New Footage of Melbourne Synagogue Torching Reminiscent of Fake Sydney Attacks 

The Joint Counter Terrorism Team released the footage of the arson attack targeting the Naarm-Melbourne Adass Israel Synagogue that happened after 4 am on 6 December 2024, at a time when so-called “antisemitic” crime was the major headline, and the torching was perpetrated a day after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warned terrorism was on its way to this country.

The JCTT comprises of the AFP, ASIO and the state law enforcement agency of whichever jurisdiction it’s in. The JCTT released the footage of the synagogue arsonists on 15 May 2024, four months after they first got hold of it, in an attempt to request the public help identify the three hooded young men, who were driving the blue VW Golf 2020 sedan, of which the authorities have since impounded.

The burning down of the Adass Israel Synagogue was significant, as it appeared to be a sign that the authorities long-term warning that antisemitism was rising in the community was coming to fruition, and the Melbourne firebombing was occurring at the same time that a spate of antisemitic attacks were taking place on Gadigal land right across Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

The spate of Sydney anti-Israel graffiti and arson attacks, which morphed into specifically anti-Jewish crimes, were more prolific here than in Naarm. Yet, NSW police deputy commissioner Dave Hudson admitted on 29 January that there were serious doubts the crimes were religiously motivated but rather were being staged to appear that way, which the AFP confirmed was true on 10 March.

So, the debate as to whether the Adass Synagagoe was a truly antisemitic crime or rather, like in Sydney, a staged attack used to convey Jewish hate, has long been puzzled, with the new footage of the VW pulling up with young men getting out and torching the place, using a vehicle that’s been implicated in numerous other arsons, really doesn’t seem consistent with antisemitic terror crime.

All in an evening’s work

The understanding the authorities had footage of three people torching the synagogue in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea has been circulating for months but most had almost forgotten about it, except to occasionally deliberate upon the fact as to whether it’s likely we’ll ever know who the perpetrators were, especially since Sydney’s attacks were a complete “criminal con job”.

The footage shows the young men pulling up wearing tracksuits with hooded tops. They park the car in the front of the synagogue, take an axe to the front entrance, bash it in, and then one-by-one, take a jerry can full of petrol and pour it inside the entrance to the synagogue and then one appears to toss a match to it, and a large ball of flames explodes with the boys in hoods taking off in the vehicle.

Besides footage portraying something similar to the Sydney “antisemitic” scenario, most of the Melbourne arson crimes appear as jobs with no ideological motives, besides turning a fast buck in exchange for burning something down. These people aren’t violent Nazi actors or pro-Palestine nonviolent flag-waving protesters, rather they’re legitimate criminals trying to make a living.

The most bizarre aspect to the JCTT announcement in Victoria is that the same stolen VW Golf that was used in the torching of the synagogue had also recently been used in an attack on South Yarra’s Lux nightclub and in an arson and shooting incident in northeastern Melbourne’s Bundoora, which happened on the same night as the burning of the Adass synagogue.

But Victoria police has come up with a brilliant excuse to explain why people burning down nightclubs or perpetrating shootings and arson attacks in Bundoora, and those terrorists in our midst burning down Jewish properties are perpetrating all these completely different yet similar crimes from the one car, and that is, according to VicPol, criminal carpooling.

Victoria police assistant commissioner Tess Walsh told the press that investigators consider the stolen VW Golf had been used as a “communal crime car”. So, it’s not that the same arson experts are being called upon to burn places down for payment from different entities, but some nights those with a beef with a nightclub use the car, while on other nights its antisemites that get a turn.

“It’s possible the car was used by several different people and groups to commit these crimes,” assistant commissioner Walsh told the press. “I’ve been in crime for many years and this sort of usage of a vehicle is relatively new but not unknown.”

Reading the authorities

So, for all those people wondering whether, just like the arson and graffiti attacks in Sydney that lasted from October until early February this year and turned out to be stage by organised crime to create an antisemitic scare to use information on these crimes as bargaining chips when dealing with NSW police on matters such as turning oneself in, charges being laid and sentencing discounts, the Victorian crime does appear to hint at an organised crime connection.

But in terms of the Sydney crimes, perhaps the even bigger mystery is how local crooks were able to recognise that the staging of so-called antisemitic crimes in the current political climate would be so effective that politicians like NSW premier Chris Minns would start to suffer separation anxiety after certain members of the NSW police force started coming clean on the likely fake nature of these “antisemitic” crimes.

Victoria police released the synagogue footage last Thursday, seeking information about whether anyone can identify the perpetrators, because on that same day, that state’s law enforcement had a breakthrough in the Lux nightclub firebombing crime that happened last November, and part of this involves the linking of the same VW Golf with the synagogue attack and many other local crimes.

“There is no doubt that this blue VW Golf sedan is key,” a VicPol spokesperson said. “We need assistance from the public as we attempt to identify those who have been using this vehicle and what they have been involved in, and we know there are people out there who can supply this information. Any small detail could be crucial.”

But just as the Sydney narrative slowly lost its ubiquitous focus on rising antisemitism in the community, the reports around the Adass Israel Synagogue last week had lost their key curbing Jewish prejudice motivation, and now this incident is just one amongst many Melbourne crimes.

So, as the spokesperson implores the public towards the end of a 15 May release of synagogue torching footage, VicPol is calling on citizens who know anything about this type of arson offending to come forward, but as for “antisemitic” crime, well that doesn’t rate a mention in this post-antisemitic hoax period.