In Jerusalem, Scott Morrison blended faith, fear and foreign policy into a sermon that excused Israeli power while blaming dissent, Islam and Australias Labor Government for antisemitism at home. DrBinoy Kampmarkreports.

AUSTRALIAS FORMER Prime Minister and faithful Pentecostal,Scott Morrison, never passes up the chance to express an opinion if it will net him a reward.

As one of various politicians of the Right (and far-rightist) hue invited by Israels Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism,Amichai Chikli, he was in good company. The occasion: the second international conference on combating antisemitism held between 26 and 27 January at Jerusalems International Convention Centre, ambitiously titledGeneration Truth.

The 14 December 2025attackby two ISIS-inspired gunmen on those attending a Hanukkah event on Sydneys Bondi Beach had supplied him with a hot script. Australias Albanese Government had previously been barked at by Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahufor going wobbly on Israel and soft on Palestinians.

Morrison was in hearty agreement,claimingthat the Labor Government had walked away from the Jewish state while antisemitism has taken root in Australia, feeding the hate through unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood.

As Australia tightens hate-speech laws, a flawed definition of antisemitism risks being weaponised to shut down legitimate criticism of Israel rather than confront real hatred.

In keeping with various Christian groups of the Right, Morrison is of the view that Israeli interests need to be protected, shielded and treasured against other, undesirable members of the Book. Christians and Jews can make a common alliance against their enemies, even if evangelical Christianity has awell-stocked reserveof antisemitic attitudes. As Prime Minister, MorrisonrecognisedWest Jerusalem as Israels capital, despite its contested status in international law, going so far as to open a Trade and Defence Office there in 2019.

In 2021, the Morrison Governmentofficially adoptedthe definition of antisemitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), one that fudges criticism of Israeli policies with antisemitism. Since losing office, Morrison has been further courting Israels favour byattackingthe United Nations for being a forum for antisemitism garbed in the argot of human rights.

Morrison's 27 Januaryaddressrecapitulated these points and more. He pointed to a five-fold rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia following the 7 October 2023attackson Israel by Hamas. Context, such as Israels historical suppression of Palestinian autonomy and its ruthless campaign of pulverisation in Gaza, was absent. Regular protests in Sydney and Melbourne, including a Sydney Harbour Bridge march numbering 100,000 people, were all cut from the same cloth of antisemitism.

Again, Israels conduct and policies deserved no mention, while slogans such as from the river to the sea and globalising the intifada could only be seen as antisemitic declarations.

With political illiteracy typical of the man, Morrison then linked the protests and a softer approach to Palestinian statehood directly to the Bondi attacks, his mind unblemished by any understanding of what ISIS is and its hostility to Hamas. Shades, here, of the sham groupthink that marked Cold War analysis from Washington to Canberra on monolithic communism. Just as communism of the Chinese, Soviet and Vietnamese character was just communism, so can all forms of Islamism be considered identical.

The usual cod analysis of the progressive Left with its neo-Marxist identity frameworks, and the radical Right with its conspiratorial and ethno-nationalist forms are offered, both serving as the conduit for grievance politics. Morrison said, When failure is moralised as systemic injustice, liberal norms collapse.

Independent Australia cautiously welcomes the Government's announcement this week of a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in Australia.

This is the golden apologia for Israel writ large: do not blame institutions and injustice for having any consequences, the spawn of their practices. Abandon grievance; it has no role.

This sets the scene for Morrisons real concern and in this, he was keeping to the theme pushed by Chikli from the outset. Whatever the issues on the Left and Right of politics, Islam posed the greatest antisemitic threat, with its imported European conspiracy theories, recasting Jews as a hidden enemy responsible for global disorder.

Morrison's solution to such malignancy in a Western secular context? More religion, not less.

Morrison quotes Lord RabbiJonathan Sacks, quotingJonathan Swift:

But the faith in question had to be of the good sort, an inward individual consideration, rather than the bad variety that externalised the grievance and made people rush for placards, street rallies and arms.

That bilious right-wing figures demanding the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza have more than enough religion to go around (Israels National Security MinisterItamar Ben-Gvirand Finance MinisterBezalel Smotrichcome to mind) suggests this formula to be flawed.

But Morrison singles out Islamic leaders and institutions within Australia as being alone in lacking accountability. What was needed was a recognised accreditation framework for imams, a national register for public-facing roles, clear training and conduct requirements, and disciplinary authority for governing councils. Sermons should also be translated into English, and links to foreign Islamic groups should be policed and curbed.

Scott Morrison known for his inability to hold a hose and shirking all responsibility has been handed the highest accolade in the land, a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

In Australia, Liberal SenatorAndrew Braggspoke approvingly of the former PMs tarnishing method, with Australian Muslims having to take some responsibility for terrorist acts.

Bragg toldABC radio on 28 January:

The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC), the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) and theIslamic Council of Victoriawere suitably unimpressed. Chief executive of the Islamic Council of Victoria,Zakaria Wahid, made the far from startlingpointthat the Australian Government did not hold entire communities accountable for acts of violence committed by individuals, and the same standard must apply to Muslims.

Morrison has shown that he can be a good Pentecostal when required, demonstrating the sort of charity that never leaves his home or the halls of theHillsong Church. As a Cabinet Minister and Prime Minister in various conservative governments, he showed a glacial contempt for women, welfare recipients, refugees, asylum seekers, those warning about climate change and open government.

As Prime Minister, he gave AustraliaAUKUS, a criminally exorbitant, foolishly negotiated security pact between Canberra, London and Washington that has turned his country into an American satellite and forward base against China. But his less-than-secular admiration for Israel has won him friends, a point Chikli hasunreservedly acknowledged.

No doubt some well remunerated consultancy work is in the bag.

DrBinoy Kampmarkwas a Cambridge Scholar and is a lecturer atRMIT University. You can follow Dr Kampmark@BKampmark.

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