ABC host Patricia Karvelas asked: “Are you really saying that torching a car has been enabled by the government?”
Hume responded: “Well, these crimes have gone unpunished. They’ve gone unrecognised.”
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Earlier on Seven’s Sunrise, Hume said: “What the Jewish community, indeed all of Australia, are looking for is leadership on this issue, but sadly, the equivocation of the government, of the prime minister, has emboldened and enabled those that are committing these horrific crimes”.
The antisemitic crimes have included an arson attack in June on the office of Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, the burning of a ute in Woollahra last month, the arson at the Melbourne synagogue on Friday, and the torching of the car in Woollahra on Wednesday.
The government has condemned each of the attacks and spoken out against antisemitism, while police have launched investigations into each incident.
At the same time, however, Jewish leaders have accused Labor of turning against Israel by changing Australia’s position on key votes at the United Nations over the Middle East, including a resolution this month calling for an “irreversible pathway” to a Palestinian state.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Adass Israel synagogue.Credit: Justin McManus
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited that vote in the UN to link the Australian government’s actions to the synagogue attack.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia,” Netanyahu said last Friday.
He added: “Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism”.
Albanese rejected the key claim from Hume on Wednesday morning that the government had somehow enabled the antisemitic attacks.
“That is, yet again, a divisive comment,” he said on Radio National.
“This is a time for unity, not a time to seek political advantage or to seek to divide.
In a statement earlier, the prime minister condemned the latest attack in Woollahra as “an outrage”.
“I stand with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemn this attack. There is no place for hatred or antisemitism in our community.”
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But Hume blamed the government for being too slow in setting up the task force to counter antisemitism, saying Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had called for its creation last week.
Dutton and Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson called for a task force to be set up in a statement at 8.10am on Monday. Albanese announced the task force at 2.30pm on Monday, after earlier federal cabinet meetings.
On Saturday, Paterson had also demanded tougher action by the federal government and said Labor had broken with Israel and the United States by backing the resolution at the UN.
“I think Australia’s abandonment of Israel, [and] also our closest ally and partner, the United States at the United Nations, is a disgrace, and it has harmed our national security, and it is not in our national interest,” he said.
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