Australia disrupts a terrorism plot targeting Jewish citizens.

 

New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson AP.

Police in Australia have disrupted a terrorism plot targeting Jewish civilians in the country. AP. Australia has suffered a wave of antisemitic attacks since the start of the October 7th war between Gaza and Israel, including large amounts of graffiti and some cases of arsons. One person has been injured in the arson attacks. This current plot involved a large amount of the explosive Powergel, a mining explosive. A list of targets was found along with the explosives and included a Jewish school. 10 arrests have been made in the case. The police believe that the suspects are "criminals for hire" and are working at the behest of a foreign power, though they have not revealed which foreign power they believe is responsible. 

My Comment:

This appears to be a major terror plot. You can make a large explosion with the amount of Powergel 801 that was acquired by this group. It could probably have destroyed or heavily damaged any one of the targets that were found with the explosives. 

Thankfully the group was broken up before they could launch whatever attack they were planning. Police had already made arrests before the explosives were found so the danger was minimal. Still this could have been a major terror attack if the plot hadn't been discovered. 

What surprises me is that this is happening in Australia. I don't think they have a large population of Jewish people in the first place and I can't think of a country that is more distant from the war between Hamas and Israel. In short, it does not seem like an environment where antisemitism would happen naturally. 

What truly makes this story worth covering is the idea that this is an international conspiracy by a foreign actor to promote and possibly carry out these attacks. That is, to be clear, an act of war and it's a very serious thing for Australia to claim. It's possible they are just lying, I have very little trust in the Australian government to not be evil, but my gut says that it's very possible. 

If I had to guess which government it was I would say it's most likely a Muslim one, with Iran being the biggest suspect. They have been absolutely humiliated lately with their proxy government in Syria falling, Hezbollah and Hamas being humbled and Turkey usurping their role as the leader of more radical Islam in the Middle East. Doing this could be a face saving measure, but one that could risk war with Australia. Still, without more information this is all speculation. 

Of course this is probably why the plot failed. From what the article said, the suspects in this case were just local criminals and they obviously don't have ideological reasons to conduct terror attacks. I am guessing one of the people contracted to carry out these attacks either had a case of guilt and went to authorities or got picked up for something else and cut a deal... It shows why outsourcing your terror attacks is probably a bad idea...