, Columnist
Kneejerk Responses Won’t Stop the Next Bondi Attack
Jewish Australians feel they’ve been left unprotected.
Photographer: David Gray/AFP/Getty
Terrorists always have sought to use acts of senseless violence to change our societies. It’s the job of our leaders to decide whether to concede them that power, or deny it.
That’s the problem confronting Australia in the wake of Sunday’s attack on a Hanukkah festival on Bondi Beach, which left 15 dead. The father-and-son alleged perpetrators had explosive devices and Islamic State flags in their car and had travelled to an area of the Philippines last month where groups aligned with the extremist movement have operated, according to authorities.