BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

“Never Again” was an empty promise

By Andrew Fox

Bondi. Manchester. Washington. Colorado. The list continues. Today, Jewish blood was shed on the sands of Bondi Beach. Fifteen Jews were shot at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, with dozens more wounded. I am utterly furious. I am incandescent with rage. This horror did not happen out of nowhere. We all saw it coming. Again.

“Never again”? Yeah, right.

It was not an isolated act of madness in Australia; it exists everywhere. In Manchester this past Yom Kippur, a jihadist rammed a car into worshippers and stabbed people at a synagogue, murdering two Jews before police subdued him. In Washington, DC, an American gunman opened fire outside a Jewish museum, killing two young Israeli embassy staffers. As he was arrested, he shouted “Free, free Palestine!” to reveal the twisted ideology that fuelled his slaughter. In Colorado, an Egyptian immigrant attacked a peaceful pro-Israel rally with a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, injuring seven; an 82-year-old woman later died from her burns. From continent to continent, Jews are being hunted.

Enough.

For two years now, since Hamas launched its latest war, a wave of anti-Jewish hate has swept through the West. The warning signs have been flashing: in Australia, anti-Jewish incidents tripled in the year after the war began. Similar spikes have occurred across Europe and the USA.

Swastikas on schools. Mobs chanting for intifada. Jewish students hiding their Stars of David. It has been escalating steadily. Now the inevitable has happened again – the hate has turned murderous. We know precisely who helped create this atmosphere. I am looking at everyone who fed this beast. Every single one of them has blood on their hands.

Everyone who spent two years spreading antisemitic blood libels straight from Hamas — blood on their hands. (They parroted every lie Hamas spewed, from fake “hospital massacres” to wild casualty figures. They stoked the flames that led directly to Bondi and beyond.)

Everyone sucked in by Hamas propaganda, who spent two years shrieking online about “Gaza genocide” or confected war crimes while excusing or ignoring Hamas’s atrocities — blood on their hands.

Everyone who attended the weekly hate marches in Western cities, those angry street mobs that normalised Jew-hatred under the guise of “Free Palestine” — blood on their hands. They created the permissive atmosphere for this violence.

Everyone who took Qatari or Iranian media money to peddle lies about Israel — blood on their hands. (They know who they are – the talking heads on state-backed TV channels, selling out truth for petro-dollars and spreading venom.)

South Africa’s leaders and their fellow travelers, Amnesty International and other NGOs, and all those who kept slandering Israel with vexatious “genocide” accusations – blood on their hands. Their propaganda provided moral cover to Hamas and depicted Jews as rightful targets.

Every country that rewarded Hamas’s 7th October massacre by recognising a Palestinian state (a move Netanyahu rightly called a “huge reward to terrorism”) — blood on their hands. Instead of isolating the genocidal Hamas regime, they gave its supporters hope and legitimacy. Terrorists drew encouragement from their cowardice.

The hack researchers and NGOs churning out pseudo-academic garbage about Gaza: Airwars, AOAV, The Lancet, and others, treating casualty figures and social media posts as absolute truth — blood on their hands. By exaggerating and/or politicizing casualty numbers and events in Gaza without proper context, they portrayed Israel as a villain and incited mobs worldwide.

Those ideological extremists who cheer every pro-Palestinian criminal and even support terrorists on hunger strike to blackmail the justice system — blood on their hands. They may pretend it is about human rights, but their one-sided backing for pro-Palestinian terrorism (even after 7 October) has emboldened the worst Jew-haters.

Every politician and official who ignored the warning signs, who looked the other way time after time after time — blood on their hands. You had one job: to protect your citizens. To protect Jews. They failed, and now Jews lie dead on a beach, in a synagogue, and on city streets on their watch.

How long can our leaders ignore this?

How many red lines must be crossed?

I am tired of the empty platitudes and crocodile tears from politicians who let this climate fester. They downplayed antisemitism when it was graffiti, flag-waving, or relentless harassment. They shrugged when thousands marched through our capitals waving terrorist flags and shouting for intifada, week after week. They stayed silent when Jewish families begged for protection. Now those same leaders act shocked at the carnage? Spare me. Their cowardice and appeasement helped unleash this nightmare.

Mark my words: sooner or later, good and honest citizens will take matters into their own hands. If the authorities refuse to crack down on this violent Jew-hatred, people will feel they have no choice but to defend themselves. When that day comes, and if vigilante violence erupts because governments failed to act, there will be even more blood on the hands of those who enabled all this. I dread that possibility, but can anyone blame Jews and their true allies for being at the breaking point? For feeling abandoned and desperate?

I am furious. Searing, righteous fury, and I will not apologise for it. The murders at Bondi Beach have shattered any illusion of safety. Jews are bleeding, dying, in 2025, in free countries, simply for being Jewish. This is not just a Jewish problem. It is a problem for everyone who believes in decency and civilisation.

No more.

No more indulgence for the hatemongers. No more free passes for the enablers and apologists. Politicians: clean up this mess now, before it spirals further. Protect your Jewish citizens as you promised, or step aside for someone who will.

The blood cries out from Bondi, from Manchester, from Washington and Colorado. To all those who lit the fuse and fanned the flames: I hold you responsible. Their blood is on your hands, and it will never wash off.

About the writer:

A veteran of three grueling tours of Afghanistan, Major Andrew Fox holds a Batchelor’s degree in Law & Politics, a Master’s in Military History & War Studies, and is currently studying for a PhD in History.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).