Antisemitism did not begin with Anthony Albanese, he just made it far worse. Not only has he lost the confidence of the nation, he is confirming this by not calling a Royal Commission.

From the 2023 Opera House demonstration to the massacre at Bondi, Labor governments have exacerbated what was already their shameful, longstanding policy of tolerating antisemitism. Serious breaches of the law, including criminal, constitutional and civil law may well have occurred.

The father of our constitution, Sir Samuel Griffith, warned that governments behaving autocratically, as Labor has, should trigger the governor-general’s reserve powers, including the ultimate power of dismissal.

Around twenty years ago, I became acutely aware of the consequences of Labor’s tolerance of antisemitism. Driving past a synagogue on Ocean Street, Woollahra, one Friday evening, I was surprised to see security guards. I saw the same at Sydney’s Great Synagogue and was shocked to learn this had extended to schools and kindergartens.

These last twenty years, Jewish Australians have lived in constant fear of attack by antisemitic thugs. Why didn’t the police and governments stop this? Where were the headlines?

In 2004, in the Age, Labor eminence Barry Cohen revealed that antisemitism was rampant in his party, but party bosses refused to do anything. Cohen described how a cross-factional pincer movement would silence any Labor MP who dared to do what Bob Hawke did so prominently, support Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

The hard Left, Albanese’s subfaction, classifies Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, whose people have gifted the world many more Nobel Prizes than any other race, as consisting of colonial oppressors in their ancient homeland.

On the other side, opportunist MPs, led by Paul Keating of the NSW Right, were concerned about keeping the votes of an ‘increasing number of Arab voters’.

The factions stopped immigration minister Chris Hurford justifiably deporting extremist Islamist cleric Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly, infamous for accusing Jews of running the world through corruption and buggery and starting all wars, and who likened women who do not wear the hijab to ‘uncovered meat’ left out for cats.

Hurford was replaced, and instead of being deported, Hilaly was given permanent residency, a signal that not only would antisemitism be tolerated, it would be rewarded.

The antisemites reacted as Labor politicians knew they would. Jews were now fair game. For example, when Islamist demonstrators saw an eight-pointed star on a memorial to First Fleet Chaplain, the Reverend Richard Johnson, at Sydney’s St. Andrew’s Cathedral, they thought it was a synagogue and seriously vandalised it, hurling rocks at the precious stained-glass windows.

Two years ago, antisemitism was exacerbated to a degree hitherto unknown in a Commonwealth under the rule of law. It began when Hamas invaded Israel and committed unspeakable torture on innocent babies, children, women and men, murdering almost 1200 and taking some 250 hostages.

An anti-Jewish mob almost immediately assembled at the Sydney Town Hall and was inexplicably chaperoned by police to the Opera House, where they rioted, chanting gross anti-Jewish abuse, including the vile genocidal call, ‘Gas the Jews’.

Despite the commission of multiple crimes in front of the police, once again, the only arrest was of a Jew, Jews having been warned not to go near the Opera House.

The only significant announcement made by the present Police Commissioner, Mal Lanyon, after a long delay, was that the chant of ‘Gas the Jews’ (relayed recently around the world to millions by US Senator Ted Cruz) was really ‘Where’s the Jews?’.

Had this been presented to a jury, a neophyte lawyer would have demonstrated that rather than the unidiomatic ‘Where’s the Jews’, the mob would have surely chanted ‘Where’re the Jews?’ Moreover the last sound in the first word ‘Gas’ is the phonetic sound [s]. In the Lanyon version, the sound in the substitute word ‘Where’s’ is the very different and absent [z] sound demonstrating that what was chanted was undoubtedly, ‘Gas the Jews.’

People understandably asked whether this was just a distraction from the police seemingly being under instructions to do nothing? Not only was no serious action taken by either government or police over the Opera House riot, the event signalled a worsening of Labor’s policy of tolerating antisemitism.

In breach of the fundamental principles on which our Commonwealth is based, including the rule of law, and possibly in breach of the constitutional, criminal and civil law, the already meagre protection available to Jews was significantly reduced.

The proper exercise of the immigration power according to minimal responsible standards was abandoned, as demonstrated in relation to immigration from Gaza, about which most Arab governments are so wary as not to allow it, and also in the return of the ‘Isis brides’. Our once bipartisan foreign policy with one of gratuitous hostility to Israel, recalling how another aspect of our foreign policy had been changed by then Foreign Minister Bob Carr undermining PM Julia Gillard by reportedly asking in the caucus, ‘How could I possibly defend this (hitherto bipartisan policy) from the steps of the Lakemba Mosque?’

The outstanding questions are first whether the Governor-General will do what she is empowered to do and what Sir Samuel Griffith would say is her duty. She should follow Sir Philip Game’s example with Jack Lang and require Mr Albanese to explain himself over likely breaches of the constitutional, criminal and civil law with respect to the Jewish people.

The second question is if Mr Albanese’s commission as PM were withdrawn, should the successor hold office as caretaker until an election can be held and the people decide?

Third, if it were thought a Labor appointee would be fairer, would Premier Chris Minns be the better choice?

Fourth, if Chris Minns were appointed, would he survive in the Labor Party? Would it matter? The problem for him is his recent outspoken attacks on antisemitism, which we assume are not just political theatre.

Although they will deny it, the Labor Left and Right are wedded to antisemitism, just as they have been these last two decades. For the Left, it is because, along with their peers across the West, they are locked into this as their current creed. For the Right, it is because too many key seats have major blocs of Muslim voters.

Chris Minns could follow William Hughes and Joe Lyons, former Labor eminences who became conservative prime ministers.

In conclusion, underlying all this is the fact that for two sad decades, Labor has seriously damaged this once proud law-abiding nation with its shocking and increasing and probably unlawful tolerance of antisemitism.