Dr. Donald W. Sweeting, former president and chancellor and current faculty member of Colorado Christian University, has written and lectured extensively about the growth of anti-Semitism in the western world.
He says that the mass killing of Jews celebrating Chanukah in Bondi Beach, Australia on Dec. 14, represents “the failure of Western leadership.”
He quotes British Jewish journalist Melanie Phillips, who says “we are living through a civilizational emergency.”
“I think she is absolutely right. This didn’t come as a surprise to the Australian government. It didn’t come out of nowhere. For years, anti-Semitic hostility has been building,” he says, recalling the December, 2024, terrorist arson attack on Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, and another synagogue set on fire in July of this year, also in Melbourne.
Sweeting says the Australian government “has had all kinds of reports on anti-Semitism, but little was done.
“Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is not a neutral actor, in my opinion, was caught off-guard by this because for years he has aligned himself with extremist causes. He’s been very pro-Palestinian.”
Sweeting says he was stunned when he saw Albanese’s first statement on X:
“He’s just talking about shock and emergency response. There’s no mention of Jews or Chanukah, or the terror of anti-Semitism.
“Later he came out with another statement, but his first statement was pretty revealing.
“This represents the failure of many Western nations to stand with Israel and to stand up to the terror activities of Hamas and Hezbollah and Yemen and Iran.”
Now, he says, “we’re seeing the rise of anti-Semitism on the extreme right. I’ve spoken out against Tucker Carlson and his dark turn as well as his saying Christians who support Israel — people like me — have a brain virus.
“It is really disturbing to me — maybe because I’m older and I have a little more historical perspective, and I look at it from a non-Jewish perspective.
“I stand with Israel and I stand with the Jewish people. I think anti-Semitism is not only poison and evil, I think’s just foolish beyond belief because the Jews have contributed so much to Western civilization,” he says, recalling G-d’s promise to Abraham that those who bless the Jewish people will be blessed.
A Bible scholar, Sweeting quotes from Psalm 83 to illustrate that Jew-hatred is nothing new:
“O G-d, have no silence, do not be silent and do not be still, O G-d.
For behold, Your enemies stir, and those who hate You raise their heads.
Against Your people they plot cunningly, and they take counsel against Your protected ones.
They said, “Come, let us destroy them from [being] a nation, and the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.”
For they have taken counsel with one accord; against you they form a pact.”
To Sweeting, “hatred of Israel, ultimately, at its core Is a hatred of G-d. And it’s a mad rebellion that will not be successful in the end.
“I hear echoes of Egypt. I hear echoes of Assyria. I hear echoes of Babylon. I hear echoes of Persia. I hear echoes of the Romans. I hear echoes of the Nazis. I hear echoes of modern radical Islam. It’s the same song.”
Calls to the the Archdiocese of Denver seeking comment on Bondi Beach were not returned as of press time.
© IJN 2025
