Anthony Loewenstein

Jewish safety is connected somehow to Israeli actions, you are presuming and ignoring that when Israel commits mass violence, which they do regularly, that inevitably leads to more violence against Jews.

Historically, that is what happens, which therefore to many of us Jews says, well, what does that say about what Israel represents?

Is Israel actually making us safer as Jews?

Many of us say, in fact, it's the opposite.

And these are the kind of conversations that are going to be hopefully had at the Royal Commission.

I guess we'll wait and see.

But I would argue that many in the so-called mainstream pro-Israel community don't want to have that conversation.

And many in the media don't want to have that conversation.

So that worries me and worries many of us in the Jewish Council.

like everything as a journalist, this is crystal ball gazing, but history is not kind to Royal Commissions.

I agree, the other one that comes to mind he didn't mention was Aboriginal deaths in custody, which in fact is getting worse, not better, after the Royal Commission there decades ago.

Look, what concerns me, and again, I'm not alone in having this view, is that there obviously after the Bondi terror attack, there was huge pressure for Royal Commission for various reasons.

Albanese resisted that.

I think it would have been good to have one.

He was eventually taken to it, kicking and screaming.

And the terms of it and the pressure of it, I think, very much is aligned so far.

It's not particularly talking, being critical of Virginia Bell, the chief commissioner.

I'm not particularly attacking her at all.

I'm saying in general the whole architecture is very much, I think, set up in a way.

I'm not saying it's a set up, but it's framed in a way at accepting a narrative.