were forced to wear pink triangular badges, were treated harshly, and thousands perished.”

We are seeing this permissive environment again. In recent weeks there has been a spike in homophobic violence in Melbourne – gay men targeted through dating apps, graffiti defacing LGBTIQ+ venues, and harassment directed at my own office because I wear the yellow hostage pin.

These threats, laced with antisemitism and homophobia, have been referred to the AFP.

A permissive environment for extremism is now spreading.

Each time another event occurs it should be a warning that when the government ignores the silence of the canary, others in the coal mine suffocate too. These are not being sufficiently heeded.

The Jewish community has been living with the consequences of failed leadership for nearly two years. Through the government’s actions the consequences are now being more broadly revealed to the rest of the nation, and the rest of the nation is realising that what started with the Jewish community won’t end there.

Published in the Australian Jewish News, Thursday 4 September 2025