Outrage as Crikey columnist says October 7 ‘wasn’t Israel’s 9/11’ and claims he would ‘celebrate’ on the streets if the Jewish state suffers a devastating attack in bizarre, rambling essay on obscure website
A far-left news website has found itself in fresh controversy after one of its top journalists claimed he would “celebrate” in the streets if terrorists launched a major act of violence against Israel.
Guy Rundle, Crikey’s ‘great correspondent’, wrote a lengthy 1,400-word op-ed on Tuesday entitled: ‘October 7 was not Israel’s September 11. But as the destruction of Gaza continues, it will come.”
More than 1,100 Israelis and foreigners, including nearly 700 civilians, were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7.
According to the Hamas-led Health Ministry, more than 23,000 civilians, including thousands of children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since that date.
Guy Rundle (pictured), Crikey’s great general correspondent, suggested in his latest controversial op-ed that he would ‘celebrate’ if terrorists struck Israel (below)
The atrocities of October 7 are compared by many to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which leveled the Twin Towers and killed nearly 3,000 American citizens, ultimately sparking the global War on Terror.
More Jews were murdered on October 7 than on any day since the Holocaust.
But Mr Rundle, who has courted controversy before, was dismissive of this view.
“The October 7 raid was not Israel’s September 11,” he wrote.
‘Israel’s 9/11 will be the retribution for what happened next. If this does happen, its significance and impact will be terrible beyond measure.”
Mr Rundle then appeared to suggest that there would be attacks on the millions of Jewish diaspora living around the world.
“The simplest way to put it might be that you can put a high-tech ‘iron dome’ over a small country, but you can’t put a global diaspora under it,” he wrote.
Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ is an advanced, radar-guided defense system that can fire interceptor missiles at incoming missiles heading toward populated areas within the Jewish state.
Mr. Rundle then admitted that such an attack on the Jewish population around the world “will most likely be a nihilistic attack that you cannot possibly support.”
“But you can say this,” said Mr. Rundle.
‘If it were a major blow to Israel itself, people from Beijing to Santiago would take to the streets to celebrate the blow against this late imperial decimation of the indigenous population.
“And I, and many of you, would be among them.”
Mr Rundle suggested he would ‘celebrate’ in the streets if a ‘major blow’ was struck against Israel by his enemies (photo: Vlada Patapov, who became known as the ‘lady in red’, flees Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre)
Mr Rundle also described the disruption of Melbourne’s Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve by two pro-Palestinian protesters as “fantastic”.
Mr Rundle’s inflammatory comments sparked outrage among many in the Australian Jewish community.
David Ossip, chairman of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, described the piece as “extremist activism disguised as journalism” and said what the author found worth celebrating was “simply depraved”.
“Mr Rundle has plumbed new depths and thoroughly discredited himself by making his hatred of Israel so conspicuous,” Mr Ossip said.
“Rather than supporting Israel as it seeks to degrade the military capabilities of Hamas – a designated terrorist organization – Mr. Rundle desires to see Israel attacked on an even greater scale than on October 7.
“His comments are Orwellian, disconnected from reality and fail to come to grips with the fact that Israel is defending itself against genocidal terrorists who on October 7 murdered, maimed and raped more than 1,200 people and killed more than 250 men, women , children and other people. the elderly hostage.”
Daily Mail Australia approached Crikey and its editor, Gina Rushton, for comment.
It’s not the first time Mr. Rundle has landed the niche left-wing website in hot water.
In June, Crikey was forced to retract one of his op-eds about alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins.
He argued that the former Liberal staffer belonged to a “well-connected network” and that her eventual compensation payout was fast-tracked by Labor for its own political purposes.
last year, an op-ed by Mr Rundle about Brittany Higgins caused outrage (pictured)
Crikey editor Gina Rushton (pictured) was forced to withdraw the piece, admitting factual errors and apologizing to the website’s readers and Ms Higgins.
‘In these types of cases we usually have to leave our brains at the office door. However, we don’t have to leave our brains at the security entrance in the plastic bowl with our keys and phone,” Rundle wrote.
“Higgins and co did what their roles as political advisors trained them to do: they used their strategy to gain maximum advantage….”
‘We have the right to read the texts that led to this.’
He later called the idea that Ms Higgins’ claim had to be true “ridiculous”.
“Whatever the truth of what she claimed, Higgins had about as much motive as anyone ever had to make a false claim about a sex crime,” he wrote.
Ms Higgins quickly took to Twitter to condemn the article, which referenced published CCTV footage of Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann walking through Parliament House security on the evening in question.
”We are not required to leave our brains at the security entrance…” Ms Higgins wrote.
‘Wow. Spicy but disgusting given the context.”
Ms Higgins’ fiancée David Sharaz branded the piece “victim-blaming bile.”
Ms Higgins launched legal action against the Morrison government after making allegations that her then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann sexually assaulted her in Senator Linda Reynolds’ office at Parliament House in 2019.
Mr. Lehrmann, who has always denied the allegations, faced a rape trial that was abandoned due to misconduct by a juror and the charges against him were dropped.
Ms Higgins was awarded damages of around $2.4 million by the incoming Albanian government after she and the Commonwealth agreed a personal injury claim in December 2022.
Rundle also speculated about how Ms. Higgins may have used the money, suggesting she may have splurged on designer shoes.
Referring to an article entitled “I Wouldn’t Walk a Mile in Brittany Higgins’ Shoes,” written by his colleague Michael Bradley, Rundle suggested that it would hardly be possible for Bradley to do so, as “it might cost $5,000 Louboutins are’.
Crikey soon removed the article from its website and apologized to readers.
A statement on the publisher’s website said: ‘Crikey today made the decision to remove a piece written by Guy Rundle which claimed the consultation process over Brittany Higgins’ compensation was moving ‘stunningly quickly’.
‘That is not true. Higgins filed her claim in March 2022 while the Morrison government was still in power, and the case was not settled until December 2022, seven months after the election of the current government.
‘The piece also repeats the false claim that the ‘amount is believed to be three million dollars’.
The statement added: ‘In addition to these factual errors, the tone of the piece did not meet Crikey’s journalistic standards, crucial given that it involves writing about allegations of sexual assault.
‘We firmly believe in promoting a space that publishes multiple points of view, and as editors we regularly publish opinion pieces that we personally may not agree with. But this piece does not fall into that category, and we regret publishing it.”