The Initial Impact and Terror of the Bondi Shooting Is Transitioning to Rage and Discord. We Must Look For the Hope.

While the nation winds down for a customary Christmas holiday across slow-moving days of beach and blistering heat accompanied by the background of sporting matches and cicada song, this year the country’s summer mood seems, sadly, like none before.

It would be a dramatic oversimplification to characterize the collective disposition after the antisemitic terrorist attack on Jewish Australians during the beachside Hanukah festivities as one of simple ennui.

Across the country, but nowhere more so than in Sydney – the most postcard picturesque of Australian cities – a tenor of initial surprise, sorrow and horror is segueing to fury and bitter division.

Those who had previously missed the frequently expressed concerns of the Jewish community are now highly attuned. Just as, they are attuned to reconciling the need for a far more urgent, vigorous government and institutional fight against anti-Jewish hatred with the freedom to peacefully protest against mass atrocities.

If ever there was a moment for a countrywide dialogue, it is now, when our belief in mankind is so deeply depleted. This is especially so for those of us lucky never to have endured the animosity and dread of religious and ethnic targeting on this land or anywhere else.

And yet the social media feeds keep churning out at us the banal instant opinions of those with blistering, polarizing stances but no sense at all of that profound fragility.

This is a period when I lament not having a stronger spiritual belief. I mourn, because believing in humanity – in mankind’s potential for kindness – has failed us so acutely. A different source, something higher, is needed.

And yet from the horror of Bondi we have witnessed such extreme instances of human decency. The heroism of individuals. The selflessness of bystanders. Emergency personnel – police officers and medical staff, those who charged into the danger to aid fellow humans, some recognised but for the most part anonymous and unsung.

When the barrier cordon still fluttered in the wind all about Bondi, the imperative of social, religious and cultural solidarity was laudably championed by religious figures. It was a call of love and tolerance – of bringing together rather than dividing in a moment of antisemitic slaughter.

In keeping with the symbolism of the Festival of Lights (illumination amid darkness), there was so much fitting reference of the need for lightness.

Togetherness, hope and compassion was the essence of faith.

And yet segments of the political landscape reacted so nauseatingly quickly with fragmentation, finger-pointing and accusation.

Some politicians moved straight for the darkness, using tragedy as a calculating opportunity to question Australia’s immigration policies.

Observe the dangerous message of disunity from veteran agitators of Australian racial division, exploiting the attack before the crime scene was even cold. Then consider the words of leadership aspirants while the probe was ongoing.

Government has a daunting task to do when it comes to uniting a nation that is mourning and scared and seeking the hope and, not least, explanations to so many uncertainties.

Like why, when the national terrorism threat level was assessed as probable, did such a large public Hanukah celebration go ahead with such a woefully insufficient security presence? Like how could the accused attackers have multiple firearms in the residence when the security agency has so publicly and repeatedly alerted of the threat of targeted attacks?

How quickly we were treated to that cliched line (or versions of it) that it’s people not weapons that cause death. Of course, both things are valid. It’s feasible to at the same time pursue new ways to prevent hate-fuelled violence and prevent guns away from its potential actors.

In this metropolis of immense splendor, of clear azure skies above ocean and sand, the water and the coastline – our communal areas – may not seem entirely familiar again to the multitude who’ve noted that famous Bondi seems so jarringly out of place with last weekend’s obscene bloodshed.

We yearn right now for understanding and meaning, for family, and perhaps for the consolation of aesthetics in art or the natural world.

This weekend many Australians are cancelling holiday gathering plans. Reflective solitude will feel more in order.

But this is perhaps counterintuitively against instinct. For in these days of fear, anger, melancholy, confusion and loss we need each other now more than ever.

The comfort of community – the human glue of the unity in the very word – is what we likely need most.

But sadly, all of the portents are that unity in politics and the community will be elusive this long, draining summer.