Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted to the Melbourne synagogue arson attack and police continue search for people responsible for the terror.
ABC NEWS | Published December 7, 2024
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to link a Melbourne synagogue firebombing to Australia’s UN vote earlier this week, as Australian leaders condemn the incident.
Mr Netanyahu made a statement on social media platform X condemning the burning of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne as “an abhorrent act of anti-Semitism”.
The synagogue in Ripponlea in Melbourne’s south-east was left gutted after a suspicious blaze tore through it on Friday morning, forcing early morning worshippers to flee for safety.
Police are still investigating the motive of the attack.
The Israeli prime minister said he hoped state authorities would use “their full weight to prevent such anti-Semitic acts in the future”, before criticising the Albanese government.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia,” he said.
“Including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible’, and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country.
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SOURCE: www.abc.net.au
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Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the Albanese government for the Melbourne synagogue attack.Credit:Getty Images, Alex Ellinghausen
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD | Published December 7, 2024
Australia’s once friendly relationship with Israel has spiralled from simmering tension into outright hostility after a remarkably caustic intervention into Australian domestic politics by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a scathing social media post, Netanyahu went significantly further than Israel’s top diplomat in Australia or any of the nation’s leading pro-Israel organisations by accusing the government of taking an “extreme anti-Israeli position”. He also directly linked Friday’s arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue to Australia’s “scandalous” voting record at the United Nations and the decision to decline a visa to a former Israeli cabinet minister.
He also appeared, in a stunningly broad claim, to suggest that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic.
Netanyahu’s post marks a turning point in the Australia-Israel relationship: one that has traditionally been described as a friendship, and often, inaccurately, as an alliance. Now the gloves are off, and diplomatic niceties have been thrown into the bin.
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SOURCE: www.smh.com.au
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