Israel Politician Urges Jews Not To Surrender To Hatred After Massacre (VIDEO)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

SYDNEY/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – In an emotionally charged appeal, Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Jews worldwide not to surrender to hatred after at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in what officials and Jewish leaders described as one of the deadliest antisemitic attacks against Jews abroad in years.

Lapid delivered a Hanukkah message from Jerusalem to Jewish communities worldwide following Sunday’s shootings that targeted Jews celebrating the holiday in Sydney, Australia.

“This day places a choice before us. Shall we extinguish the candles and hide? Or shall we light them and say, ‘We are here’?” Lapid said, referring to the Sydney shootings and other antisemitic attacks, in a video reviewed by Worthy News.

“I speak to you from here, from Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, to Jews everywhere — from Sydney to California, from Amsterdam to Manchester, from Pittsburgh to Berlin. My brothers and sisters, we are with you,” he added.

LAPID CALLS JEWS TO AFFIRM FAITH

Lapid urged Jewish communities not to hide their Hanukkah candles, saying: “We refuse to surrender to hatred. We believe in the strength of the Jewish people.”

“There is one thing Hanukkah represents that is not written in the prayers,” he stressed. “This celebration says simply and definitively, ‘We are here.’”

He recalled that “empires that tried to destroy us are gone,” adding that “the antisemites who believed they could erase us have vanished themselves.”

Lapid, who heads Israel’s centrist, liberal Zionist Yesh Atid party, said he had spoken with Jeremy Leibler, a leading Jewish community figure in Sydney.

“I told him, ‘Jeremy, there’s one thing they need to hear from you today — that you believe in them, that hatred will not defeat them or define them,’” Lapid said.

SYDNEY COMMUNITY REMAINS TRAUMATIZED

Referring to the alleged attackers, named as Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed Akram, 24, Lapid said, “the greatest power in the world is not people standing on bridges shooting at the innocent,” but rather the faith and resilience of the Jewish people.

Yet Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, cautioned that the local Jewish community remains “deeply traumatized.”

In published remarks, Leibler said families were struggling to learn whether loved ones had been killed or wounded. “Right now, we need to focus on the victims and their families,” he said.

“What we expect from our government and leaders is to demonstrate the leadership we have been desperately asking for over the last two years,” Leibler added, referring to the period following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Just days earlier, Leibler had expressed cautious optimism that healing could begin in Australia as the war appeared to be winding down.

GROWING FEAR AMONG JEWISH AUSTRALIANS

Survey data highlights growing fear among Jewish Australians

“I was asked whether I felt like we were being pushed into gas chambers, and now I seriously have to rethink,” Leibler said in earlier remarks.

“When I said ‘no,’ was I rationalizing and hoping things were getting better now that the hostages had been returned? Or was I in denial that we have a very serious problem in this country?” he asked.

Survey data have since reinforced those fears. The National Council of Jewish Women Australia reported that more than half of Jewish Australian women surveyed said they felt unsafe being identified as Jewish or Israeli.

Two in five said they actively hid their Jewish identity, while nearly one in two reported feeling isolated or excluded in social or professional settings, according to the Israel-based Ynetnews service.

ANTISEMTIC INCIDENTS SEEN SURGING

More than 19 percent of respondents said they had changed their daily routines out of fear of antisemitic attacks.

The findings followed a wave of antisemitic incidents — including harassment, threats, graffiti, and vandalism of synagogues, Jewish buildings, and vehicles — recorded in Australia in the year preceding the Bondi Beach shooting.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) documented more than 1,600 antisemitic incidents between October 2024 and September 2025, roughly five times the annual average of the previous decade.

The rise intensified after the Gaza war began following the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, according to research.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has expressed deep concern about antisemitism, saying the nation must stand united against it.

PRAISING INJURED POLICE AND BYSTANDERS

He praised police officers who were injured while confronting the gunmen during Sunday’s shooting at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, as well as off-duty officers who rushed to the scene from across the city.

Albanese also honored a bystander who was wounded while disarming one of the gunmen, as reports emerged that others were killed while trying to stop the attack.

Soon after the shooting, the prime minister urged Australians to show solidarity with the Jewish community, including symbolic gestures such as lighting candles together at the time of the attack.

“This is about showing that light will defeat darkness,” Albanese said — “which is, of course, part of what Hanukkah celebrates.”

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