The police had under­taken some genuinely remark­able detective work. In a short time, they formed the view that 14 incidents of violent antisemitism that made fire­bomb­ings in the dead of night in res­id­en­tial areas a fact of life for Aus­trali­ans generally, and the Jewish community more spe­cific­ally, were all connected to a trailer packed with explos­ives and a mys­ter­i­ous criminal enter­prise.

It was a ter­ri­fy­ing devel­op­ment. Since October 7, 2023, the Jewish community has lived with public demon­stra­tions glor­i­fy­ing terrorist leaders and lauding mass murder as a “day of courage and a day of pride”. It has endured the tragic captivity of hundreds of people, sadistic doxxing campaigns, street abuse, vandalism, har­ass­ment in schools and uni­ver­sit­ies, and the destruc­tion of a synagogue built by Holocaust survivors.

Now, in addition to con­ven­tion­al antisemitic forces, we had to come to terms with alleg­a­tions that hardened criminals were paying low-level hoodlums through a shadowy mob structure to take Aus­trali­an antisemitism to a whole new level. We were now dealing with claims of indi­vidu­als somehow getting their hands on enough explos­ives to create a 40-metre blast, and we learnt of alleg­a­tions that there were Aus­trali­ans who probably didn’t know what a Jew was, but for a few bucks were happy to risk burning them in their beds.

Yet some held the line that it was all a “hoax”, a “criminal con-job”, “fake”, “fab­ric­a­tion”. We could rest easy because no one allegedly asso­ci­ated with it seemed to have anything against Jews. They allegedly only wanted to strengthen their hand in a plea bargain in some macabre, inscrut­able plot that would be the work of a Professor Moriarty-like criminal genius, if the whole thing weren’t so patently stupid.

As soon as the announce­ment was made, we con­fron­ted a surge of hateful messages on social media – claims that antisemitism itself is a hoax and a lie, and that everything that’s happened either hasn’t, or that the Jews just did it to them­selves because that’s what they do.

The whole fight against antisemitism seemed to evaporate. New laws banning protests near places of worship are now the subject of a Supreme Court challenge, on the basis that they were enacted to protect Jews from something that didn’t really happen.

The other lesson that was spelt out for us by com­ment­at­ors and politi­cians following the police announce­ment was that we mustn’t be too hasty in passing judgment. If you see a trailer packed with explos­ives and a note referring to Jewish targets, it could all be nothing. If syn­agogues, former homes of community leaders and childcare centres are targeted in fire­bomb­ings, and phrases like “f— the Jews” are daubed on cars, don’t rush to think the per­pet­rat­ors have a problem with Jews.

The great irony, of course, is that those who took the oppor­tun­ity to unleash on their political adversar­ies the second the police announce­ment was made had them­selves committed the same offence. In ruling out antisemitism as a motive, even though it wasn’t random buildings that were targeted or Hindu temples or (Sikh) gurdwaras, they had inex­plic­ably jumped the gun.

When fine journ­al­ist­ic work uncovered that the suspected mas­ter­mind was a rabid antisemite of the “Hitler was only washing the Earth” and 9/11 was an “inside job” variety, no one was at all surprised. Yet antisemitism had already been stripped out of the story and all that remained in the public con­scious­ness was the word “hoax”.

Perhaps the ultimate insult from all this was the head-patting directed at the Jewish community. We were told that while none of this happened or, if it did, it wasn’t really about us anyway, we were still justified in being somewhat alarmed when, for example, my family and I were ostens­ibly targeted, or a childcare centre next to a synagogue was incin­er­ated. In essence, we were treated like hysterics who needed a stiff drink and a lie-down.