Peter Kurti, the director of the Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society Program at the Centre for Independent Studies and an adjunct associate professor in the School of Law and Business at the University of Notre Dame, Australia, spoke to a December 29 Middle East Forum Podcast (video). The following summarizes his comments:
Abrogating the “moral clarity to distinguish between legitimate political discourse and incitement to hatred” makes a mockery of claims of “tolerance and pluralism.”
The December 2025 jihadi terror attack on Australia’s Jews celebrating the Chanukah holiday at Bondi Beach claimed the lives of 15 victims and wounded at least 40. Western societies not shocked by the normalization of antisemitism have already failed “the fundamental stress test of liberal democracy.” Particularly in a post-October 7 reality, Jew-hatred “is never just about Jews; it’s the canary in the democratic coal mine.” Ignoring that warning signifies “the psychological defeat of a nation” and goes to the very core of “whether our institutions can protect anyone from ideological violence.” Abrogating the “moral clarity to distinguish between legitimate political discourse and incitement to hatred” makes a mockery of claims of “tolerance and pluralism.”
Australia’s security services had intelligence about the attackers, but rather than “admit that certain ideological imports are incompatible with liberal democracy,” authorities engaged in “linguistic fog—what I call discursive displacement.” Worse still is that elites point to free speech and the public’s right to comment on these failures as the problem.
Unlike the First Amendment protections in the U.S., other Western governments “surrender fundamental rights to avoid confronting difficult truths about integration failure.” The price for this “devil’s bargain” is that the citizenry of these countries lose trust in their institutions. Instead of shedding light on Islamic extremism, cowed authorities silence anyone with the temerity to state the obvious, namely that “multiculturalism as currently practiced is a seriously weakened project.” The inevitable result was the killing field of Bondi Beach.
Instead of protecting citizens from violence, legislation being implemented in response to the attack “protect[s] failed policies from criticism.” By using the excuse that “it would cause division by giving a platform to antisemitic voices,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese resists calls for a royal commission of public inquiry which would expose the truth.
There are lessons to be learned from the Bondi Beach tragedy for Western countries that are willing to “ask themselves some hard questions.” First, do your political leaders unambiguously condemn demonstrators calling to “globalize the intifada,” or do they indulge in the same linguistic fog plaguing Australia’s leadership? Second, will your institutions act on threat intelligence or will your authorities kneel to political pressure and minimize security concerns? Third, will you risk complacency and the “hollowing out of our democratic institutions as they lose credibility and legitimacy” with the public, or defend free speech and liberal democracy?
Demand your political leaders speak with “moral clarity” by denouncing anyone who calls for the destruction of Israel.
Passing the stress test that antisemitism exposes also requires three steps: First, demand your political leaders speak with “moral clarity” by denouncing anyone who calls for the destruction of Israel, proclaiming without equivocation that such pronouncements are antisemitic and incite violence. Second, security services need political backing to act on intelligence to restore “institutional integrity.” Third, build up the confidence to defend democratic principles. “Tolerance does not mean tolerating those who would destroy tolerance itself.” Free speech, the rule of law, and the upholding of “fundamental values like the equal dignity of all people” actually strengthen diversity “by ensuring that all communities can participate in open debate while respecting democratic norms.” Limiting free speech to protect diversity is an admission of failure for that version of diversity.
Choosing “complacency over courage” is not only about antisemitism; “it’s about whether Western civilization still believes in itself enough to defend its values.” The overriding lesson to be learned from the Bondi Beach tragedy is that the West heed Australia’s “Bondi moment” and find the courage to choose differently. “The price of complacency is measured not just in lives lost, but in democracies diminished, freedoms surrendered, and truths we’re no longer allowed to speak.”
