We had planned to discuss an entirely different subject, but then tragedy struck in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, where two terrorists stated shooting at a gathering of Jews celebrating the first days of Hanukkah.

It was only five weeks ago that we spoke on this very subject, discussing the attack on the Alabama Synagogue and the attack on Jews in Los Angeles during that time.

This past week, in Sidney, fifteen people were massacred, and more than 40 people were injured in the attack. The terrorists had multiple weapons. They had bombs in their vehicle and had ISIS flags in the window of their car.

For Australia, it was the worst terror attack on its soil in 25 years, and the biggest attack on Jews outside Israel since 2023.

Australia was one of the nations that recently recognised a Palestinian State, ignoring the pleas of Jews not to allow a terrorist state within their borders. Many Israelis see it as a reward for the terrorism of October 7, 2023.

Repeated warnings to the Australian government, even from the Israeli Prime Minister, were ignored. The leftist agenda of the Australian Government has deafened them to the rise in antisemitism and the threat to Jewish-Australian citizens.

Another nation to recognize the Palestinian state was Canada. In Canada, the former Prime Minister’s son, Ben Mulroney, has a social media show where he deplored the events in Australia and warned against a similar event taking place in Canada. These are not his words, but the words of Imam Mohammed Tawhedi known as the “Imam of Peace” who has spoken to the Canadian Parliament about the threats it ignores. He played this audio clip on his show:

I do not like to, fearmonger at all, but I am also a realistic person. Toronto has the exact same ingredients that Australia has that led up to this attack. There are extremists in Toronto who raised the facts of Al Qaeda and Hamas and Hezbollah, and these are terrorist designated organizations by Public Safety Canada. And we need to make sure that these extremists are not just under watch, but also disrupted and to make sure that these processions do not continue to control our streets because they are radicalizing the vulnerable Muslims within our community.

Canada, Britain, France and Australia all recognized a Palestinian state – and all are grappling with the rise of the global intifada in their countries. Where will the next attack be? We wait with consternation for the next tragedy to strike.

For the last 70 years, Jews have lived in relative peace compared to the past 2000 years of persecution. However, this is not the norm. The Bible is very clear about the treatment of the Jews in the diaspora.  Deuteronomy tells us:

“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.” (Deuteronomy 28:65–67)

Leviticus echos this same situation:

“And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.” (Leviticus 26:33)

The Lord Jesus Christ echoes the same situation:

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24)

The point Jesus makes is there is a “time of the Gentiles” during which the Jews will be scattered, and live as captives. However, that time has now come to an end. The prophet Joel tells us God would bring back this captivity, and shortly there after the nations would descend on Israel (another story):

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, When I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, And will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, And will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” (Joel 3:1–2)

Judah and Jerusalem were recaptured during the 1967 war, bringing to a close the “Times of the Gentiles”.

Jews all around the world are recognizing the fact that the safest place for them is in Israel. Yes, October the 7^th happened in Israel – but there they have an army where they can defend themselves. In other countries they don’t have this luxury, and in many places are not allowed to carry guns but have to wait upon the local authorities to respond (if they even do).

The Diaspora is becoming increasingly dangerous once again, as was during the past 2000 years . There is a chorus of voices calling for the return of the Jews to the land in many podcasts, radio shows and interviews.

One such Podcast called “Homebound to Eretz Yisrael” is led by Michael Weichbrod. Follow the Sidney Massacre here is what he had to say:

I just wanted to talk a little bit about the very tragic, situation that just took place in Australia. Now, I know the things I'm gonna say now, might be controversial or at least people want to make it controversial, although I think this is something we all deep down inside know and understand….

The situation in Australia was absolutely horrific, the terrorist attack was horofic.  Of course, you know, when I heard about the terrorist attack, I cried. I cried quite a lot. And as of right now, from what I understand, there's already 16 people that have been murdered. And the situation is horrific.

But to sit, cry, and just hope for a better future is nothing short of stupid. It's ignorant. If  history has taught us anything, if the Torah has taught us anything.

These incidences of terrorism around the world need to wake us up. And, of course, you know where I'm going with this. People need to come to Eris Yisrael.

But situations like this take place because Jews are not coming home. The fact is, our time in the exile has come to an end. Many Jews will continue to be stubborn and try to ignore the blatantly open signs that Hashem is throwing in our faces day in and day out.

But when things get real and Jews are burying their brothers and sisters, and at this point, this is not an isolated incident. These terrorist attacks are happening more and more often, and the unfortunate truth is that they will continue to happen more and more often. I'm not a prophet. I'm just not an idiot. It's obvious where the world is going. The globalized, the intifada, the woke leftist Nazi extremism, call it whatever you want, it is spreading like a wildfire. And it's all to wake up the Jewish people.

Jews need to come to Eretz Yisrael, and everything happening in the world is to guide the Jews back to Eretz Yisrael.

Australia is one of the many countries that has already recognized the Palestinian state. The world hates the Jews. The world does not care about the Jewish people. The only place that Jews have in any actual future is here in Eretz Yisrael. The terrorism, the antisemitism, it will keep on rising and rising and rising. How many of our brothers and sisters do we have to watch go to the grave in order for us to get the point?

Our time in the exile is finished and Jews need to get that. You have a choice to make. Every Jew has a choice to make. You can either come here out of love, out of a desire to become close to Hashem and an appreciation that this is where we need to be, appreciation that this is the holiest, best place in the world for the Jewish people, or you can wait it out and you or your children will have to flee here for their lives.

I'm not an extremist. I'm not a fear monger. I'm just one of the only people willing to actually say what we all know is true. We have to stop living a delusion. Nobody wants to say I told you so. We just want our brothers and sisters to come home so we can complete the job of building up our actual homeland and make it into the beautiful holy safe haven that it's meant to be for the Jewish people. And inevitably, we're gonna usher in the period of Gulah. We're going to bring the Moshiach. Again, none of this is complicated. The only thing that's complicated is the extreme stubbornness of the Jewish people to come home to Eret Yisrael.

This has been our most defeating factor throughout all of Jewish history. How many times do we have to watch history repeat itself? How many Jews do we have to bury until we finally just say, you know what, God? Maybe we should actually do what you keep telling us to. Anyway, I say this all with the deepest and most extreme love for the Jewish people, for all my brothers and sisters.

And until the Jewish people return to this land, we will keep suffering, and we will keep having tragedy after tragedy after tragedy.

He is not the only one. Doron Spielman, who has worked on the transformation on the City of David, and recently published a book called “When the Stones Speak” interviewed Kevin Burmeister, an Australian Jew, born in South Africa. He is a Hi-Tech investor, the founder of Skype, who had the following to say following the Bondi massacre:

Doron asked:

You know, I was listening, and I I saw that Israel sent an immediate kind of emergency team to Australia, to try to help, with what's happening there. And I know Israel was saying that they would offer help for Jewish institutions there and try to work with the Australian government.  But given what seems to be with this government in particular, a real animosity towards Israel. Is there is there a place for Israel to help out here?

Burmeister responded with a pretty poignant observation:

I think that, that Israel needs to open the door for Jews to make aliyah. I'm not saying that Jews should actually make Aliyah. I'm saying that they should be prepared, they should file their papers, and they should be ready with an open threat to leave this country, to stop paying taxes in this country, to stop the benefits that the Jewish people provide to this country by leaving and by going to Israel, I think that would be a very clear and a very strong message to this Australian government that Jews are very serious about finding another home.

So whereas Burmeister isn’t advocating Jews leaving immediately, he is suggesting they make their preparations. We should remember that when many of the Jews finally decided to leave Nazi Europe, it was too late.

Yeishai Fleisher is the official spokesperson for Hebron, and host of “The Yeishai Fleisher Show”. In a Podcast celebrating Hanukah he stated the following. During his podcast he contrasts the “Jacob” mentality to the “Israel” mentality, arguing that the Jacob’s name was replaced by “Israel” when he fully put his trust in God:

At the very moment when Jacob gets his name, both times, the bible says that God basically says to Jacob, okay, your name was Jacob. From now on your name is Israel. And yet the very next verse, the name Jacob is employed and not the name Israel.  So we see that it's not that the Bible is not telling us the truth. The Bible is telling us that the plan is for Jacob to become Israel, but it's not that simple. It's not that simple to bring Jacob, the diaspora Jew, out of diaspora and into a redemptive moment, a moment of sovereignty.  

Yeishai then goes on to reflect on the current state of Jews in the land:

So today, we're still struggling between, Jacob and Israel. We are now back in our land in this third commonwealth. And remember, it's so important to always talk about Israel being the third commonwealth. It's absolutely imperative that when we talk about Israel, we should say Israel the third commonwealth. Because the minute you say the word third commonwealth, you're already telling everybody, you know, we've been here before. This is not a Johnny come lately thing. We weren't born in 1948. We were born a long time ago. Our nation was born a long time ago. And our freedom in this land and our sovereignty in this land three was extend three thousand years ago and two thousand years ago. And now we're back.

He continues to argue that the Jacob’s name is replaced by “Israel” when he fully puts his trust in God. He argued:

And that's the hallmark of being a Jacob, where you're existing in the diaspora, in the empire's framework and not in your own framework. That you are not, the controller. You are not making laws that make it clear that we are the sovereigns in the land and that we're the bosses. Think King David. If you wanna think real Israel, you gotta think King David. He's the one who really understood, how to do it right.

He ended with a plea:

Because the time has come to be Israel. The time has come to be a big Israel and to be Ya-shar-el, not crooked and clever, not using, you know, arguments to sway the international community, but actually to be the framework, to be the Israel, to be the sovereign, maybe to be the local empire. And certainly, as my friend, Rabbi Mike Rabbi Mike Feuer coined, an empire of consciousness or an empire of spirituality. That is what, Israel is meant to do.

Let's hope that this light of Hanukkah will give us that strength, Bismar HaShem, with the help of God, to come through and to give birth to the consciousness of Israel, of Israel… that you were able that you were able to fight with both man and God and come back to this land and also to be to be straight to God. And may Hashem give us that that  consciousness.

He continues on for some time, but you get the point.

Even Christians who support Israel are realising what needs to happen. Another Podcast called “The Israel Guys” is run by Christians who support the return of the Jews to the land of Israel and are part of the HaYovel movement. One of their contributors, Ben Hilton, had the following to say:

As these attacks take place, it is a stark reminder as to the days that we are currently living in. These attacks clearly show that the world has not learned the lessons of October 7, which happened just not long ago. The world has forgotten the lessons of the Holocaust. They have forgotten the lessons of the last two thousand years of persecutions of the Jewish people.

Some people may ask why these Jews were brutally shot and murdered at Bondi Beach. Was it because of their political views? No. Was it because they were Israeli? Some were, but most of them were not. Was it because of their religious views? Frankly, no. They were killed simply because they were Jews.

What do these attacks mean for Israel? Hopefully, it means that Israel will be seeing a lot more Jewish people make aliyah and return home to the Jewish state where the highest priority is protecting the Jewish nation. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already called for the Jews of Australia to immigrate to Israel because it is no longer safe for Jews in Australia. Here in Israel, the entire nation is standing with the Jewish community of Australia, grieving with the families of the victims.  On the Temple Mount, in a move of support and solidarity for the Jews of Australia, a Levitical choir sang the final verse of Ma'ozor, which is traditionally sung on Hanukkah.

The Jews in Israel are calling upon their brethren around the world to return to the land. It is the Jews in the land who are the first to be saved by Messiah as Zechariah  clearly states:

“The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, That the glory of the house of David And the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem Do not magnify themselves against Judah. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; And he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; And the house of David shall be as God, As the angel of the Lord before them.” (Zechariah 12:7–8)

They will be transformed into the tool that God will use to subjugate all nations of the world as he establishes his Kingdom:

“Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, And I punished the goats: For the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, And hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.” (Zechariah 10:3–4)

Those of the diaspora will be returned to the land and united with their brethren already residing there:

“And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.” (Ezekiel 37:21–24)

As we see the cry of the Jews in the land going out to their scattered brethren, we are thrilled to see that the Bible is alive – the Word of God is accomplishing all he has set out to accomplish. Very soon, that will be the coming of Messiah, and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, centered in Jerusalem

For the Bible in the News, this has been Jonathan Bowen.