Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a man known for his shamelessness, immediately sought to exploit the horrific tragedy on Sydney’s Bondi Beach yesterday. Two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration. They killed at least 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, before a bystander, reported to be a Syrian Muslim refugee, tackled and disarmed one of the shooters.
Speaking in Israel, Netanyahu blamed the shooting on Australia’s recent recognition of Palestine. Let us be clear: Nothing justifies violence against Jewish people. Let us also be clear: Jewish safety is not dependent on the interminable subjugation of the Palestinian people and the denial of their self-determination rights.
It is Netanyahu who is engaging in antisemitism by positioning Jewish well-being, in Israel and around the world, as reliant on the negation of the rights of another people; this is a gross dehumanization of both Jews and Palestinians, portraying the former as inherently oppressive and the latter as unworthy of basic human rights.
Netanyahu’s attempt to exploit a violent antisemitic hate crime to blackmail supporters of Palestinian rights was joined in by others. Still, many in the media, including American Jews, refused to buy the Israeli premier’s self-serving illogic. Peter Beinart spoke on the subject with journalist Ayman Moyheldin on MS Now:
Still others took the opportunity to engage in the most extreme form of Islamophobia by calling for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the U.S. and the West. Both a U.S. Senator and a NYC Councilwoman tweeted this hateful invective. 
The Councilwoman will soon serve under a Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who replied to her: “A million Muslims live in New York City. We belong here, as does every other New Yorker. This is vile Islamophobia from the Councilwoman and it has no place in our city.”
It seems the lesson for some people is that the only way to fight hate is with more hate. But combating hatred, including antisemitism, requires upholding the rights of all people, including Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians. It mandates objecting to discrimination and oppression, no matter the identity of the victims.
