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Following a deadly terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Dion Taylor, a senior community figure, says the most painful reality is that the violence did not happen without warning.
“We have been completely let down by our government,” Taylor, communications manager for the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. “We warned them that it was going to be a snowball effect, and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed.”
The shooting occurred during a public Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, according to Reuters and The Associated Press. Australian officials have described the attack as a terrorist act targeting the Jewish community.
Police said the suspected attackers were a father and his adult son. The father died at the scene, while the son was shot by police and taken to hospital in critical condition.
Gal Gadot, Ashton Kutcher condemn anti-Semitic terrorist attack at Bondi Beach Hanukkah event
A member of the Jewish community reacts as police accompany them to the scene of the shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 14, 2025. (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
Taylor, who lives a 10-minute walk from Bondi Beach, said the attack was not an isolated act of violence, but the culmination of years of rising anti-Semitism that authorities had failed to confront.
“It started with hate speech,” he said. “Then graffiti. Then public demonstrations. Then bombings of synagogues, preschools, people’s homes, people’s cars. And now murder.”
He said Jewish leaders and community representatives repeatedly called on state and federal officials to warn that inaction could lead to bloodshed. Taylor pointed to formal submissions and a detailed report prepared by Australia’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, which he said was accepted by the government but was never implemented.
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A member of the public walks away from the scene with her child, who was covered in an emergency blanket, after the shooting on Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Two gunmen dressed in black opened fire on Sydney’s world-famous Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, injuring at least 10 and killing three and sparking mass panic. (Photo by George Chan/Getty Images)
Instead, Taylor said, the Jewish community got what he described as empty reassurances. “We got these one-line messages that ‘There is no place for anti-Semitism in Australia,'” he said. “But they are empty promises. No action has been taken.”
Taylor said the failure to act had wide-ranging consequences for Australian society as a whole.
Taylor said, “There are a number of conditions that have led to a complete erosion of social cohesion in Australia, a lax immigration policy, letting in too many refugees from the wrong places, the rise of radical Islamism and basically a dodgy government that hasn’t really helped or supported the Jewish community and other communities.” “So this attack, while it was a targeted attack on the Jewish community, is really a targeted attack across Australia.”
Trump encourages Jewish Americans to ‘celebrate proudly’ during Hanukkah after deadly Bondi Beach shooting
People walk as police officers stand guard on the road after the shooting incident on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on December 14, 2025. (Jeremy Piper/AAP via Reuters)
Bondi Beach is one of the country’s most iconic and densely populated public spaces, he said, attracting tourists and locals from around the world. “The people who were sitting on the beach last night weren’t just there for a Hanukkah celebration,” Taylor said. “Yes, the people who were shot were festivalgoers, but there were thousands of people sitting on that beach on a Sunday afternoon. It’s summertime. It’s exactly what has been described as the happiest place in the world.”
“But that’s not the case anymore,” she said. “We are broken. Our country is ruined.”
Among the victims, Taylor said, were a 10-year-old girl who later died of her wounds and a Holocaust survivor who had sought refuge in Australia decades earlier.
“Australia is home [one of] The largest Holocaust survivor community,” she said. “They came here looking for peace and security, a better life. And now one of them has become a victim of terrorism here.”
This violence also took place near the house of Taylor’s organization. Arsen Ostrovsky, the newly appointed head of AIJAC’s Sydney office, was shot at the festival and is hospitalised, he said.
“He flew back to Australia with his wife and kids just two weeks ago,” Taylor said. “He survived while reporting in Israel after October 7, and now he has become a victim of the same bloodshed here.”
A witness to a terrorist attack in Australia described the ‘terrible situation’ during the deadly shooting at a Hanukkah event.
Emergency workers carry a man on a stretcher after a reported shooting on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Mark Baker/AP Photo)
Australian leaders have condemned the attack and promised to review security and counter-terrorism measures. Police presence has been increased around synagogues and Jewish institutions and Hanukkah events have been canceled across the country.
Taylor said the trauma has forced painful conversations in her own home about whether Australia is a safe place to raise a Jewish family.
“After October 7, many people planned to make aliyah to Israel,” he said. “We discussed it as a family. We decided our life would be better here. And now we’re asking ourselves how is our life better here?”
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Police personnel take security measures at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, following a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during the first night of Hanukkah on Sunday. (Claudio Galdames A/Anadolu via Getty Images)
He said the support from non-Jewish Australians has been overwhelming, with people lining up to donate blood and offering help. Still, he warned that the government must take decisive action.
“I hope this serves as a big wake-up call to our current government,” Taylor said. “This is an attack on the whole of Australia. So they’ve lost 15 of their citizens in one day and they’re unable to stop it. So if they can’t make changes and reforms to protect not just the Jewish community, but the broader Australian community from terrorism, then they need to do that. And I believe they know they need to do that. I don’t think they know how to do that.”
