What happened to my almost homeland?

My survivor parents languished in Landsberg’s displaced person camp for four years after the war ended, until the U.S. Congress allowed them to migrate to our shores as refugees. They had already received an invitation to resettle in Australia from my mother’s cousin. But my father had an uncle in the U.S., so they decided to move to New York with their 15-month-old son, who was born in Landsberg. I was born two months after they got here.

So I was almost an Australian.

Decades later, my late wife, Gail, and I went on a cruise to Australia. We were accompanied by Chuck Lieberman of Advisors Capital Management and his wife, Anne, a psychotherapist. When we hit Melbourne, Chuck, who was also born in Landsberg, and Anne visited their cousins, whom they had never met. Gail and I visited my cousins, whose parents offered the invitation to resettle my parents.

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I was very impressed with the Jewish community — with its passion for Zionism, high day-school enrollments, youth groups, and the like. A colleague spent several years there raising funds for the day schools, which reinforced the richness of Australian Jewry.

Then the Bondi Beach massacre occurred, the worst catastrophe of Australian Jewry reverberating for Jews throughout the world.

I knew about the horrible antisemitism our co-religionists faced. But I was unaware of the government’s not-so-benign neglect, bordering on complicity.

The first hint of that complicity was at the press conference immediately after the massacre, when after the usual platitudes the prime minister invoked the need for more gun control. The older murderer had licenses for six guns. The bad guys find ways to evade the law.

Then the head of the Australian federal police proclaimed that this was the act of a terrorist group. Religion had nothing to do with this massacre.

Although most Muslims are not violent, Islamic jihadists are guided by a radical interpretation of Islam. That’s why we must enlist Muslim leaders to preach nonviolence and combat hatred against others outside their faith. They must step up.

Which the government didn’t do, pandering to the Muslim population for pollical support. They tolerated thousands screaming “Gas the Jews” two days after the October 7 attacks. They tolerated Sydney police advising Jews to avoid downtown Sydney. They had a lax vetting process for migrants from Muslim countries, including Gazans, most of whom hate Jews. They would not allow entry to Hillel Fuld, whose brother was killed by a terrorist, “for health and safety “reasons.” Perhaps he would publicly espouse Zionism. The pro-Israel journalist Douglas Murray’s visa was conditional because he may cause “community tension.”

The government’s foreign minister visited Gaza but refused to visit the site of the massacre against Israelis. Then Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rushed to the U.N. to proclaim support for a Palestinian state when Hamas was still holding hostages. This was rewarding the spilling of Jewish blood and massive kidnapping.

With the burning of synagogues and Jewish-owned restaurants and cars and the pleas of the Jewish community, the government finally appointed an envoy for combatting antisemitism. But this was accompanied by one to combat Islamophobia, even though it’s the Jews who are the victims. This is reminiscent of the politicians who respond to attacks against Jews by condemning antisemitism but also Islamic hate, sexism, and all the other isms to universalize their message. This dilutes empathy for the Jewish victims and the larger Jewish community.

Meanwhile, Jillian Segal, the envoy to combat antisemitism, proffered a report outlining dozens of actions the government could take, including law reform, training and enforcement, education, public awareness and discourse, digital regulation, multicultural engagement, university reform, security, and law enforcement and coordination among many others. Not only didn’t the government implement any of these recommendations, it didn’t even bother to endorse the report.

Australia is symptomatic of a larger issue — defending Western values and its social fabric. Antisemitism is endemic in Europe. The recent cancellation of New Year’s celebrations in Paris and German Christmas markets reflect Europe’s failure to crack down on those who refuse to assimilate, creating their own enclaves outside the mainstream of the host country’s culture, including liberal values. Europe’s non-replacement birthrates will ensure the dilution of Western civilization in decades to come. This is manifested by a recent Gallup poll that revealed that less than one-third of young adults would be willing to fight for their country if attacked. And yet four countries withdrew from Eurovision because the outpost for Western values in the Middle East, Israel, is participating. I am in favor of immigration for those willing to assimilate into the host country’s values and ethos.

Maybe the horror of Bondi Beach will awaken the Australian government and Europe to better protect Jews and in turn Western values.

But I’m not holding my breath.

Max Kleinman of Fairfield was the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest from 1995 to 2014. He is the president of the Fifth Commandment Foundation and consultant for the Jewish Community Legacy Project.