The antisemitic massacre in Australia did not shock anyone who has been paying attention. What should shock us is not that Jews were targeted, but that so many still pretend this violence is an aberration. It is not. It is the foreseeable outcome of decades of denial—about Islamist antisemitism, about the failure of Western multiculturalism, and about the catastrophic delusion and misdiagnosis by Jewish leadership.
Hatred of Jews in large parts of the Muslim world is not a fringe phenomenon. It is mainstream. It is taught explicitly in mosques, schools, television programming, political rhetoric, and social media. Jews are demonized as subhumans and conspirators. This is not rhetoric pulled from obscure extremists; it is woven into most of these societies. Anyone claiming otherwise is lying, ignorant, or simply does not want to see the truth.
Western governments knew this—and chose to look away.
Shame on every official who signed those policies. Shame on every intellectual who laundered this hatred by corrupting the meanings of words like freedom, equality, and justice.
But the greatest betrayal came from within the Jewish community.
The Jewish community—particularly its liberal and progressive leadership—failed in the most unforgivable way possible. They failed to recognize that the 60 years during which the Jewish community was, in fact, stable and secure by no means meant that the challenges were behind them. And yet, a generation of Jewish leaders convinced themselves that history had ended, that antisemitism was a relic. They championed movements that rebranded Jews as “privileged,” Western society as uniquely evil, and Islamist rage as “resistance.” They embraced hierarchies of oppression that placed Jews at the bottom—when they were included at all. They dismissed warnings about Muslim antisemitism as xenophobia, even as synagogues required armed guards. They took up the causes of every other group they deemed persecuted or vulnerable. They failed to teach their children the importance of telling their story. They failed to teach their children that they, too, are a minority that must be protected.
One could understand how non-Jewish progressive people, without the historical experience of generations of persecution, could be so naïve. But Jewish people have too much experience with persecution to act similarly. It begs the question: how could they not have known better? The answer lies, perhaps, in human nature. Never underestimate the power of an individual to delude themselves.
Jackie Mason once joked about an elderly Jewish man who could not be fooled by anyone—except a young woman who told him he was handsome. “I am,” he replied. That joke is now a prophecy. Jews allowed themselves to be flattered into believing that if they were sufficiently progressive, sufficiently apologetic, sufficiently silent, they would be spared.
They were wrong.
Now the movements Jews helped build chant “globalize the intifada.” The massacre in Australia is the epitome of that slogan. Now the coalitions Jews funded and helped pave the way for justify their murder. Now Jewish blood is spilled, and the response is moral equivocation.
The United States has not yet seen its worst moment. But the conditions are in place: radicalization, intimidation, and institutional cowardice to face the blunders that have been made.
There is no neat solution. There is no reset button. Some damage cannot be undone.
But one thing is non-negotiable: truth.
Truth about Islamist antisemitism.
Truth about the collapse of the multicultural fantasy.
Truth about Jewish leaders who forfeited their own youth and their own power within the liberal movements of the last 60 years.
Without that reckoning, nothing changes. The cat is out of the bag. Whether Jews survive this era will depend on whether they finally abandon comforting lies, admit the mistakes, and radically change course. They must start by taking back their children. Only then can the narrative begin to shift.
By Daniel M. Rosen
