Anthony Loewenstein

There'd been some expectation that the interim report would be roughly like this.

Thus far, there's not really anything hugely critical of intelligence services, security services as recommendations, as opposed to outright criticism or condemnation.

There's been talk in the last months about whether the fact that this attack happened, that one of the

Killers, alleged killers, was on the radar of intelligence services a number of years ago, then kind of fell off the radar.

There's no mention of that now.

That may change as the year goes on.

I guess one of the main things that struck me was the concern that the commissioner had around safety for Jewish events.

And a comment that was made that the recent US, or ongoing really, US-Israeli war on Iran increases the chances, I'm paraphrasing, increasing the chances of attacks on Jewish targets in Australia.

And that's what we've seen, I think, in other countries around the world.

So in general, nothing particularly shocking today, relatively expected, but certainly something worth discussing.

Because I think a lot of things are not being talked about, which I think is part of the problem.

I mean, the short answer is yes, they certainly say they are.

I mean, obviously, since October 7, 2023, there's been huge amounts of federal and state government funding for Jewish organisations, for more Jewish security, armed guards, et cetera, around the country, massive amounts of money.

I would say that there has been far less attention paid to security for Muslim events or mosques, which have also been targeted, but I think it's particularly been given money to Jewish organisations.

And we've seen...

no question, attacks against Jews in the US, UK, Europe and Australia.

It's worth saying, though, that not every attack against a Jewish person or Jewish institution necessarily is anti-Semitic.

Now, I'm not saying that any of them are justified.

To be clear, that there is, I think, often a deliberate slippage

made by many Jewish organisations, more hardline pro-Israel forces and many governments to say that any attack on, for example, daubing a car in the eastern suburbs of Sydney that says something like F Israel or is automatically akin to anti-Semitism.