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| Down Under | |
| Day 5 Round-up: New Media Angle: Sydney Attacks, Inspired by ISIS and Targeting Jews, Had ‘Nothing to Do With Religion' | |
| 2025-12-18 | |
| [RedState] ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Global Affairs Editor Laura Tingle raised eyebrows during a recent podcast where she—not once, but twice—declared that the targeted terrorist attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday evening was not motivated by religion. The target of the attack was a Hanukkah celebration to mark the first night of the Jewish holiday. The alleged perpetrators, as noted by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who himself would love nothing more than to shift the blame onto inanimate guns, were inspired by ISIS. The attackers had an ISIS flag on the window of their car. The first two letters in ISIS stand for "Islamic State." Tingle, however, would like the people of Australia to know there is absolutely no connection to religion whatsoever. During an episode of the ABC's "Politics Now" podcast, host Patricia Karvelas pointed out that the attackers were radicalized and anti-Semitic, to which Tingle interjected, "Their actions are not based on their religion."
In Australia, alarm over neglected gun control laws after Bondi Hanukkah terror attack [IsraelTimes] System put in place after deadly 1996 mass shooting is filled with shortcomings amid lax background checks, removal of 28-day cooling-off period for owners to buy more weapons. Relatives of Muslim man who disarmed Sydney terrorist say Syria is ‘proud of him’ [IsraelTimes] Relatives in Syria of Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, the Muslim fruit vendor lauded for disarming one of the terrorists who attacked a Hanukkah event in Sydney, called him a hero on Wednesday, and expressed their pride. Ahmed left his hometown in Syria’s northwest province of Idlib nearly 20 years ago to seek work in Australia. His uncle, Mohammed al-Ahmed, recognized him from footage circulating online. “We learned through social media. I called his father and he told me that it was Ahmed. Ahmed is a hero, we’re proud of him. Syria in general is proud of him,” the uncle told Reuters. The man said his nephew left Syria in 2006 after completing a degree at Aleppo University. He hasn’t been back since. “Since he was young, he was gallant and a hero,” his uncle said, describing him as a happy and passionate person. “He acted impulsively without thinking who the people were that were being killed, without knowing their religion, if they were Muslim or Christian or Jewish. That’s what made him jump up and carry out this heroic act.” Ahmed, who now holds Australian citizenship and has two daughters, remains in a Sydney hospital with gunshot wounds from the terror attack, which killed 15 people and wounded dozens. A GoFundMe campaign set up for him has raised more than $1.5 million. Back in Syria, the Ahmed family home remains in ruins from the country’s 14-year civil war. Piles of smashed cinderblocks ring the concrete carcass of the two-story house, whose walls are punctured by shelling. “This is Ahmed’s father’s home. It got destroyed during the war. Bombing, bombing from planes, missiles – every type of weapon,” Ahmed’s cousin, who is also named Mohammad al Ahmed, told Reuters. He said his cousin “was the reason that many innocent people who did nothing wrong were saved.” “He will prove to the world that Muslims are peacemakers, not warmongers,” said Ahmed. Syrian foreign minister speaks with man who disarmed attacker in Sydney terror attack [IsraelTimes] Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani spoke on the phone with Ahmed Al Ahmed, the Syrian-born Australian man who disarmed a terrorist during a deadly antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Anadolu news agency reports. According to the report, Shaibani told Ahmed that President Ahmed al-Sharaa had asked him to check on his condition and convey his wishes for a speedy recovery. An unpublished video of the phone call obtained by Anadolu is said to show Ahmed thanking both the Syrian president and the foreign minister for their concern. “In the near future, I will come back to my country and see those beautiful, heroic faces that removed injustice and ended oppression against the people,” Ahmad reportedly said during the call. Ahmad, 43, originally from the village of al-Nayrab in northwestern Syria, was filmed running toward the attacker and wresting away his gun. The terror attack killed 15 people and wounded dozens at a Jewish community event for Hanukkah. Holding Australian citizenship, Ahmad was shot and taken to St. George Hospital in southern Sydney. Australian officials, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as well as US President Donald Trump, have praised his actions. Bondi Beach Hanukkah killer charged with 59 offenses including terror, 15 counts of murder [IsraelTimes] The surviving gunman in Sydney’s Bondi Beach terror attack at a Jewish community event was charged Wednesday with 59 offenses, including 15 charges of murder, as Australian authorities were investigating the two perpetrators’ links to the Islamic State terror group. Two terrorists slaughtered 15 people on Sunday in a mass shooting targeting Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, and nearly 20 other people are still being treated in hospitals. As investigations unfold, Australia faces a social and political reckoning about antisemitism, gun control, and whether police protections for Jews at events such as Sunday’s were sufficient for the threats they faced. Naveed Akram, 24, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in a statement on Wednesday. Barrett said the investigation into the massacre is continuing and sent words of reassurance to the Jewish community. She said there is “no ongoing threat.” ACCUSED SHOOTER CHARGED IN HOSPITAL Akram was charged on Wednesday after waking from a coma in a Sydney hospital, where he has been since police shot him and his father at Bondi during the murderous attack. His father, Sajid Akram, 50, died at the scene. The charges include one count of murder for each fatality and one count of committing a terrorist act, police said. Akram was also charged with 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded, and with placing an explosive near a building with intent to cause harm. Police said the Akrams’ car, which was found at the crime scene, contained improvised explosive devices. Akram’s lawyer did not enter pleas and did not request his client’s release on bail during a video court appearance from his hospital bed, a court statement said. Akram is being represented by Legal Aid NSW, which has a policy of refusing media comment on behalf of clients. He is expected to remain under police guard in the hospital until he is well enough to be transferred to prison. AUTHORITIES PROBE CONNECTION TO ISLAMIC STATE Authorities believe that the massacre was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Barrett said Wednesday. Islamic State is a scattered and considerably weaker group since a US-led military intervention drove it out of territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria in 2014, but its cells remain active, and it has inspired a number of independent attacks, including in Western countries. Authorities are also examining a trip the suspects made to the Philippines in November. Groups of Muslim separatist militants, including Abu Sayyaf in the southern 6Philippines, once expressed support for ISIS and have hosted small numbers of foreign jihadis from Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the past. The Philippines said Wednesday there was no evidence that the country was being used for terrorist training. President Ferdinand Marcos “strongly rejects the sweeping statement and the misleading characterisation of the Philippines as the ISIS training hotspot,” presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro said at a press briefing. “No evidence has been presented to support claims that the country was used for terrorist training,” she added, reading from a National Security Council statement. “There is no validated report or confirmation that individuals involved in the Bondi Beach incident received any form of training in the Philippines.” On Tuesday, the country’s immigration office confirmed that Sajid and Naveed entered the country on November 1, headed for the southern province of Davao. Albanese ‘abandoned’ Australia’s Jews, ignored ‘alarm bells,’ charges ex-treasurer
'Avner's Is Closed': Jewish Bagel Shop Shutters Doors Thanks to Ongoing Threats, Antisemitism [PJMedia] In the wake of the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach in Sydney, a Jewish bakery in the Australian city has decided to close its doors, citing ongoing antisemitic threats and the government's unwillingness and inability to protect Jews in the country. Celebrity chef Ed Halmagyi opened Avner's, a bagel shop, in late. In an article from Baking Business, Halmagyi said the shop was meant to develop a "sense of community." “I love the creativity of it, I love the process of it, and I love the outcome. But I think for me, the very first thing that it gave me was a sense of connection to other people, it was the environment of the workplace itself,” Halmagyi said. To open Avner's, he stepped down from his job at Better Homes and Gardens. Despite Halmagyi's vision and dreams, the reality of antisemitism and its rise in Western nations following the October 7, 2023, terror attacks proved too much for the bagel shop. Halmagyi announced Avner's is closing due to safety concerns. Related: Bondi Beach: 2025-12-17 Good Morning Bondi Beach: 2025-12-17 Day 4: Only 2 cops were on duty at Bondi Beach Hanukkah event attacked by terrorists, official says Bondi Beach: 2025-12-16 Day 3: Bloody Hanukkah: Australian beach becomes new front line Update: frozen cops shot hero who disarmed shooter | |
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