In a sharply worded letter dated Aug. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu castigated Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his government’s failure to counter Australia’s surging antisemitism.
In the letter, described by Australian media as “blistering” and “explosive,” Netanyahu expressed his concern at the “alarming rise” in antisemitism in Australia and the “lack of decisive action by your government to confront it.”
Netanyahu reproved Albanese for contributing to antisemitism by signaling his readiness to recognize a Palestinian state. (Australia says it will do so at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September.)
Listing several recent attacks on Jews in Australia, including a July arson attack on an East Melbourne Hebrew congregation during Shabbat dinner, which forced 20 worshippers to flee, Netanyahu said, “Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”
Describing Albanese’s actions not as diplomacy but appeasement, Israel’s prime minister wrote: “It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas’s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace Australian Jews, and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.”
Likening antisemitism to “a cancer,” Netanyahu warned Albanese that “it spreads when leaders stay silent, it retreats when leaders act.”
He called on Albanese to take a page from U.S. President Donald Trump’s book, noting the president has protected the civil rights of American Jews. He urged Albanese to “replace weakness with action,” and to do so within a month, suggesting Sept. 23, 2025, the start of the Jewish new year, as an appropriate deadline.
“History will not forgive hesitation. It will honor action,” he stated.
Defending Albanese, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, “Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry,” echoing unsubstantiated accusations that Netanyahu’s government favored indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip and purposefully starved Gazan civilians.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), an umbrella organization representing some 200 Jewish groups in Australia, sent a letter to both prime ministers lamenting their escalating “war of words.”
The ECAJ, in its letter to Albanese, said his July 30 remarks that Netanyahu was “in denial” about the repercussions of the war in Gaza were “excessive and gratuitously insulting.” To Netanyahu, the group wrote that his comments describing Albanese as “a weak politician who betrayed Israel” were “inflammatory and provocative.”
The Israeli prime minister’s letter follows a diplomatic altercation between Australia and Israel brought on by the Albanese government’s revocation of a Knesset member’s visa on Monday, the day before he was due to visit Melbourne.
Australia denied entry to Knesset member Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionism Party ahead of what was to have been a solidarity visit to the Jewish community. Attempting to justify the decision, Burke argued Rothman would “spread a message of hate and division.”
On Tuesday, Netanyahu tweeted, “History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
Other countries that have vowed to recognize a Palestinian state in September include France, Canada and the United Kingdom.
French President Emmanuel Macron, after receiving from Netanyahu a similarly worded letter to that sent to Albanese, hit back on Tuesday, describing as “abject” and “erroneous” Netanyahu’s accusation that his recognition of a Palestinian state fueled antisemitism.
"[France] protects and will always protect its Jewish citizens,” Macron said. His office said that Netanyahu’s letter “will not go unanswered,” according to the news site France 24.
In May, the Hamas terrorist group praised France, Canada and the United Kingdom for threatening “concrete actions” against Israel. It “welcomed” their joint statement and said it was “an important step towards restoring respect for the principles of international law.”
Addressing the leaders of France, Canada and the United Kingdom in May, Netanyahu said, “When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice, you’re on the wrong side of humanity, and you’re on the wrong side of history.”
