This testimony was utterly unsurprising. My own time at the University of Sydney ended with the campus’ most prominent and promising progressives referring to me among themselves as “that Zionist bitch.” This was in 2018.

The commission has focused heavily on the surge in antisemitism since October 2023. But the intellectual and moral rot surrounding Israel had been building for years in large circles of the progressive left; all the Hamas attack did was allow ideas and attitudes that once lived only on its fringes to go mainstream. And confronting those attitudes at this moment is politically painful.

Of course, the political extremes on the right have also become increasingly emboldened and more active since October 7, as recorded by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. That said, Australia’s main neo-Nazi group – the National Socialist Network, aka “White Australia” – has little public support or influence.

Regardless, the commission has heard testimony of Jewish children being confronted with swastikas at school and with peers proclaiming “Heil Hitler.” Swastikas carved into trees. Swastikas spray-painted on the street.

But condemning neo-Nazis is easy. Denouncing swastikas carries no real political risk.

What is much harder – and requires political courage – is confronting the antisemitism that now circulates comfortably in left-wing and even mainstream spaces: the kind that is socially rewarded and popular, but also deniable.

It manifests when Jewish authors cannot secure spots on festival panels for reasons that can always be explained away: The authors of “Ruptured,” a collection of essays written by Australian Jewish women in response to October 7, have been rejected from all but one of the country’s major writers’ festivals.

It manifests when students quietly cut ties with Jewish friends because they’re “Zionists” and must naturally support genocide and ethnic cleansing. In the colleagues who stopped speaking to you after you expressed empathy for the hostages in Gaza.

This is the antisemitism that has flourished in Australia in recent years precisely because it can be so easy to dismiss as happenstance or legitimize as reasonable. But it is neither coincidence nor fair, it others Jews and makes it acceptable to exclude and socially punish them.

The unwillingness of Australian politicians to confront this form of antisemitism was epitomized by the prime minister’s reaction to the Bondi massacre. Getting Anthony Albanese to establish a royal commission after 15 people were shot dead during a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s most famous beach was like pulling teeth. And the reaction to the commission itself has revealed how little has changed exactly where it most needs to when it comes to certain attitudes toward Jews.

In March, the former head of Australia’s domestic spy service, Dennis Richardson, abruptly resigned as special adviser to the commission. Asked why on ABC Radio Canberra, he replied: “To be very blunt, I was being way overpaid for what I was doing.”

The mention of money in the same breath as a royal commission into antisemitism was bemusing enough. But the reactions to one post on The Daily Aus – with some comments receiving hundreds of likes – morphed into a twisted display of utter contempt and antisemitic dog whistles.

One of the most popular responses asked: “Why are Jews singled out for special treatment? Shouldn’t it be general racism rather than antisemitism?” Another wondered: “Did he mean he was not agreeing with the Israel lobby on the outrageous new definition of antisemitism and the implications for civil liberties in Australia?” And another suggested he had “probably found out who was really behind Bondi and can’t handle it.”

So far, the commission appears to be deepening resentment precisely among the very people who most misunderstand contemporary antisemitism. Meanwhile, politicians continue to condemn antisemitism in the safest, vaguest and most socially acceptable way possible, avoiding being explicit on the more pervasive manifestations that have become embedded in parts of Australian society.

Years before October 7, when I advocated for Jewish students at council meetings, I was always careful not to wrestle with the criticism they leveled at Israel itself. Instead, I tried to explain how the language they used, demonizing the Jewish state, could affect Jewish students on their own campus. I thought my approach, illuminating the history and plight of the Jewish people, might create an environment in which these young progressives might appreciate and consider my perspective.

It didn’t. I became “that Zionist bitch” to them all.

Now the Jewish Australians who testified to the commission have themselves reported a sharp rise in online harassment and intimidation since going public with their experiences. What does all of this portend? Nothing good.

The Australian left must confront this with an open mind and a willingness to listen to the 86 percent of Australian Jews who believe that Israel’s existence is an essential part of the Jewish people’s future. It must reckon with the fact that Australia is home to the largest concentration of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel. The Australian left must understand how the Holocaust has profoundly shaped the Jewish community’s relationship to Israel and dare to stop treating Zionism with such vicious hostility when most Australian Jews see themselves as Zionists.

If the left cannot muster the compassion to accept its Jewish community just as it is, worse things than Bondi Beach are sure to follow.