More facts emerge:

[The younger] Akram is an Australian-born citizen, while his 50-year-old father arrived in the country in 1998 on a student visa, which later transitioned to a partner visa in 2001, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters Monday.

Since then, the gun-wielding father — who was killed at the scene during a shootout with police — had made three trips abroad, returning each time on a resident return visa, Burke said.

The guns were legally owned. As suspected, there was an excuse, because gun ownership in Australia is very strictly regulated:

The father, who was killed at the scene during a shootout with police, was part of a “gun club” and held a recreational hunting license for over a decade, officials said.

“So the firearms license was to be for a recreational hunting license. There are two types of hunting license: the ability to hunt on a property or also as part of a hunting club — so a gun club. He was a member of a gun club and was entitled by nature of the firearms act to have a firearms license issued.”

Sajid has had his license since 2015, allowing him to legally own the “long arms that he had” as registered guns, Lanyon added.

“In terms of a firearms license, the firearms registry conducts a thorough examination of all applications to ensure a person is fit and proper to hold a firearms license,” Lanyon noted.

Of course, Australia plans to further restrict guns as a result. Why don’t they monitor what goes on in mosques instead? Too “Islamophobic” I suppose. And what’s a “watch list” – which at least one of the two was supposedly on – if not something to monitor?

In this case, the father had lived in Australia almost 30 years. I bet the pair were both radicalized within the last few years, or even since 10/7.

And the police – what gives? Completely unimpressive performance:

One of the survivors of the terror attack at a Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration said four police officers just “froze” during the 20-minute rampage on Sunday that killed 11.

Eyewitness Shmulik Scuri said he was with his family when the two suspects began firing at the crowd of worshippers from a nearby bridge.

“For 20 minutes. They shoot, shoot. Change magazines. And just shoot,” the witness told reporters. …

It wasn’t until a local good Samaritan, a local fruit seller, disarmed one of the terrorists that police appeared to return fire, taking out one of the shooters, video shows.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the police are taught that, because of draconian Aussie gun control, they will never face such a situation and won’t need training for it. On the other hand, I have read that two of the four police were targeted immediately by the gunmen, and wounded – although I also read that two others hid (possibly women?). There are still a lot of rumors swirling around, so it’s hard to know what to believe.

However, not only was there hero Ahmed al Ahmed who’s become well-known for disarming one of the shooters (and then being shot by another), but there was a second hero who tried to disarm the other shooter and was himself shot by police for his pains. You can find that story here. Granted, it’s not always easy to tell who’s who, but this guy apparently had his arms up when shot.

The saddest element of the whole thing are the victims. You can find some of their photos and stories here. Two rabbis, which indicates some careful aiming by the shooters. A ten-year-old girl, out enjoying the day with her family. An 87-year-old man who survived the Holocaust as a child. One thing that struck me but did not surprise me is the number of victims who had been born in other countries; Australia used to be a refuge for Jews. No more.

There are only about 120,000 Jews in Australia, and a great many came post-Holocaust. That means they represent less than a half a percent of the total population there. The Muslim population there is much larger, both for bad (the shooters) and good (the heroes): 3.2% in 2021 and probably more today, due to a high birthrate.

The Bondi Beach massacre is definitely an example of “globalize the intifada.” But it’s not new; not at all. I immediately thought of the 1994 bombing in Argentina, orchestrated by Iran (as Bondi may have been):

The AMIA bombing occurred on 18 July 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; transl.?”Argentine Israelite Mutual Association”), a Jewish Community Centre. Executed as a suicide attack, a bomb-laden van was driven into the AMIA building and subsequently detonated, killing 85 people and injuring over 300. To date, the bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history. In 1994, Argentina was home to a Jewish community of 200,000, making it the largest in Latin America and the sixth-largest in the world outside of Israel. …

In 2024, an Argentine court ruled that Iran directed the attack, and that it was carried by Hezbollah. The ruling also characterized Iran as a terrorist state.

Argentina and Australia are far away from the Middle East. But even thirty years ago, jihadis were bent on globalizing the intifada, although back then it wasn’t a popular slogan on Western college campuses. Now it is.

[NOTE: I plan to write a post tomorrow on Australian gun control and its effects.]