The candles were meant to burn for eight nights. Instead, the lights of "Hanukkah by the Sea" were extinguished in minutes by the muzzle flashes of automatic rifles. On Sunday evening, the golden sands of Bondi Beach-a symbol of Australia’s carefree innocence-were stained with the blood of 12 innocents, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a man who dedicated his life to spreading kindness.
This wasn't just a tragedy; it was a receipt. It was the bill coming due for years of Western complacency, bureaucratic cowardice, and a suicidal tolerance for the intolerant.
As the smoke clears over Sydney, the familiar, nauseating phrase has already entered the news cycle: the gunmen were "known to security services."Of course they were.
In the West today, the state does not have an intelligence problem; it has a willpower problem. The West watches the wolves, tracks the wolves, and then invites the wolves to dinner in the name of "social cohesion."
While Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offers hollow condolences and speaks of "evil antisemitism" as if it were a weather event that just happened to strike, the uncomfortable truth must be spoken. This massacre is the direct result of a "Red-Green" alliance that has allowed Islamism to fester under the protection of progressive ideology.
Weakness Invites Aggression
The West has forgotten how to survive. It has traded the instinct for self-preservation for the comfort of denial. History teaches a simple, brutal lesson: peace is not maintained by good intentions or hashtags. It is maintained by strength. When a civilization apologizes for its own existence and refuses to name its enemies, it invites its own destruction.
Contrast the paralysis in Canberra with the resurgence of resolve in Washington. Since his inauguration in January 2025, President Donald Trump has dismantled the myth that borders are optional and that vetting is racist. Under the "Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists" Executive Order, the United States now screens entrants not just for criminal history, but for ideological hostility.
The Trump doctrine is clear: if you believe the Jewish state should be wiped off the map, or if you harbor hostile attitudes toward Western principles, you do not get to walk the streets of Manhattan.
If Australia had the courage to implement this doctrine-prioritizing the safety of the citizens over the hurt feelings of activists-how many of the 12 souls lost at Bondi would be alive today?
The "Red-Green" Complicity
For two years, Australian Jews have screamed into the void. Since October 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents in Australia have skyrocketed by nearly 500%.The world saw it when the Sydney Opera House was lit up not in solidarity with Israel, but with flares from a mob hunting for Jews. Police later claimed the chant was merely "Where's the Jews," as if a lynch mob searching for victims is somehow an acceptable improvement over one calling for gas.
Did the government crack down? No. They urged "unity." They allowed hate preachers to spew bile in Western Sydney mosques.They allowed the visa system to become a turnstile where tribunals hand visas back to violent non-citizens because deportation might cause "hardship."
This weakness signals to groups like Hamas and their paymasters in Tehran that the West is open for business. And make no mistake: the fingerprints of the Islamic Republic are all over this escalation. Australian intelligence had evidence of Iranian involvement in previous arson attacks, yet diplomatic channels remained open.
Why is the Iranian ambassador still in Canberra? Why is the IRGC not hunted with the same ferocity that the Trump administration is now applying to narco-terrorists in the Western Hemisphere?
Justice Demands a Sword
In this darkness, the world must look to the heroism of the average citizen. Just as the "Bollard Man" stood alone against a knife-wielding maniac in 2024, witnesses at Bondi saw civilians tackle a gunman with their bare hands.These individuals possess the moral clarity that their leaders lack.
Western civilization will not be saved by apologists or bureaucrats. It will be saved by those who are willing to name the enemy-radical Islamism-and do what is necessary to defeat it.
President Trump has shown the way: seal the border, deport the hate-mongers, and stand unapologetically with Israel.
Australia must now decide if it wants to be a sovereign nation that protects its people, or a cautionary tale of a society that was too polite to survive.
To the Jewish community of Sydney: The civilized world stands with you. But tears are not enough. Justice demands a sword.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx