Mick Hartley

Fun and games at CiF. Antisemitism: an evil Australia can no longer ignore, screams the headline:

Although police investigations are still proceeding, the vicious attack on a Jewish family in Bondi, Sydney early on Saturday morning appears to have been the most serious antisemitic assault in Australia for many years.

The victims, who have all now been released from hospital, included a couple in their 60s. The man’s injuries included bleeding on the brain. One victim was left with a broken jaw. One had glass fragments in his eye.

The reactions of shock and revulsion have not been confined to the Jewish community. Politicians, trade union leaders, Muslim and church representatives, the federal race discrimination commissioner, the chair of the NSW Community Relations commissioner, and many others have condemned both the attack and its apparent racist motivation.

Even during the 15 minutes when the attack occurred, bystanders including a passing taxi driver intervened to end the violence and helped the police apprehend three of the alleged assailants.

The expressions of solidarity with the victims and with the Jewish community, and the brave and selfless actions of the bystanders, are a much more widespread reflection of the attitude of Australians to their Jewish fellow citizens than the hate-filled violence of the attackers.

And so on.

Worthy sentiments, of course. And yet…it seems so out of place, so out of keeping with how Australians generally behave – so out of keeping indeed with the actions of the bystanders who came to help. Jews in Western societies don't generally get attacked like that, out of the blue. What's going on?

Well of course we have a very good idea of what's going on, even though none of the mainstream media will offer any clues. Already it's being reported by bloggers that three muslims have been arrested for the attack. And then it all, sadly, makes sense.

So how are the comments going on the CiF piece? Not well, it has to be said. Currently out of the 30 responses, 13 have been removed by a moderator because they "didn't abide by our community standards". That's a pretty high percentage. And it's clear enough what's deemed so offensive to these community standards: the suggestion (almost certainly correct) that the attackers were not just random racist Australians, but were from a particular culture – a particular community, you could say – with a long history of anti-semitism. But that story doesn't fit in nicely with a Guardian world-view. And so must be erased.