In the aftermath of the December 14 Bondi Beach massacre — a targeted antisemitic attack that left Jews dead while celebrating Hanukkah — condemnations poured in from political leaders, commentators, and media outlets across Australia and New Zealand.
But alongside these expressions of horror came something deeply troubling — something familiar to Jewish communities worldwide.
Too many responses devoted significant space not to the victims, not to antisemitism, and not to the security of Jewish communities, but to Israel. To Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To Gaza.
The massacre of Jews was not allowed to stand on its own.
A standard we once understood: Christchurch
New Zealand has faced its own defining moment of mass-casualty terror. When 51 Muslims were murdered in Christchurch in 2019, the response was morally clear and rightly so.
No serious commentator blamed global Islamist terrorism for the victims’ deaths. No one contextualised the massacre by referencing ISIS, Al-Qaeda, or attacks carried out elsewhere in the name of Islam. No one asked whether Muslim political grievances had “contributed” to the violence.
The victims were not burdened with collective responsibility. They were mourned as human beings.
That standard mattered. And it should apply universally.
What was actually said in New Zealand
Yet following Bondi, that standard quietly collapsed.
Otago University professor Robert Patman posted on X that “much of the Western commentary around the appalling Bondi terrorist attack seems to assume it came out of a clear blue sky,” citing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s “mighty vengeance” campaign in Gaza.1 He then went on to amplify a statement by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.2 Sanders’ statement itself was issued after Netanyahu blamed Australian recognition of Palestine for emboldening antisemitism — a point rarely acknowledged in subsequent commentary.
This framing was echoed in New Zealand media. Massey University lecturer and former NZSIS officer Rhys Ball was quoted in the New Zealand Herald asking whether the massacre reflected “an approach that pro-Palestinians around the world have decided this is a way to get back at Israel.”3 Once again, murdered Jews were repositioned as collateral in a foreign conflict.
Letters to the editor went further. One NZ Herald letter by Tim Heath4, writing from Grey Lynn, expressed sympathy for Bondi victims but immediately compared their deaths to the far greater loss of life in Gaza:
Even in mourning, the focus shifted from the victims themselves to a moral comparison — a subtle form of conditional sympathy in which Jewish deaths were measured against a foreign conflict.
Addressing a complication — and applying the same standard
It must be said plainly: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politicised the attack by criticising Australian foreign policy.5 His response came after months of warnings to Australia about rising threats — including antisemitic attacks traced to Iran, with Israeli intelligence providing leads to ASIO — and is understandable in that context.
Linking the murder of diaspora Jews to foreign-policy disagreements remains a politicisation of Jewish death, regardless of circumstance. Regardless of how one views Netanyahu’s actions, they do not excuse others repeating the same framing. The question is not whether Israeli politicians act from a context of security concerns — it is whether commentators and officials in Australia and New Zealand grant Jewish victims the same moral autonomy routinely extended to others.
A global pattern — but a local failure
New Zealand was not alone in this failure. From U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders publicly criticising Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, to major international publications explicitly linking the massacre to Israel–Palestine politics6,7, the pattern was global.
But what matters most is how we responded — and whether we held ourselves to the standard we set at Christchurch.
Too often, we did not.
How collective blame now works
The logic underpinning many of these responses is subtle but dangerous:
Jews are not simply victims of violence — they are treated as representatives of a state, an ideology, or a geopolitical grievance. Their deaths are not final moral facts but opening arguments in a political debate.
No other minority group is treated this way.
Muslims murdered in Christchurch were not interrogated about Saudi Arabia. Asians attacked in hate crimes are not assessed through Beijing’s policies. Māori victims of violence are not burdened with the actions of iwi leaders or political movements.
Only Jews are required to pass a political purity test to qualify for sympathy.
Conditional sympathy taken to its extreme
In some cases, sympathy vanished altogether.
One Bondi victim, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was subjected to posthumous scrutiny online, with commentators assessing his perceived views on Gaza before deciding how much compassion he deserved. His politics were weighed, posthumously, to determine whether his murder was justified.8
This is not empathy distorted — it is empathy withdrawn.
A necessary caveat
Security and extremist analysts have emphasised that the Bondi attackers appear to have acted as lone‑wolf extremists inspired by global jihadist rhetoric, rather than as participants in protest movements. Counter‑terrorism specialists note that internet‑fuelled radicalisation is a core driver of such attacks, and that categorising this violence through the lens of unrelated foreign‑policy protests obscures that reality.9,10
That restraint deserves recognition. It should have been the norm.
What a responsible response looks like
New Zealand’s political leadership showed that another path was possible.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters issued an unambiguous condemnation of antisemitism and terrorism, expressing solidarity with Jewish communities without qualification.11 Prime Minister Christopher Luxon focused on concrete safety measures, announcing police would meet with Jewish community leaders and increase visible patrols at synagogues and other significant sites.12
They responded as New Zealand responded after Christchurch — with moral clarity.
Why this matters
Until Jewish victims are afforded the same moral clarity extended to others — including here in New Zealand — condemnations will continue to ring hollow, no matter how eloquent or how sincere they may appear.
Grief that comes with conditions is not solidarity.
And justice that depends on politics is no justice at all.
References
- Robert Patman (@ProfPatman), post on X (formerly Twitter), 15 December 2025.
- Bernie Sanders, “Statement on Freedom of Speech and Antisemitism,” U.S. Senate press release, 16 December 2025.
- Rhys Ball, “Bondi Massacre: NZ ‘a small millimetre away’ from another mass-casualty event,” New Zealand Herald, 17 December 2025 (premium content).
- “Letters to the Editor: Kiwi Jewish doctors call on us to denounce anti-Semitism and applaud the heroism of Ahmed Al Ahmed to save Bondi victims,” New Zealand Herald, 17 December 2025 (premium content).
- Benjamin Netanyahu, “Bondi Beach Shooting: Australian Policy ‘Fuels Antisemitism,’” Israel Hayom, December 14, 2025. https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/12/14/bondi-beach-shooting-netanyahu-on-sydney-attack-australian-policy-fuels-antisemitism-israel-hayom/
- “Bondi Beach Attack: A Timeline of Rising Antisemitism in Australia Since the Gaza War,” Time, December 2025. https://time.com/7340731/anti-semitism-australia-bondi-attack/
- Dave Rich, “Around the world, anti‑Jewish hate is growing. In Bondi, we see the tragic results,” The Guardian (Op‑Ed), December 15, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/15/anti-jewish-hate-world-bondi-beach-attack-community
- Em Hilton, “After the Bondi massacre, we don’t have the luxury to grieve silently,” +972 Magazine, December 15, 2025. https://www.972mag.com/bondi-massacre-australia-jews-antisemitism/
- Counter‑terrorism analysts, quoted in Channel News Asia, “Internet‑fuelled extremism behind rise in ‘lone wolf’ terrorism, experts say after Bondi shooting,” accessed December 2025. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/lone-wolf-terrorism-bondi-mass-shooting-analysts-copycat-attacks-5637741
- ‘The inevitable has happened’: Bondi beach attack follows rise in antisemitic incidents,” The Guardian, December 14, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/14/the-inevitable-has-happened-bondi-beach-attack-follows-rise-in-antisemitic-incidents
- Rt Hon Winston Peters, Statement on the Bondi Beach Terrorist Attack, video, New Zealand First (YouTube), December 16, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT5n_E7fm3k
- Christopher Luxon, comments reported in New Zealand boosts Jewish security after Bondi antisemitic attack, Xinhua, 15 December 2025 https://english.news.cn/asiapacific/20251215/aa1758fa96424abf957d3a3c13d44/c.html
