The World I Thought I Would Never See
Hugh Hewitt > Blog
Monday, December 15, 2025
I am a “boomer” – born post-war but with memories fresh, and just as the Civil Rights Movement was beginning to take shape. I was born to a world that was determined to eliminate prejudice. Having witnessed the atrocities of Hitler’s Germany, the Civil Rights Movement arose and gained ground precisely to make sure nothing of the sort could happen ever again. Race, creed, religion, or gender were not a basis for determining if person was good or bad. We were told this over and over and over again. You did not bear animus for groups of people, however they were grouped; you reserved your animus for those that “earned” it – individually. Sure, in “lesser” parts of the world such prejudice still existed, but for us in the west, we were determined to make such prejudice disappear. We have failed.
On Thursday we noted that racism is still very real, just pointed in different directions. But nothing makes our failure more obvious than yesterday’s attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia. Here are firsthand accounts. This attack comes amid rising antisemitic sentiment in Australia. It also comes with heroes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was damning:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at Australia’s leader on Sunday while nations expressed shock and sympathy over a mass shooting at a Jewish holiday event, saying he had warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that “your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”
And the Jerusalem Post said it was what “globalizing the Intifada” looked like:
All those wondering what the slogan “globalize the intifada” means need look no further than Bondi Beach.
Terrorists calmly firing into a crowd at a Hanukkah celebration. Screams. Panic. Parents fleeing with hysterical children. Victims lying dead on the sand.
That is the “globalized intifada” that tens of thousands of people around the world have been chanting for since the October 7 massacre – on the streets of Sydney, San Francisco, London, New York, and elsewhere – including by political figures who either embraced the phrase or refused to condemn it.
Noting especially:
Australian intelligence agencies warned that Iran was playing a role in antisemitic incidents in the country, warnings serious enough that over the summer, Canberra expelled Tehran’s ambassador – an extraordinary step that illustrated how far the threat had moved beyond anti-Israel protests and into a national security issue.
What we are witnessing is not merely a failure at the mission my generation set for itself – to eliminate prejudice from the hearts and minds of people. No, this is the rise, once again, of organized prejudice and bigotry of a sort with the atrocities of Nazi Germany. A nation-state is organizing this hatred, sending in agents to inflame it, equipping terrorists to execute it. This is not an Archie Bunker kind of prejudice (R.I.P. Rob Reiner) , this is something quite different and quite sinister. A nation state is seizing on those prejudices and using them to power a movement – a movement that will inevitably result in efforts at genocide. This is no longer a war between Middle Eastern nations with religious and racial identities – this is pure, unadulterated identity hatred being expressed in other parts of the world.
Where did we fail? How did things go so horribly, awfully and fatally wrong? The answer is very straightforward, we neglected the simple fact that mankind cannot, absent divine intervention, rid itself of its prejudices and hatreds. We set about to do what only God can do.
This year, more than any other of my lifetime, is a time to remember what Christmas is all about.
