What's behind the rise of antisemitism in Australia?
Here & Now Anytime
NPR
4.1 • 953 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
And, in Syria over the weekend, a gunman ambushed a U.S.-Syrian joint patrol, killing two members of the Iowa National Guard and their American interpreter. President Trump has vowed to retaliate. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Andrew Tabler explains what this shows about Islamic extremism.
Then, for many immigrants, oath ceremonies mark the final step in becoming a U.S. citizen. But across the U.S., those ceremonies have been postponed or canceled. Gail Breslow from the nonprofit Project Citizenship details what this means for hopeful Americans.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design. |
| 0:09.2 | MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at MathWorks.com. |
| 0:17.4 | WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 0:37.9 | Australia has been historically one of the best places to be alive to be a Jew. There is, and there was, for hundreds of years, no entrenched anti-Semitism. An Australian rabbi says the attack on a Hanukkah festival in Sydney has shattered her sense of safety. |
| 0:52.8 | It's Tuesday, December 16th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBOR. |
| 0:53.9 | I'm Chris Bentley. |
| 0:58.0 | Today on the show, |
| 1:04.6 | what does it tell us that the Islamic State was implicated in the deaths of three Americans in Syria? |
| 1:09.7 | At the same time that Australian authorities say the suspects in a terrorist attack there had two ISIS flags in their car. |
| 1:12.6 | It tells us that ISIS is a franchise. It has some structure, so it's not quite Kentucky |
| 1:17.6 | fried chicken, but it's something actually more nefarious and harder to deal with. And |
| 1:23.3 | unfortunately, these issues are related. Also, immigrants who've spent years getting their paperwork |
| 1:30.1 | in order to become U.S. citizens are showing up at naturalization ceremonies only to have the rug |
| 1:35.3 | pulled out from under them at the last second. When you don't receive your certificate of naturalization |
| 1:41.7 | until that final oath of allegiance is taken. And so these |
| 1:45.9 | individuals are not citizens until that takes place. That story coming up in about 10 minutes. |
| 1:53.3 | But first, we're learning more about the two suspects in Sunday's deadly shooting at a |
| 1:58.1 | Hanukkah celebration in Australia. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese |
| 2:02.4 | says the suspected gunmen of father and son pair were motivated by Islamic State ideology. The Australian |
| 2:11.0 | Broadcasting Corporation cited security sources saying the alleged gunmen traveled to the Philippines |
| 2:16.4 | last month to receive, quote, |
| 2:18.1 | military-style training. But regardless of whether or not there's an ISIS connection to this |
... |
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