In the two months since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and ASIO, the domestic spy agency, claimed that Iran had been involved in antisemitic incidents in Australia, no evidence whatsoever has been produced to support their assertion.

Instead, everything that has emerged since has undermined the claim, indicating that it was politically motivated and that the story came largely or solely from Israel’s spy agency Mossad, which is notorious for disinformation and dirty tricks, including assassination and sabotage.

In a late August press conference, Albanese and ASIO chief Mike Burgess asserted as fact that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had directed two antisemitic incidents. Albanese expelled Iran’s ambassador, but neither he nor Burgess provided any concrete details, let alone proof, speaking only in the vaguest terms about the use of “cutouts” and “multiple layers” being between Iran and the actual perpetrators.

The events they tied to Iran were the firebombing of Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 20 last year, and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6 in 2024.

Police at the federal and state levels had admitted earlier this year that the Lewis bombing and other murky attacks in Sydney involving anti-Israeli and sometimes antisemitic graffiti, as well as some arson, had been perpetrated by criminals who were receiving cash payments and were not politically motivated. They said that the attacks had been perpetrated in an attempt by foreign-based criminals to barter with police for sentence reductions and changes to their “criminal status.”

The admission was a blow to hysterical claims of rampant antisemitism, which has been used as a cudgel against mass opposition to the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and Australia’s complicity in it.

The Albanese and Burgess press conference was an attempt to overcome the damage and revive the bogus “antisemitism” campaign. It also served to legitimise US and Israeli aggression against Iran, based on claims that it is a state-sponsor of terrorism and violence.

The Lewis’ Continental Kitchen fire was investigated by the New South Wales (NSW) Police and several relatively low-level criminals were charged and pleaded guilty. Sayed Moosawi, who is associated with an outlaw motorcycle club, was accused of orchestrating the attack.

Moosawi pled not guilty. In August, he applied for and received bail. Based on press reports, there was no suggestion in that hearing or in any other court action associated with the Lewis’ firebombing of Iranian involvement.

If Moosawi had been prominent in the planning of an attack on Australian soil that was directed by the Iranian government, it seems exceedingly unlikely that he would have been permitted to leave prison and walk the streets.

The obvious questions raised by the contradiction between the ASIO claims and the way in which the perpetrators of the Lewis attack have been prosecuted only intensified last month.

In a NSW parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism, right-wing independent MP Mark Latham posed a series of questions to the NSW Labor government and NSW Police about their knowledge of foreign involvement in the antisemitic attacks in Sydney.

In an October 23 response, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley wrote: “[There were] 14 incidents which were at the higher end of offending, being attacks on synagogues, graffiti, firebombings, attacks on cars and attacks on houses. The NSW Police Force has nil holdings in relation to Iran or agents of the Iranian regime perpetrating these incidents.” They also had “nil holdings” related to the involvement of any other “foreign agents perpetrating these incidents.”

But how could that be?

The Lewis firebombing was clearly among the 14 incidents referenced. And ASIO and the federal government declared definitively, two months ago, that Iran was involved. The NSW Police, who investigated the attack, arrested the alleged perpetrators and recommended charges, apparently know nothing about that involvement.

If the claims of Iranian involvement were true, that makes no sense. Iran’s involvement would be germane to all aspects of the investigation, from examining who else may have been involved, to the consideration of what offences to charge the perpetrators with and how to conduct ensuing prosecutions.

A contradiction so glaring in matters of fact generally indicates a lie. The media has almost entirely blacked out Catley’s admission, with it being reported only by a handful of independent outlets such as Sydney Criminal Lawyers. That is in stark contrast to the feverish and completely uncritical reportage of Albanese and Burgess’ press conference.

The attempt to link the Lewis’ firebombing to Iran was particularly implausible. Why would the Iranian regime devote resources and effort to attacking a small restaurant in Sydney? What would they have to gain? Albanese and other Labor ministers declared Iran was motivated by “hate” and was seeking to “sow discord” in Australia, explanations that explained nothing.

The attack itself seemed to be extremely amateurish. The perpetrators had allegedly firebombed a brewery several days earlier by mistake, because they went to the wrong location.

The reaction to the Albanese/Burgess announcement pointed to the politics that motivated it. The Trump administration, which months earlier had bombed Iran in a flagrant act of war, issued a statement applauding Albanese’s expulsion of the Iranian ambassador.

The Israeli reaction was even more revealing. Its spokesman Dave Mercer essentially claimed credit for the announcement on behalf of the Israeli regime, presenting it as a response by Albanese to strident and unhinged public attacks on his government by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had claimed that it was not doing enough to combat antisemitism in Australia.

In the days following the announcement, Sharri Markson, an ardent Zionist at the Murdoch-owned Sky News, reported that a “major tip-off” from Israeli intelligence “assisted ASIO during its investigation unravelling the Iran terror attacks.”

Last week, Mossad announced that Sardar Ammar, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, was responsible for heading a “network” that had perpetrated antisemitic attacks globally, including the incidents in Australia.

It seems clear that information from Mossad was substantially involved in the Albanese/Burgess claims.

What is Mossad’s credibility? Even in the cutthroat world of intelligence operations, it is notorious for murder, terrorism and lies. Its record of dirty tricks around the world could fill volumes.

In September 2024, Israel detonated explosives that Mossad had placed in pagers that were sold to the Hezbollah political movement. The terrorist attack killed 42 people, including children, and injured more than 3,500 people.

What of Mossad’s record in relation to Australia? In 2010, the then Labor government, in which Albanese was a minister, announced that Mossad had used forged Australian passports to carry out the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai. Britain, Ireland and Germany, reported that the identities of some of their citizens had also been stolen for use by Mossad killers.

Those two recent actions by Mossad point, not only to its criminality, but also to the sophistication of its global operations. In the case of the pager attack, Mossad seemingly infiltrated and took control of a supply chain spanning multiple continents. In the case of the passports, it demonstrated an ability to conduct operations relating to Australia, based upon fraud.

In blaming Iran for the incidents, without providing any proof or even a convincing motive, Albanese and Burgess spoke of Tehran’s purported use of extensive “cutouts,” “series of chains” and “layers” between itself and the attacks.

Mossad has a far more extensively documented history of using such cutouts on a global scale, and its paymasters were clearly pleased with the hysteria incited first by the murky antisemitic incidents themselves and then by their attribution to Iran.