The horrific shootings at Sydney’s Bondi beach, in which 15 people were killed by a father-son duo on Sunday, have, once again, underscored the fact that no place in the world is now safe from the outcomes of toxic rhetoric, brutal wars, religious extremism and widespread access to guns. The attackers targeted an event marking the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Some details of the gunmen ­— one of them died in the crossfire with law enforcement officials — have emerged but their motives are not clear. But what cannot be doubted is the anti-Semitic nature of the attack. The Bondi beach massacre is the latest in a surge of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions and symbols in recent years. This rise in anti-Semitism deserves unequivocal condemnation and must be fought. Unfortunately, some leaders, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have been quick to link the Sydney attack to Australia’s support for a Palestinian state — without any evidence to back that claim. Such false connections, drawn by public figures of influence, are precisely what fan the vicious cycle of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism — evils that feed off each other. In reality, Australia has had tough gun laws for almost three decades and mass shootings are rare. After the Sydney attacks, the Australian government has promised to further toughen these laws further.

Incidents of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have increased globally in recent years. Unfortunately, far too often, those in positions of influence have looked at these threats in isolation, not as related phenomena. Anti-Semitic sentiments, wherever they exist, must be confronted. But what it begets — Islamophobia — seems to be far more contagious. The vile, anti-Muslim rhetoric that has emerged from influential sections of the far-Right, especially in the United States of America and Europe, after the Sydney attacks underscores just how Islamophobes and anti-Semites play into each other’s hands. One crime is used to justify another, whether in Israel or Palestine, Australia or America. Unless those in positions of power and influence tackle all hate with the same conviction, the world is headed towards even darker days. Thankfully, though, there is a ray of hope. The Muslim fruit seller, Ahmed al-Ahmed, who disarmed one of the attackers despite risks to his own life, and the rabbis and ordinary Jews around the world collecting funds in his support, offer firm resistance, through their respective examples, to those who peddle prejudice.