Peter Strempel, 8 May 2026
Antisemitism is odious, but is it more odious than support for genocidal Judaeofascism? And is ‘Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism’ Jillian Segal being paid or otherwise influenced by Israel to deliberately and falsely conflate opposition to Judaeofascism with antisemitism? More to the point, why are Australians being told they must take sides in a centuries-old feud between Jews and Moslems? And what happened to freedom from religion?
Questions I think are not being asked in the current round of Australia’s self-flagellation about religious elitism.
Isn’t it bad enough we must suffer the Christofascist infiltration of Liberal Party branches, and the possible destruction of that party because of it? It may be true that Christian churches and their congregations don’t commonly face violence or vandalism, the way some Jewish people and synagogues do. But my right to critique Christians, to ridicule, lampoon, or even ‘offend’ them, has never been challenged, the way it is proposed now for anyone claiming to be Jewish.
Reading about testimony by a dual Australian-Israeli citizen nurse makes me wonder, if you openly display support for Israel today, are you not doing the same thing people outside Germany did in the 1930s when they supported Nazi Germany? Can it be argued that the display of the star of David is the equivalent of displaying swastika symbols?
I think it’s more difficult than the Nazi example, because the star of David is both a religious and a nationalist symbol. And I don’t want any part of that insoluble conundrum. But my government is now forcing me to engage with the question, and I don’t support its feeble failure to defend Australian neutrality in the disastrous forever-wars being waged in the Middle East. In the name of religion, but more realistically, because of the inherent intolerance embedded in all religions.
Things weren’t always this way in my lifetime. I still remember being firmly pro-Israel from the 1960s onward, in its fight to exist at all, and to repulse repeated attacks by Arab neighbours intent on its obliteration. I still remember the PLO and its successors rejecting all two state proposals, and other compromises. And I still remember how there was a day in the 1990s when I realized Israel had been hijacked by religious extremists, Zionists intent on annihilating the Arab population in what was once called Palestine. I was free to form all those judgements, based on my own critical analysis, even if I was also always exposed to Americanocentric pro-Israel propaganda as part of the cold war alignments.
If it is no longer my right to form my own judgements about political developments anywhere in the world, because a particular religion or regime says so, and my government collaborates in that monstrous act of totalitarianism, I have been betrayed, and my government has committed treason. The treason of unconstitutionally suggesting that people who say they are Jewish should henceforth receive preferential treatment in the formulation of laws that do not apply equally to other Australians. Without also granting me a vote in Israel.
To be quite clear, I am opposed to all religions, and especially the fascist kind that claims the right to embed its beliefs in legislation, forcing its superstitions and bigotries onto others. Moreover, I am convinced there is no solution to the Middle Eastern feuding. Not until one or the other side has murdered all of its supposed enemies. I want no part in that recidivist barbarism. I reject any pressure to take sides in a squabble in which both sides are ethically irredeemable, having abandoned all humanity, and their own religious commandments about seeking peace and understanding.
We have laws against violence and vandalism that don’t reference specific ethnic or religious groups. What really needs fixing is the gamut of laziness and incompetence in enforcing those laws, and punishing the guilty. Apparently that’s just too difficult for our police forces, or maybe those police forces are just shoulder-shruggingly indifferent to some types of crime. Like domestic violence and the associated murder of women. Like white collar crimes by the rich and powerful. Crimes no one is in a hurry to address, and definitely not with the zeal of the antisemitism witchhunt now under way. So, what needs fixing is the lack of professionalism and discipline in our police forces, not a new tranche of laws to privilege a tiny minority religion in Australia.
It is clear to me that all religions are rife with bigotry, and deserve censure and ridicule for those prejudices. However, its adherents should not have to suffer violent and property crimes for lack of law enforcement. That’s where this debate should begin and end.
I just don’t care for the religious victim narrative. It smacks of the culture wars attempt by the Coalition Christofascists to legislate special privileges for their preferred cults. The only true victims in the entire public debate about religion are those who are forced to endure religion, with all its superstitious gibberish, its monstrous bigotries, its sadistic hypocrisies, and its ignorant self-righteousness. And I mean any religion, without special exemptions based on spurious anecdotes and irrational personal biases. As has always been the case.