In the aftermath of the horrific massacre targeting the Jewish community in Bondi, Australia’s Prime Minister did more than offer the wrong response - he made a mockery of himself on the global stage. At a moment that demanded moral clarity and accountability, he chose deflection. Instead of confronting the growing and well-documented crisis of antisemitism and ideological incitement, he called for stronger gun control, exposing a profound disconnect from both reality and responsibility.
This was not a leadership slip. It was a failure of leadership.
The central issue behind the violence was not firearms. It was the normalization of hatred, cultivated through months of rhetoric that demonized Israel, blurred the distinction between terrorism and self-defense, and increasingly portrayed Jews as aggressors rather than victims. When such narratives are echoed, tolerated, or left unchallenged by a head of government, they do not remain abstract. They translate into real-world consequences.
Words from the highest office matter. They shape culture. They legitimize behavior. They embolden extremists.
Australia did not wake up one morning to an isolated act of antisemitic violence. Jewish communities warned of rising hostility long before blood was spilled. Antisemitic incidents surged. Public discourse deteriorated. Instead of drawing firm moral lines and condemning incitement unequivocally, the government allowed the atmosphere to fester - and in doing so, failed those it was meant to protect.
To then stand before the world and suggest that this massacre was primarily a failure of gun laws is not only inadequate - it is intellectually dishonest. It shifts blame from ideology to inanimate objects and trivializes the role that sustained incitement plays in motivating violence.
Hatred does not disappear with legislation. A person radicalized to murder Jews does not abandon that intent because one tool is restricted. History is unambiguous: knives, vehicles, explosives, and firebombs have all been used in antisemitic attacks across the globe. Pretending otherwise is willful blindness.
What makes the Prime Minister’s response especially disturbing is his refusal to own the consequences of rhetoric - to acknowledge that moral inversion, selective outrage, and anti-Israel hostility at the leadership level create conditions in which violence becomes normalized. Instead of accountability, Australians were offered a policy distraction.
On the global stage, this response projected confusion and weakness at a time when democratic leaders are expected to confront extremism with clarity and courage. In attempting to evade responsibility, the Prime Minister exposed not only a failure of judgment, but a dangerous disconnect from the realities driving modern ideological violence.
Leadership in moments like these requires honesty. It requires naming antisemitism directly. It requires protecting minorities without qualification. It requires moral courage.
If the Prime Minister cannot confront antisemitism head-on, cannot acknowledge how anti-Israel incitement spills into violence against Jewish communities, and cannot accept responsibility for the power of his own words, then he is unfit to lead during a period of rising global instability and terror threats.
For the safety of Australia’s citizens, the integrity of its democracy, and the moral standing of the nation, the Prime Minister should resign and allow leadership capable of confronting hatred - not deflecting from it - to take responsibility.
Duvi Honig is founder & CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce