Despite Danger, the Irresistible Draw of Country and Family

"Australia made the offer because we are so impressed by these women as individuals. The choice that Australia gave, the choice of government officials standing in front of you and saying it is up to you, is a choice that every individual should be entitled to."

"Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those individuals to make a choice. We couldn’t take away the pressure of the context for these individuals, of what might have been said to them beforehand, what pressures they might have felt there were on other family members."

"When those players were silent at the start of their first match in Australia, that silence was heard as a roar all around the world. We responded by saying, the invitation is there. In Australia you can be safe."

"Australia’s objective here was not to force people to make a particular decision. We’re not that sort of nation.” 

"They were given a choice. In that situation what we made sure of was that there was no rushing, there was no pressure." 

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke

 

"Iran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security."

"No one has the right to interfere in the family affairs of the Iranian nation and play the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother."

Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref    

A player and staffer with the Iranian women's soccer team, not pictured, sought asylum Tuesday before their teammates flew home where war began on Feb. 28. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images)

 

"I want to say about the Iranian women's team that it has between really moving for Australians to see them in Australia."

"I don't want to get into commentary about the Iranian women's team."

"Obviously, this is a regime that we know has brutally cracked down on its people."

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong  

The Iranian women's soccer team left Iran to take part in the Women's Asian Cup match last week, on the Gold Coast, before the February 28th joint U.S.-Israeli aerial attacks on the Islamic Republic. From Australia, while competing, news coming out of Iran briefed them on what was happening in their home country. And the team members, without a doubt, were concerned not only for their country, but for the  safety and security of their family members.

 

During the Second World War, when Britain gave haven to French soldiers and members of the French resistance to the Vichy government under Nazi occupation, many of the French although appreciating the generosity of Britain and their personal safety there, decided, regardless of the dangers they would be exposed to (arrest on arrival in France by the SS where young Frenchmen were shipped to Germany to serve as slave labour) for love of country and concern about their families' welfare.

 

And so, no doubt, it was pretty much the same for the young Iranians in their Australian sojourn, when most members of the team made the self-conscious decision that they would return to their home country and share with their families whatever danger the short-term assaults staged by the U.S. and Israel to destroy the Islamic Republic's missiles, launching sites, nuclear facilities and weapons depots, while also targeting key members of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps, the Basij police, and elite Iranian government figures including the Grand Ayatollah.

 

Iran players standing silent during anthems ahead of their opener against South Korea on March 2.

Albert Perez/Getty Images

 

It was not only the pressure of concern over the potential collective punishment their families might face were they not to return to Iran that created stress for the  young Iranians. Their group commitment over their decision not to sing the Iranian national anthem last week was condemned as a lack of loyalty to their country. Without a doubt their loyalty to the country was undimmed, but their unwillingness to sing along with the anthem reflected their rejection of the theocratic regime that had unleashed violent mass punishment against the massive protests on the streets of Iran by Iranian citizens calling for an end to the regime.

 

For their troubles, they were labelled traitors by an Iranian state TV presenter for remaining silent during the playing of the national anthem on March 2 before an opening loss to South Korea. In later matches, the players did sing the anthem and saluted. Given the circumstances and the possible less-than-warm reception the players may receive on their return to Iran,  the Australian Iranian Council has called on the government to offer their protection, permitting them to  remain in Australia.

 

An online petition launched by the Council garnered over 61,000 signatures on Monday, where Australian authorities were urged to "ensure that no members of Iran's women's national soccer team is to depart Australia while credible fears for their safety remain". The centre-left government was also urged to provide asylum to the Iranian team by Australia's shadow attorney general, on Sunday. 

 

A plea was made by the exiled son of Iran's last shaw, Reza Pahlavi, who called on the Australian government to protect the team "and give them any and all needed support". In the end, most of the team made the decision to return to what was, after all, their home and their families, flying out of Australia on Tuesday. In total, seven members of the women's soccer team asked for, and received permission to  remain in Australia.  

 

There was a precedent for this kind of humanitarian gesture, as it happens. Humanitarian visas were granted by Australia to over 20 members of the Afghanistan women's cricket team at a time when the Taliban in 2021 returned to power, and banned women's sport, among many other bans that severely reduced girls' and women's futures in the Islamist nation.  

 

Police officers clear the road for a departing bus transporting members of the Iranian Women's Asia Cup football team to the airport outside the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast on Tuesday, March 10.

Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

The Glib Lies of Politicians

"The government will always stand with  you. It is not enough to protect the Jewish community. It is not enough for Jewish Canadians to live without fear. Canada is not Canada unless all members of the Jewish community can fully participate in all aspects of Canadian life."

"This is about thriving. This is about taking the light and spreading it today, across our country and through generations, so this is the last generation that has to struggle against hate."

"[Hanukkah] represents the resilience of the Jewish people, but also the contributions of the Jewish people to our society, to all societies, to humanity. And I will always be here with you, and I will not rest until we've moved from protection to thriving."

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

Rabbi Chaim Boyarsky welcomed Prime Minister Mark Carney and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante as the ceremony marked the start of Hanukkah. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

 

Statistics Canada reports that the majority of hate crimes recorded as having been reported to police throughout 2023 were aimed at Canadian Jews, representing 70 percent of the total reported, while the Muslim population were the targets of 16 percent of those hate crimes. Beyond ironic since most of the hate crimes perpetrated against Canada's Jews were led by Muslims, Muslim and Palestinian groups and organizations, relentlessly. Any 'hate crime' reported against Muslims would rarely be the fault of Jews and far more likely to be from other Muslim-disaffected Canadians reacting to the Islamist cult of jihad. 

 

Mark Carney, Canada's current prime minister, repeats ad nauseum the same condemnatory mantra his predecessor did from the heights of the Liberal government pulpit; when the pro forma condemnation of antisemitism is uttered by either of these men in reaction to reports of continual egregious threats against the Canadian Jewish community, they speak of deploring racist antisemitism against Jews and 'Islamophobia' against the Canadian Muslim population, as though the two could possibly be equated. One scurrilous assault after another from the latter, qualifying it as the proponent of antisemitism yet portraying themselves as 'victims'.

 

According to the Ottawa Police Service, while hate crime statistics have been fewer through 2024 in comparison to the year before -- in the direct wake of the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine launching a mass slaughter in southern Israel on October 7 of 2023 when 'pro-Hamas'/'pro-Palestinian' groups came out in force to publicly celebrate the savagery perpetrated on Jews in Israel, accusing Israel of 'genocide' while calling to 'globalize the Intifada' and chorusing 'Final Solution!' -- it has been Canadian Jews who were most victimized, with 113 reported cases last year.

 

For the past two years and more, Jews in Canada have been isolated, vilified, threatened, private businesses vandalized, synagogues fire-bombed, parochial schools fired at, and Jewish citizens have had to put up with gangs of masked, keffiyeh-clad marchers on the streets of mostly Jewish-occupied homes where their privacy and sense of security is challenged time and again by shouts of ridicule and threats to their very existence in the country they've called home for centuries.

 

There has been no government action at any level -- federal, provincial or municipal -- to shut down the violently disorderly and threatening conduct that makes life a misery for Jewish residents and citizens. Police protect the protesters as exercising their Charter rights to free speech, while Jews seeking to counter the marchers' slanderous claims are chastised and advised that their presence and challenges to the demonstrators will be construed as provocations. 

 

A rabbi speaks to mourners at a tribute outside Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Tuesday, honouring victims of the Bondi Beach shooting. (David Gray/AFP/Getty Images)

 

This is the social/political aura under which Canada's prime minister, like that of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese govern, extending protection to the Palestinian/Muslim populations that have flooded their countries in the past several decades, while leaving their Jewish populations to fend for themselves, having to take extraordinary precautions of self-defense in erecting barriers around synagogues and community centers, and hiring security guards to protect the Jewish presence, where congregants are harried and threatened as they enter synagogues and children mocked as they attend schools.

 

In Sydney, Australia, this Jew-baiting, threatening situation has culminated in a terrifying gunfire attack against Jews celebrating the Festival of Light -- Hanukkah -- on Bondi Beach on Sunday, where two gunmen, a father and son openly supporting Islamic State shot to death 16 people; children, the elderly, rabbis, while 40 other revelers were injured, many critically. There were heroes who placed themselves deliberately in danger to forestall the massacre; a Jewish man and wife who grappled with one of the attackers and died in the effort. A teen-age girl who used her body to shield two much younger children. A non-Jewish man who tackled one of the attackers and disarmed him, while sustaining multiple bullet wounds.

 

In Canada, as in Australia, there is no honour in the mealy-mouthed assurances of their political leaders, who have made no effort at any time to realistically put a stop to the continual and ongoing public displays of antisemitic ridicule, threats, slander and outright criminal acts. Words of support and condemnation of hatred and threats come easily, however. The sanctimony of the betrayers of trust.

 

Olivia Mellcovsky stepped up the ladder as the prime minister held it so she could light the first Hanukkkah candle. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

 

 

Australian-Iran Diplomatic Relations ... Pfft!

"Strongly consider leaving as soon as possible, if it is safe to do so."

"Foreigners in Iran, including Australians and dual Australian-Iranian nationals, are at a high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest."

"DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN."

Government of Australia: Alert to Australians 

 

"ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organization] has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion."

"The Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its involvement but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks."

"These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil."

"They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable."

"[ASIO and the federal police had been] able to trace the chain of command, if you like, right back to the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]."

"It is important that people understand where some of these attacks are coming from, and it would appear, as the AFP commissioner said yesterday, that some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors." 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese 

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in the background, announcing the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador to Australia, on Tuesday, 26 August 2025. (Photograph by Callum Flinn / ABC News)

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of organizing two attacks in Australia; represent due cause for Australia to cut off diplomatic relations with Tehran. Iran, according to the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, had directed arson attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney and on Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue in October and December of 2024, respectively. 

 

The Australian government had relayed to Iranian Ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi that the decision had been made to expel him. At the same time, Australian diplomats posted in Iran have also been withdrawn. A diplomatically hostile action that required Australia's government to also post travel warnings to its citizen passport-holders, as it raised a warning to its highest level of "Do not travel".

 

The Iranian foreign minister responded by naming Albanese as a "weak politician". The second time in a two-week period that Mr. Albanese was singled out thusly for actions taken on behalf of his government, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded his Australian counterpart as a "weak politician who had betrayed Israel", following the August 11 announcement of preparations to recognize a Palestinian state to be formalized at the September UNGA. 

 

 

 

At least one suspect has been arrested by Australian police, related to the Sydney cafe fire investigation; and another two suspects accused of torching the synagogue in Melbourne. A 32-year-old Sydney resident, Sayed Mohammed Mousawi, formerly president of the Nomads biker gang chapter in the city, was charged with directing the fire bombing of the cafe, along with the nearby Curly Lewis Brewery, mistakenly targeted for an antisemitic attack.

 

Another man, 22-year-old Giovanni Laulu from Melbourne, was charged as one of three masked arsonists causing extensive damage to the synagogue. An unnamed 20-year-old man, allegedly the second arsonist, is due to appear in court, according to a police statement. 

 

According to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, this is the first time since the Second World War that Australia has expelled a foreign diplomat. Even so, Canberra plans to maintain a level of diplomacy with Iran to ensure Australia's interests can be advanced. In the interim, Australia is legislating Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, even though it has hesitated to do so in the past in view of its being a government entity.  

 

Floral tributes at the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

 

While denying any involvement, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has been accused of attacks abroad in the past. The Quds Force of the IRGC is Iran's expeditionary arm, accused by the West of using local militants and criminals in targeting dissidents and Israelis abroad. "Foremost, these were attacks that deliberately targeted Jewish Australians, destroyed a sacred house of worship, caused millions of dollars of damage, and terrified our community", read a statement from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

 

Sydney and Melbourne have seen a steep rise in antisemitic incidents since the Israel-Hamas conflict was initiated in 2023 when the Hamas terrorist group crossed from Gaza into southern Israel and thousands of terrorist operatives launched a sadistic savagery of mass rape, mutilations, kidnapping and murder of 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis, although foreign farm workers and Israeli-Palestinians were also caught up in the murder maw of the Palestinian terrorist hordes.

 

According to Australian authorities, it is suspected that foreign actors have hired local criminals-for-hire to carry out instructions of attack on Jewish businesses and houses of worship in Australia. Whatever evidence exists of Iranian involvement in these events, was not shared by either ASIO director-general Mike Burgess or P.M. Albanese, although Burgess stated there was no evidence of involvement by Iranian diplomats themselves.   

"The latest credible intelligence aside, there have been concerns for some time now about Iran working through proxy networks and engaging in forms of diaspora repression. For example, Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, has previously posted inflammatory social-media comments — such as urging that “wiping out the Zionist plague out of the holy lands of Palestine happens no later than 2027” and praising Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, as “a great personality ... and an unparalleled leader” — for which he was formally rebuked by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs in 2024. And there are Australians who have ties to Iran’s international propaganda network, Al Tajamu."

"The IRGC’s motivation to instigate terror attacks against Jewish targets in Australia is related to its conflict with Israel. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Israel has been regarded as the archenemy of Iran, the “little Satan” in service of the “Great Satan” — namely, the United States. Over the years, Israel has operated openly and secretly against Iran, its proxies and its nuclear weapons project, including carrying out assassinations of top Iranian officials, scientists and public figures. The recent twelve-day US-Israeli war on Iran included precision strikes that killed senior IRGC commanders and damaged key facilities linked to the IRGC’s regional networks."

"As a result, Tehran is forever looking for ways to take revenge against Israel, including by trying to recruit spies within the State of Israel to perform acts of violence and espionage. The regime has, moreover, never abandoned attempts to target Israelis and members of the Jewish community and Jewish organisations abroad." 

Australian Broadcasting Corporation 

People hold pictures of the victims of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre during a ceremony commemorating thirty years after the attack, on 18 July 2024, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photograph by Cristina Sille / picture alliance via Getty Images)

 

 

Oops -- Well -- Sorry About That!

"All of us at Monash IVF are devastated and we apologize to everyone involved."

"We will continue to support the patients through this extremely distressing time."

"[The] human error [was made] despite strict laboratory safety protocols being in place."

Monash IVF CEO Michael Knaap 

"[Australia's states and territories] need to see if their regulations are up to scratch."

"Confidence needs to be brought back and it's imperative that happens."

Australian Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth

 

"There are presumptions in Australia about the birth parents being the legal parents of the child."

"But whether the genetic parents want to come forward and start a discussion about that, then we'll have to wait and see."

Family creation lawyer Sarah Jefford 

 

"[It was a] terrible, sad situation all round [that was unlikely to have been tested before in Australia]."

"While this is life-altering for the couples involved, the next person who will be most shattered is the scientist responsible for this mistake."

"I've got no idea what the legal situation in Australia would decide; I don't think it's been tested before."

"I don't think there's much more that can be done; we just have to accept that human beings make mistakes."

Professor Gab Kovacs, IVF pioneer, former director of Monash IVF

A woman in Australia, who had been implanted with an embryo belonging to another patient during an in vitro fertilization process, gave birth in February to a baby not her own, but that of a stranger, resulting from "human error", according to the clinic involved, Monash IVF. The unfortunate error that took place in the city of Brisbane was investigated and the discovery made that the birth parents' embryo storage happened to have one too many. 

 

Staff then discovered another patient's embryo had erroneously been thawed and transferred to the birth mother. The baby was born in 2024. There has been no confirmation from Monash IVF as to how old the child actually is. An initial investigation, according to Monash IVF -- Australia's largest IVF provider -- shed no light on why the error occurred, nor did the investigation identify the involved patients, much less divulge any details regarding the custody of the child.

 

Getty Images

In operation since 1971, Monash IVF operates in dozens of locations throughout Australia. The company settled a class-action lawsuit, representing over 700 patients last year when claims that its clinics destroyed potentially viable embryos had surfaced. The company paid out a settlement of 56 million Australian dollars, while making no admission of liability. A reputational inconvenience that begged to be handled discreetly so it would just go away.

 

Their error in this instance, albeit rare, has occurred to other clinics throughout the world: the United States, Britain, Israel and Europe. In Georgia, U.S.A., a woman filed a lawsuit in February against a fertility clinic when she too gave birth to a stranger's baby. The error was made clear to Krystena Murray following the baby's birth since both she and her sperm donor were white, while the child was Black.

 

And although the birth mother meant to raise the baby, she surrendered the-then-five-month-old to its biological parents after being advised she would not win a legal custody battle. Laws regulating the in vitro fertilization sector came into practise only in 2024 through Queensland's parliament, to establish a registry for all those conceived at a clinic, with the destruction of donors' medical histories made illegal.

 

An official report that criticized the storage of frozen sperm donations in Queensland was the impetus for such legal regulation, when it was discovered through an investigation that close to half of the samples checked were at medium or high risk of misidentification -- as a result of which it was recommended that thousands of the samples be destroyed.

This image from video shows an exterior view of the Monash IVF clinic in Brisbane, Australia, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AuBC, CHANNEL 9 via AP)

You Never Know

"It's Palestine's country, not your country, you piece of shit."

"When your time comes, I want you to remember my face so you can understand you will die the most disgusting death."

"I won't treat them, I will kill them [Jewish patients admitted to hospital under her tender loving care]."

"You have no idea how many Israeli dog[s] came to this hospital and I send them to Jahannam [hell]." 

Australian health worker Sarah Abu Lebdeh

Bankstown Hospital workers Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, seen in the video. 

Jahannam, Arabic for Hell Persian Miniature

"[This video is] one of the most vile, shocking and appalling videos I've ever seen." 

"I say to the people of New South Wales, but in particular the Jewish community, I as the New South Wales health minister am so very sorry that  you're having to deal with this, this morning."

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park

 

"[The Association condemns] in the strongest possible terms today's antisemitic commentary within the health system."

"This behaviour will not be tolerated."

Kathryn Austin, president, Australia Medical Association 

In an Australian hospital there were two of their health-worker employees of Arabic backgrounds who felt free to identify themselves as health workers so infused with hatred for Jews -- and Israelis in particular -- that they did not hesitate to threaten a young Israeli man with death, taunting him with reference to how they had treated other Israelis who had appeared at the southwestern Sydney, New South Wales Bankstown Hospital where they were employed.

 

The two workers were subsequently identified as having with great pleasure said they would not only refuse to treat any hospitalized Israelis that came under their care, but had gone further, actually killing patients who were known to be Israeli. An investigation is underway to determine whether their boasts of serving up death rather than health care to Israelis actually has taken place. In the interim, the two health care workers were relieved of their hospital positions.

 

The scenario unfolded when a vlogger from Israel, a man by the name of Max Veifer happened to connect with the pair on the Chatruletka app, which links users randomly. "Eventually  you're going to get killed and go to Jahanna [Hell], Inshallah", Ahmad Rashad Nadir, the male health care worker said to  Veifer once he had upfront identified himself as Israeli. 

 

The female health worker in a Muslim headscarf then entered the frame of the video and began her abusive threats against the life of the Israeli vlogger. It was explained to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation by the  woman's lawyer, Mohamed Sakr, that his client had forwarded a "very sincere apology to not only that individual, but to the Jewish community as a whole". Such a sincere apology is a reflection of reconsideration of consequences of lurid threatening language brought to the public eye and ear.

 

Mr Nadir and Ms Lebdeh's registrations were suspended. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)

 

Obviously, the Australian Jewish community will be on high alert, their antisemitism antennae set to high in any future hospital admissions where they might come to harm. From within the community as well as other critics of the current government of Australia comes the question whether the Jewish community in Australia would see less savage targeting if their Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cared enough to react appropriately in the instances of ongoing arson attacks on synagogues and childcare centres.

 

Australia's voting record in the United Nations -- when the usual sanctions against Israel that single out the tiny nation of Jews for human rights violations led in nominations for censure through the UN General Assembly by the membership United Nations countries that just so happen to be true violators of human rights -- has been impeccably damning, seeing fit to condemn a fellow democracy seated in a sea of countries in the Middle East that have repeatedly attempted, and failed, to destroy its presence in the Middle East.

Israeli content creator Max Veifer said he had served in the IDF in the longer video. (Supplied)

So that when, in this instance, Australia's prime minister stated that the video footage of the verbal and existential assault against the Israeli by the two medical workers, one of whom initially posed as a physician, stated his impression of the "sickening and shameful" attack, and his 'relief' by the removal from the NSW health system of the two offending health workers, Jews in Australia are somewhat less than comforted. 

The 115,000 Australian Jews have every reason to feel haunted and hunted as a result of the continual antisemitic, anti-Israel sympathies parading through their streets, particularly in the wake of the atrocities of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent retaliatory reaction against Hamas terrorists governing Gaza who have vowed their intention of committing many more October 7s, to no disavowal by their government.

 

Every time an Australian Jew sees yet another Swastika painted on walls and windows of vandalized Jewish-owned or -occupied buildings, and vehicles it represents a shocking reminder that their lives of secure citizenship are under duress, their future threatened.

 

 Bankstown Hospital workers Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, seen in the video.