[IsraelTimes] Australian city’s Jewish community on edge after police — who kept the incident secret until it was leaked — say they’re probing possible connections to recent antisemitic attacks
Police in Sydney found a trailer containing explosives, with "some indication" it may have been intended to blow up a synagogue, Australian media reported on Wednesday.
The trailer was discovered on January 19 in Dural, a suburb some 36 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of the center of Sydney, New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson said.
"That caravan contained an amount of explosives and some indication that those explosives might be used in some form of antisemitic attack," he told a news conference.
"Investigations over the last ten days have progressed — however, there is a lot to do," he said, explaining police have made "made arrests on the periphery of this job."
Hudson did not disclose how many arrests were made or what the charges were, if any.
He did say, however, that police "believe there is some connection between some of the targets we’ve charged under Strike Force Pearl" — the NSW initiative, launched last month, to address antisemitic hate crimes — "and this particular investigation."
"We are still looking for assistance in relation to anyone who saw that caravan parked on the road from December 7," Hudson said, noting it "was parked in a hazardous position prior to it being moved by a local resident."
Addressing concern in the community about potential attacks, the deputy police commissioner said, "We believe that we have contained, appropriately, this current threat."
New South Wales police kept the discovery secret for nine days before it was leaked to the media.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said over 100 officers were investigating the incident, under a joint counter-terrorism operation involving state and federal police.
"This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event. There is only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism," he said.
PUB FIRES TRIVIA HOST AFTER NAZI JOKES, ’ZIONIST’ COMMENTS
Also this week, a Sydney pub fired a trivia host, after he made a series of offensive Nazi jokes and then responded by mocking a Jewish couple that complained and lashed out online against "Zionists."
During a trivia night last Wednesday at the Iron Duke Hotel, Jarred Keane also reportedly performed a Nazi salute.
The jokes were prompted by a question — it was not clear from the report who posed it — about billionaire Elon Musk’s Nazi-salute-like gesture at US President Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
’s inauguration earlier this month, according to Sky News.
One attendee, Jonathan Sankey, grandson of Auschwitz survivor and Sydney Jewish Museum founding member Olga Horak, recorded part of the event, and later confronted Keane about the jokes. In audio of the confrontation, the comedian is heard apologizing.
Keane later took to Instagram, however, and ridiculed the complaint, saying, "I was like, ’yeah, I know. The Nazis are bad. Like, I’m not saying they’re good," but "these guys are, like, in their twenties. I’m like, oh I’m sorry I brought up something that happened to your great-grandparents."
Jarred Keane is a wannabe comedian. He thinks it's funny to laugh at the Holocaust. He thinks the horrors of six million civilians being shot, gassed, tortured and dehumanised is a joke.
In another video, Keane ranted against "Zionists," calling them "disgusting people" who are "not welcome" at his events, and used explicit language to describe them. He further claimed that his trivia nights were fun "unless you’re a conservative or a Zionist" and accused Israel of genocide.
Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected allegations of genocide during its war against the Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
terror group in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
The Iron Duke Hotel confirmed Keane had been dismissed and distanced itself from his statements, saying in a letter shared with Sky News that "the hotel does not share the views expressed by Jarred on social media" and "disapprove[s] of Jarred’s use of the topic of Nazism... to evoke humour, in light of current domestic and international events."
SURGE IN ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS
Australia has seen a surge in antisemitic activities since the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which started the war in Gaza.
The number of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia quadrupled in the year after the attack, according to data from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
These have included several arson attacks on synagogues and community centers in Sydney and Melbourne and the repeated spraying of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel graffiti on properties or vehicles in areas with large Jewish populations. Last month also saw a neo-Nazi
...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both....
rally at the Melbourne parliament.
In December 2024, New South Wales launched Strike Force Pearl, whose team includes counter-terrorism and special tactics officers, to investigate antisemitic hate crimes in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, following an arson attack on the Adass Synagogue.
Australia’s federal police also launched Operation Avalite to investigate the surge in antisemitic crimes that has followed the Hamas attack in Israel.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to adopt tougher measures to protect the country’s Jewish community, but there has been no noticeable decline in incidents yet.
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