Could Nine’s Sydney Morning Herald be heading for a hat-trick in reverse? On January 7 it listed Cathy Wilcox’s cartoon titled “Grass roots” in its “best cartoons” category. Arsen Ostrovsky, who was injured in the terrorist attack on the Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on December 14, has described Wilcox’s work as an “unadulterated form of Jew hatred”.

In her artistic statement against a royal commission into the massacre, Wilcox listed those who are supporting a “Royal Commission Now!” movement. Standing on a box containing grass, they are depicted as lawyers, business people, open-letter writers, sports greats, Labor has-beens and, wait for it, “dogs”, with a canine holding a bone declaring “Don’t mention the war”. This is a reference to the Hamas-Israel conflict following Hamas’s brutal invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023 – an implied criticism of Israel.

This group is being held up by those who appear to be Rupert Murdoch, Jillian Segal, John Howard, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Sussan Ley and David Littleproud. Marching behind with a drum sounding “boom, boom” is Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The message is clear: Australian lawyers, business people, open-letter writers, sporting greats and current and former politicians who support a royal commission are marching to the drum of the leader of the Jewish state of Israel – along with dogs.

To be fair, the SMH and The Age (which also carried the cartoon) have published letters critical of Wilcox’s cartoon. But it has not withdrawn the work.

Late on January 7, commentator Mike Carlton, a vehement critic of Israel, posted on X: “It’ll be interesting to see … if the editors of the SMH and The Age back Cathy Wilcox and this cartoon; or will they turn to jelly beneath the howls of rage and the deluge of abusive emails from the Israel lobby?”

As far as I can determine, only one member of the group of six advocates of a royal commission is Jewish. But the leftist Carlton reckons that support for this cause is part of a conspiracy organised by what opponents of Israel call “the Israel lobby” or “the Jewish lobby”. No other religious or racial group in Australia is referred to by such a sneering “lobby” reference.

Last Thursday, News Corp’s tabloids carried an opinion poll by Melbourne-based research firm Fox & Hedgehog. It indicated that 54 per cent of Australians supported a royal commission with 19 per cent opposed and 27 per cent neutral or unsure. Jews comprise less than 0.5 per cent of the Australian population. Enough said.

At the time of writing, Wilcox’s cartoon remained on Nine’s website. Not so the article by Ahmed Ouf published in the SMH and The Age on December 23. Titled “I went to Bondi and hugged people who’d never spoken to a Muslim before”, Ouf wrote of his visit to Bondi Beach in the week beginning December 21. It is not clear how he knew whether the Jews he met at the murder site had ever spoken to a Muslim before. It would be difficult to live in Sydney or Melbourne without speaking to Muslims – or Christians, Buddhists, Hindus or nonbelievers.

Ouf’s self-important piece lacked judgment and was out of place. After all, he was not the story and some of the victims had yet to be buried. Soon after publication, Nine retracted the piece “out of respect for the Jewish community” and apologised for “any distress its publication caused”.

No doubt “any distress” would have increased when it was revealed that Ouf had contested the seat of Blaxland in western Sydney, which is held by Labor frontbencher Jason Clare, at the May 2025 election – running as a Muslim Votes independent.

It also was revealed that Ouf supported the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement aimed at debilitating Israel.

Ouf received 19 per cent of the primary vote and failed to defeat Clare, whose vote increased after the distribution of preferences. So did the vote for Labor frontbencher Tony Burke in Watson. In one of the few revelations in Niki Savva’s book Earthquake, Burke told the author he believed the Albanese government would be returned at the 2025 election but “was convinced he was about to lose his once-safe seat of Watson”.

I never believed that this would occur and wrote on these pages on July 6, 2024, in support of Dr Jamal Rifi, who opposed the concept of a Muslim party since he believed that “Australia is well served by the different parties that exist”.

The evidence suggests there is widespread support in Australia for a royal commission into the Bondi terrorist attack. Ideally such an inquiry should date back to the explosion of anti-Semitism at the Sydney Opera House demonstration on October 9, 2023 – which took place before Israel initiated its defensive war against Hamas.

NSW Police maintained that chants of “Where’s the Jews?” were heard. Others, myself included, heard “Gas the Jews”. But there’s little difference in intent. No demonstration has heard chants of “Where’s the Muslims?” – or the Christians, or the Buddhists or the Hindus.

Presenting ABC Radio National Breakfast this week, Barbara Miller queried independent MPs Allegra Spender and David Pocock as to whether there should also be a royal commission into Islamophobia. Neither agreed. Spender, who at times has been a critic of Israel, made the hard point that “the Jewish community is a community that lives behind security fences in a way that no other part of our community does”.

Apparently Miller was not convinced. On January 8, she told opposition frontbencher Jonno Duniam a “fair number” of ABC RN Breakfast listeners “don’t think a royal commission is a good use of time and money”. Quelle surprise. It is the far left (including some RN listeners) along with radical Islam that is at the forefront of anti-Semitism. If Nine offers a column to Miller to present her leftist views on this issue it will complete its reverse hat-trick.