The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2334 - MASSACRE: 15 Plus Killed in Islamist Hanukkah Attack in Australia
15 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What happened in the recent Hanukkah attack in Australia?
Islamic terrorists kill at least 15 people in Bondi Beach Plus, a mass shooting at Brown University, and Rob Reiner and his wife murdered in Los Angeles a dark day across the board. Also, in 10 days, episodes one and two of the Pendragon Cycle, Rise of the Merlin, begin streaming for Daily Wire Plus All Access members. No one else is bold enough to make something like this.
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Well, on Sunday, the worst shooting attack in modern Australian history happened. It was a terror attack against the Jewish community in Australia. According to the Wall Street Journal, two gunmen killed 15 people during a Hanukkah event Sunday on Sydney's Bondi Beach. And what officials called a terrorist attack on Australia's Jewish community. One suspect was killed.
The other is in critical condition. It was the country's worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years. Authorities increased the death toll after a 10-year-old girl and a 40-year-old man died in the hospital. Over three dozen people were injured as well, some seriously, including two police officers.
Apparently, the suspects were a father and a son who legally owned six guns, despite the firearms laws in Australia, which are indeed incredibly restrictive. The two shooters were, of course, radical Muslims. They stormed the family-friendly Hanukkah, according to the New York Post. It's called the Hanukkah by the Sea event, and it was run by the Chabad.
Chabad is basically a Jewish outreach organization. They exist in a lot of cities all over the world, including in places where there are not a lot of Jews, especially during Hanukkah. They tend to do these sort of big public events in public areas. They have them again all over the United States, all over Europe, all over the world, including in Sydney.
And all it is is just people getting together and eating latkes and lighting the menorah and celebrating with each other. And this is apparently one of the most Jewish areas of Sydney. Bondi Beach, the area right around it, is a very Jewish area. And two radical Muslims, father and son, united by hatred of Jews, decided that they would show up and just start blowing people away.
They were armed with shotguns and a bolt action rifle. They killed at least 15. They injured at least 40 more, according to the New York Post and the New South Wales police. The shooting went on for at least 20 minutes, apparently. 20 minutes of shooting. The police did pretty much nothing. We do have tape.
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Chapter 2: Who were the attackers in the Bondi Beach shooting?
You do have to ask some questions about the system in which this is existing. Apparently, as far as the firearm licenses go. According to the New South Wales police commissioner, Malvanyan said he met the eligibility criteria for a firearms license. That'd be the father who was part of a gun club and held a recreational hunting license for over a decade. Apparently, he was a member of a gun club.
He was entitled by nature of the Firearms Act to have a firearms license issued. It's very, very difficult to actually get a license for a firearm in Australia, but the father was able to get six firearms. They did a background check. Apparently, the background check did not include whether you are a radical Muslim in any real way.
One of the people who was killed was a Holocaust survivor who was killed while shielding his wife in the middle of the attack. His name was Alex Kleitman, and he had traveled to Bondi Beach with his wife of 57 years for the Hanukkah event.
Apparently, he decided, the Holocaust survivor, to protect his wife, and he was shot and killed as he lay on the ground on top of his wife, saving his wife in his final act. Eyewitness Arson Ostrovsky, who was shot in the head but survived, was kind of grazed by a bullet. Here he was describing what he saw in the middle of the shooting.
Tell me what happened. I was here with my family. It was a Hanukkah celebration. There were hundreds of people. There were children. There were elderly families enjoying themselves. Children, kids at a festival playing. And then all of a sudden, it's absolute chaos. There's guns, fire everywhere, people ducking. It was absolute chaos.
We didn't know what was happening, where the gunfire was coming from. blood gushing in front of me. I saw people hit. I saw people fall to the ground. My only concern was where are my kids? Where are my kids? Where's my wife? Where's my family? I survived October 7th. I lived in Israel the last 13 years. We came here only two weeks ago to
to work with the Jewish community to fight antisemitism, to fight this bloodthirsty, ravaging hatred. That's why you're here? That's why I'm here. You know, we've lived through worse. We're going to get through this, and we're going to get the bastards that did this. Tell me, did you see the gunman? I did. I saw at least one gunman firing.
It looked like a shotgun firing randomly in all directions. I saw children falling to the floor. I saw elderly. I saw invalids. I saw... People just, it was an absolute bloodbath, blood gushing everywhere. October 7th, that's the last time I saw this.
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Chapter 3: What were the responses from authorities regarding the attack?
I never thought I would see this in Australia, not in my lifetime. On Bondi Beach? On Bondi Beach, of all places, this iconic place. Your children, your wife? My children, my wife is safe, thank God. They're okay. They managed to get away. But I didn't know. I didn't know where they were. There's no greater fear, no greater horror not knowing where your family is. They're okay. They'll be okay.
You're a legend.
Thank you. Now, again, this sort of attack, I would be lying if I said that Jews around the world don't expect this sort of thing to happen, especially in the aftermath of the radical increase in Islamic anti-Semitism and its presence all over the globe and the increase of generalized anti-Semitism all over the globe. Not a gigantic shock that this happened. The only question is where.
And of course, When you're talking about the presence of radical Muslims, you can't just talk about anti-Semitic terror attacks. Obviously, there have been a wide variety of terror attacks by radicalized Muslims all over the world, including in the United States.
Whether you're talking about the Pulse nightclub shooting, whether you are talking about the attack on two National Guard members just a couple of weeks ago in Europe, whether you're talking about radical Muslims who decide to drive trucks into Christmas markets. This has become a regular feature of Western life, attacks on people who are non-Muslim on the basis of their religion.
This has become an unfortunate recurrent feature of Western life because largely of the importation of radical Muslims and people who are then radicalized into the West. Mike Burgess, according to the Wall Street Journal, who leads Australia's domestic intelligence agency, said one of the suspects in Sunday's attack was known to the agency, but hadn't been considered an immediate threat.
Police didn't say what ideology motivated the men, but I think it's a little clear when you show up to a Hanukkah by the sea event and just start mowing people down and you're a father and son team who attended the local mosque and you have an IED, apparently several IEDs in a vehicle nearby. I think we don't have to really guess too hard here. We really don't have to guess too hard.
Jewish organization Chabad said among those killed was Eli Schlanger, the assistant rabbi at the organization's local branch and a key organizer of the Hanukkah by the sea event. Police began receiving reports of shot fired around 6.47 p.m. local time on Sunday. Again, there were over a thousand people there.
Two men dressed in black could be seen firing guns from pedestrian bridge in a video posted on social media by the Australian Jewish Association. Again, the footage is quite awful, obviously, and the proximity was fairly close. One eyewitness, a man named Shmulek Skuri, described how the police, there were police officers there, and they basically did nothing. They froze up.
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Chapter 4: How did the police respond during the shooting incident?
Here he is tackling one of the shooters. He takes away his gun. Now, one of the things that's astonishing about this video is he takes away the gun from the shooter and then he points the gun at the shooter and then he lets the shooter walk away.
And I assume that is only because the gun laws in Australia are so insane that if he had shot the shooter, he might find himself under threat of prosecution. I mean, this is really quite nuts. Here is the video of the bystander saving people by disarming one of the terrorists. You can see he actually jumps on the shooter. He rips the gun away from him.
The guy stumbles down and then he points the gun at the shooter. You can hear the shots in the background. The other shooter is still standing on the bridge and firing at people. and presumably murdering people, this guy then walks out of sight. It's not up to the bystanders. Where are the cops? Where are the cops?
According to the Times of Israel, dramatic footage showed the unarmed Ahmed wrestling the weapon from one of the two gunmen before pointing the attacker's weapon at him. According to Ahmed's cousin, who shot twice in the arm during the altercation and was taken to a local hospital for surgery.
Apparently, he had no experience with guns prior to the incident and was shot by the second gunman who was perched on a nearby footbridge after succeeding in taking the gun from the first assailant.
He was called by the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the pinnacle of heroism, and said, we saw the action of a brave man, a brave Muslim, and I salute him for stopping one of the terrorists from killing innocent Jews, which, of course, is incredible and an act of heroism. President Trump, for his part,
obviously came out with a very strong statement condemning hatred of Jews and urging American Jews to celebrate Hanukkah unabated.
Before we begin, however, I want to just pay my respects to the people. Unfortunately, two are no longer with us. Brown University, nine injured and two are looking down on us right now from heaven. And likewise in Australia, as you know, that was a terrible attack, 11 dead, 29 badly wounded. And that was an anti-Semitic attack, obviously. And I just wanna pay my respects to everybody.
So what led up to this? Because when there is a mass shooting, we have to ask what could have prevented that mass shooting. Now, the easy answer that people always give is gun confiscation, mass gun confiscation.
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Chapter 5: What were the details surrounding the victims of the attack?
Unchecked anti-Semitism, cowardly appeasement, lax policing, and foolish immigration decisions, half a century in gestation, have coalesced in multicultural southwestern Sydney an hour's drive from Bondi.
In the two years since the Hamas attack on Israel, synagogues in Sydney have been firebombed, kosher restaurants vandalized, cars outside Jewish homes torched, and rancid anti-Semitic graffiti have become ubiquitous along the Bondi promenade. Kill Jews is the mantra. Every weekend for at least two years, downtown Sydney has been shut down by Palestinian protests.
This is what globalize the Intifada looks like. When people talk about globalizing the Intifada, this is what it looks like. Intifada is violent action, violent resistance. And when you globalize it, you mean kill Jews. That's what it means.
Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke, who has been busy organizing visas for Gazans, was just busted for having a secret meeting with officials to repatriate ISIS brides from Syria. Women who went to Syria to marry members of ISIS were repatriated to Australia.
Last year, during a diplomatic trip, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong visited Gaza but refused to visit any of the sites of the October 7th massacres. Again, anybody pretending this is a shock is simply pretending. That's all. It is just pretend. It is just pretend. This is a point being made by Ayaan Hirsi Ali over at the Free Press today. She says, this attack was not random.
It was not an eruption of private madness. It was deliberate. Jews were targeted on a Jewish holiday in broad daylight in a public place. This matters. When we blur that fact, we betray the dead. But it is worth noting that Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, his original statement completely blurred that fact. Here is his original statement.
Quote, the scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing. Police and emergency responders are on the ground working to save lives. My thoughts are with every person affected. I've just spoken to the AFP commissioner and with the NSW premier. We are working with the NSW police and will provide further updates as more information is confirmed.
I urge people in the vicinity to follow information from the NSW police. You notice what that doesn't say. Anything about the identity of the assailants and anything about the identity of the people who were being shot. When people get shot at a Hanukkah by the sea event, it's pretty clear why they are being shot.
It took Anthony Albanese hours to actually call the attack what it was, which was an attack on Jews.
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Chapter 6: What is the context of rising anti-Semitism in Australia?
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Chapter 7: What incidents of violence have occurred at Brown University?
Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes, one truth must be spoken without hesitation. Islamist extremism isn't merely another grievance-driven movement. It's an existential threat to Western society and to the values that sustain it. It rejects pluralism, despises freedom of conscience, and targets Jews and Christians precisely because those traditions stand for limits on power and the dignity of the individual.
History shows this pattern clearly. Where such extremism is tolerated, minorities suffer first and wider society follows. And that, of course, is totally correct. And pretending that you are hiding behind the guise of anti-Zionism in order to attack Jews as a conspiratorial force in the West, manipulating the systems in order to commit genocide and promoting every lie issued by Hamas.
Of course, that is going to lead to violence. Of course it is. Pretending otherwise, again, is blind or stupid or evil or all three. It was just back on August 17th, 2025, that Netanyahu wrote a letter to Albanese warning him about the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia.
Writing, throughout the past year, anti-Semitism has scarred Australian cities since her public statements signaling recognition of a Palestinian state. It has intensified. And that, of course, is not a surprise because if people believe that violence is going to achieve its intended effect, they continue to do the violence.
Following Hamas's savage attack on the people of Israel on October 7th, pro-Hamas extremists and left-wing radicals began a campaign of intimidation, vandalism, and violence against Jews across the free world. In Australia, wrote Netanyahu, two Albanese, again, this is like a couple of months ago, that campaign has intensified under your watch. These are not isolated incidents.
This is an epidemic. Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this anti-Semitic fire. It is not diplomacy. It is appeasement. 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. He wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong.
And by the way, it is worth noting that when it comes to media coverage of both the question of Jew hatred by radical Muslims in the West, and also those links to lies told in Gaza, The former director of the BBC's bureau in the Gaza Strip said that the Islamic terror attack in Sydney was an Israeli false flag operation. That person was overseeing the BBC's bureau in Gaza.
So I'm sure the reporting there was absolutely outstanding. That is the thing that matters most. And meanwhile, another terrible mass shooting over the weekend. It happened at Brown University. According to the Wall Street Journal, on Saturday afternoon, a gunman opened fire in a busy academic building, killing two and injuring nine.
Police releasing a video of a suspect dressed in black and walking on a sidewalk near the scene of the shooting. Authorities detained a person of interest. They then released the person of interest. Brown University student Ella Cook was one of the people killed, according to her hometown church in Birmingham, Alabama. First-year student Kendall Turner of North Carolina was among those injured.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the recent shootings on gun control debates?
But yeah, then he just started shooting right after that. So from that moment to the first gunshot, it was probably around five to seven seconds.
Now, again, we don't know what the shooter was shouting at this point. There's a lot of speculation, but speculation is not in fact evidence or fact. And so we're going to refrain from speculation until we know the identity of the alleged shooter or what actually happened.
You know, President Trump put out a statement in the middle of all of this saying that all that could basically be done at that point is prayer.
I've been fully briefed on the Brown University situation. What a terrible thing it is. And all we can do right now is pray for the victims and for those that were very badly hurt, it looks like. And we'll inform you later as to what's happening. But it's a shame. It's a shame. Just pray. Thank you very much.
Now, obviously, Democrats have been calling for more gun control because in the aftermath of every mass shooting, there's a call for gun control. It's always interesting when there's a call for gun control and when there is not. When several dozen people get shot every weekend in Chicago, no calls for gun control. When there is a high profile mass shooting, a call for gun control.
Almost always the prescribed method of gun control would have done nothing to stop the mass shooting. So citing a sort of outlier circumstance in order to justify a blanket gun policy is always a strange bit of political leisure domain. Here is Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut, who for some reason wants to run for president. I'm not sure exactly why.
Saying that this is all about the White House not taking on the gun industry. Again, this bizarre idea that the White House won't take on an industry that represents a very kind of rounding error part of America's industrial base is pretty wild. Could it just be that they disagree on the Second Amendment? Do you think that there is any appetite for any discussion?
I mean, of course I will try. And, you know, a month or two before we passed that bill in 2022, people would have said, no way. There's no way Democrats and Republicans can come together. But after Uvalde, things changed and we were able to get a narrow but important agreement. So I will never stop trying to get bipartisan support.
But I think it is pretty clear that President Trump and this White House are in the pocket of the gun lobby. I just don't foresee that happening. This White House is going to support anything that would cross the gun industry. And as we know right now, unfortunately, the Republicans in Congress don't ever meaningfully break from this president.
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