First they extinguish Hanukkah with a fire extinguisher, in the glare of the cameras. Then they extinguish other people’s lives, off camera. In both cases, they are hailed as heroes.

On December 14, 2025, at Bondi Beach in Sydney, during a public Hanukkah gathering, shots were fired. People died because they came to light candles in a shared space. This was not a “clash.” It was target selection.

One point should be stated without hedging: antisemitism inside a democracy rarely begins with bullets. It begins with social training for small shifts in consent: the Jew should be less visible, more cautious, more grateful for “tolerance,” more willing to prove that his presence is not a provocation. And then this training receives its brutal completion.

This is also why certain “responses” to antisemitic incidents matter as much as the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)