The Bondi Beach Terror Attack Must Strengthen, Not Shatter, Our Bridges | Opinion

I write this as a Jew still reeling from the atrocity at Bondi Beach, an act of terror that shattered lives on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Chanukah and exposed, yet again, how anti-Jewish hatred and incitement can erupt into violence even in societies widely regarded as safe and tolerant. Australian authorities have since declared the massacre a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State, citing ISIS-linked materials and symbols found with the perpetrators.

Naming this honestly matters. But honesty also demands moral precision.

ISIS and its ideological offshoots are not Islam. They are a violent, nihilistic cult that hijacks religious language to sanctify the murder of innocents. What they practice is not faith—it is desecration. They strip Islam of its humanity, weaponize grievance and turn God into a justification for cruelty. That distortion must be rejected clearly and without hesitation.

Since 2017, I have interacted with Muslims across countries, cultures and professions. I have worked alongside them, learned from them and shared conversations, sometimes difficult, often searching, always human. Even where we disagreed sharply, including on Israel, Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nothing I encountered remotely resembled the ideology that inspired the Bondi attackers. Nothing. The Islam I know is not one of death-worship, but of family, dignity, faith and moral seriousness.

That truth matters profoundly now.

Since October 7, Jews around the world have been living with a surge of open, unapologetic antisemitism—in the streets, on campuses, online and increasingly through violence. The horror of Bondi cannot be separated from that broader climate. Jews were targeted. Jewish lives were taken. Jewish fear is real, justified and growing.

And yet—even in this darkness—there were moments that revealed something stronger than hate.

One of the heroes of the Bondi attack was a Muslim.

An unarmed Muslim man ran toward danger, intervened and helped stop further bloodshed. He did not ask who was Jewish and who was not. He did not hesitate. He acted because innocent lives were at stake. That act of courage stands as a living rebuke to the ideology that inspired the attackers and a powerful reminder of a truth extremists desperately want erased: Jews and Muslims are not destined to be enemies.

The response from across the world reinforces this truth.

Saudi Arabia issued a clear condemnation of the Bondi Beach terror attack, denouncing the killing of civilians, expressing condolences to the victims’ families and reaffirming its rejection of terrorism and extremism in all forms. Egypt’s Al-Azhar, one of the most influential institutions in Sunni Islam, condemned the attack, reaffirming that the murder of innocents is forbidden and violates the core principles of Islam. Other condemnations from Arabs and Muslims were swiftly issued.

These statements are not symbolic. They are morally significant.

They remind us that the struggle against extremist violence is not Jews versus Muslims, or the West versus Islam. It is humanity versus dehumanization. It is life versus an ideology that thrives on death and division.

ISIS and its sympathizers want one thing above all else: polarization. They want Jews to see Muslims as a constant threat. They want Muslims to feel permanently alienated. They want the fragile but real bridges between communities to collapse under the weight of fear, rage, hatred and grief.

We must deny them that victory.

Grief does not require us to abandon clarity. Anger does not require us to abandon truth. And solidarity does not require silence about antisemitism. We can, we must, hold all of these realities at once.

As a Jew, I say this plainly: The answer to terror cannot be retreat into tribal isolation. It must be a redoubling—a tripling—of efforts to build bridges between Jews and Muslims, between Muslim-majority nations and Israel, between communities extremists are determined to tear apart.

That work is not naïve. It is courageous.

The Abraham Accords did not emerge from fantasy. They emerged from years of quiet engagement, shared interests and the recognition that endless conflict only empowers extremists. Every partnership, every dialogue, every act of mutual recognition chips away at the worldview that makes attacks like Bondi possible.

Bondi was an act of horror. It was terror. It was antisemitism laid bare.

But the response, the Muslim who ran toward danger, the Arab leaders who condemned the attack, the shared grief across communities, points toward another path. One rooted not in fear, but in resolve.

Extremists do not own faith. They do not own identity. And they do not get to define our future.

We do.

Jason D. Greenblatt was the White House Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration. He is the author of In the Path of Abraham: How Donald Trump Made Peace in the Middle East and founder of Abraham Venture LLC.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.