Why did heroes succeed after police leadership and ASIO fail at Bondi?

Written by: Louisa L. on 16 December 2025

 

When 42-year-old Ahmed al-Ahmed tackled and disarmed one of the two attackers at Bondi on Sunday evening it was not just an act of incredible bravery. His heroism also made an anti-Muslim backlash more difficult. 

But he was not the only one. Lifeguards and lifesavers, other first responders including police, ambos and firefighters, ran towards danger and set to work while others were fleeing. 

Since the US-British-Australia invasion of Iraq, this is the second mass terrorist act here. Our state ‘protectors’ – NSW Police leadership, ASIO, the injustice system – have questions to answer. 

Truth another casualty

Sydney’s Martin Place bears witness to the 2014 Lindt Café attack by a man who should already have been in prison. He was an isolated egotist fond of media stunts, who had already made threats against family members of military combatants. 

More importantly, he was on bail for being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. In fact, he’d been twice bailed despite 43 charges of sexual assault against her. 

He was a public figure. All this was known. Why did police continue to negotiate rather than shooting him the second they had the chance? Then why did they cover it up?

ABC’s Jessica Kidd reported the Director of Public Prosecutions applied unsuccessfully for the man’s bail conditions to be excluded from the Lindt inquest. 

Why? Was it just vicious patriarchal injustice, consistent with so many women murdered by their partners or former partners? 

Against the wishes of the families of Katrina Dawson who was killed as the siege was broken and Tori Johnson who was murdered, the DPP successfully excluded 60 of 74 documents of communications between police and public prosecutors.

Kidd stated, “’Counsel assisting the inquest, Jeremy Gormly SC,’ told the hearing ‘the DPP was ‘ambushing’ and ‘damaging’ the progress of the inquest.”

Unity within defeat

Terrorism as a way of individuals to force change is always counterproductive. Such attacks strengthen those people terrorists plan to harm. It’s so effective, state forces themselves sometimes stage violent provocations and blame so-called terrorists or violent protesters. 

No doubt, Israel and Zionists will organise more strongly here among the people.

Terrorism by individuals or small groups comes from isolation. It targets the wrong people, innocent people. It ignores the real culprits. It denies the truth that the masses create change, not individuals. 

Before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Muslim Australians knew 94 percent of Australians opposed the war. Over half a million of us had marched in Sydney against it. We all knew who our enemies were. They had names and faces. And they were not the Australian people. 

Many see those protests as a complete failure. As communists, we analyse any situation dialectically. While we were unable to stop the invasion of Iraq, that precious unity against war has overwhelmingly been ignored. That unity in struggle was the key reason no terrorist attacks occurred here until over a decade later. 

Israel’s mirror image

And now? The father of a man ASIO identified six years ago as in an Islamic State cell was allowed to renew his gun licence and own six registered firearms. Surely, even if the father didn’t share his son’s views, the guns were easily accessible.  

Given US-Zionist genocide in Palestine and brutal injustice meted out across the Middle East, given the mass deaths of children, given Australia trails behind the US master like a mangy dog waiting for scraps, they must expect attacks here? 

Australian officials, the media and far right think tanks talk and talk of rampant antisemitism. They conflate it with Zionism, yet they were unable to properly protect such an obvious target as a Hanukkah Festival run by Australia’s leading Zionist organisation in Bondi.

But Netanyahu’s statements blaming the Labor Government and its decision to recognise a Palestinian state for what happened at Bondi are nowhere near the truth; namely that his own genocide of Palestinians, continuing after a so-called ceasefire, has so inflamed passions as to have led to the appalling targeting of Jews at the Bondi Hanukkah shootings, and that Bondi’s blood is fairly on Netanyahu’s hands. 

More than this, the two terrorists were IS supporters. Their opposition to Israel is not guaranteed to be tied to solidarity with Palestinians but with wider attacks.

Mirroring Netanyahu and Israel, ISIS wants to create an ever-expanding racist, religious state, a Caliphate.  

Why were they unprepared?

Capitalism, they tell us, is the best of all possible systems. It protects us. Then how does it do such a terrible job? 

ASIO got nearly $600 million in 2024-25. How did it fail the people so miserably? 

How did the NSW Police leadership? Despite all the words about antisemitic threats, those leading NSW police were woefully unprepared. Why were no police sharpshooters in reserve? 

Ultimately, the police force is trained to suppress people, to follow orders. Police solidarity is strong. It has a positive side. At Bondi, the terrorists were stopped within nine minutes. This isn’t about this or that police officer, though many behaved heroically. Like ASIO, the force itself is a key part of monopoly capital rule. 

Protecting the people is not central to this, but expected in certain situations if capitalism is to survive. Overwhelmingly, police are trained to enforce capitalist laws and rule.

Capitalism provides endless platitudes on constant media repeat. But not the truth. Not the causes, that racism and division are fuelled by the far-right sections of the imperialist ruling class to quell the groundswell of people's resistance to escalating imperialist aggressions and capitalist oppression. 

But it's backfiring with louder cries against all forms of racism and division, instead urgings for unity and solidarity with all.  Ahmed al-Ahmed's courageous actions, and those of frontline police and first responders, embody the ordinary people's strivings for unity and solidarity.   

A lifelong Bondi lifesaver and former producer of Bondi Lifeguard, provided help. He recounted to Nine News the heroism of lifesavers and others. He said, when he got home, his daughter was terrified. He told her about Ahmed al-Ahmed and others. He said, ‘There’s many more good people around the world like them than bad people.’

It’s a glimpse of socialism – power in the hands of the working class and the masses of the people.

Meanwhile we must be ready to counter an organised Zionist resurgence with full state and media support.

 

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