It is beyond belief that two days after the anti-Semitic violence in Melbourne, the public was yet again forced to make way for the anti-Israel protestors in the CBD yesterday. Trams diverted from Swanston Street, all the rest. Let's remember this protest movement started on October 8, emboldened by the massacre of Jews that had taken place the day before. Yes, I know, many of those marching are good people who just want an end to the deaths of innocents. (Even if their outrage about dying innocents is very selective: because, to be fair, the media doesn't give a shit about dead kids in Yemen or Sudan either.) But the core of the anti-Israel movement is not pro peace, it's pro war. So I'm not altogether unhappy about the "death to the IDF" chant or the "glory to the martyrs" schtick because at least their supremacist agenda is there for all to see. And look, if they want to continue wasting their Sundays on trying to destroy the Jewish state from this comfortable distance -- you know what, fine. Freedom of speech, the great marketplace of ideas and so on. I have no objection to them marching up and down and doing their death chanting in some park in Coburg or wherever. But why are they owed the keys to the city? To the forecourt of the State Library? Who decided to greenlight their annexation of public space? That's not freedom of speech; it's the ritual assertion of power and the awarding of special privileges to one group at the expense of the whole, of weekend shoppers, of businesses and so on. Of Jews who would rather avoid the incantation that Palestine will be Arab "from the river to the sea." Listen to the way the protest organisers speak; their sense of entitlement. For instance, ahead of the Never Again is Now protest against anti-Semitism on the steps of Parliament last May one of the protest leaders -- Hash Tayeh-- announced on social media: "The Zionists have decided to have a pro genocide rally at our usual ending point of Parliament steps.. We will be at Parliament, holding our ground”. Sorry, it's THEIR ground?? Who gave it to them? The State Government has indicated, among other redundant and far-too-late measures, that it will require organisations to sign a "social cohesion pledge" before receiving taxpayer funding. Meaning it hasn't been fussed about such a thing until now. Meaning until now it has happily handed out taxpayer funds to Islamists and anti-Semites. The weekly protests in Melbourne's CBD must end. All the thugs who descended on Miznon must be charged. We need to know when, if at all, we might see arrests for the Adass firembombing. You know what I also think? It's time to dismantle the fortresses around synagogues and Jewish schools and Jewish communal buildings. Time to dissolve the Jewish community's security group. Time to hand back security funding to the government. But this will put the Jewish community at grave risk, you say. Wake up: it's at grave risk now and assuming too great a burden for its own safety. It is time that risk becomes 100 percent the authorities' problem. Which other minority must pray and learn within fortified compounds? As things currently stand the Jewish community has little reason for confidence in the State Government or in Victoria Police. (I'm being generous in that phrasing). As for the ideologically-biased Home Affairs Ministers deciding to show his face 20 months later.. well, that's enough for today. Comment Share