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The Bondi Beach Terror Attack Must Strengthen, Not Shatter, Our Bridges
(Newsweek) Jason D. Greenblatt - Islamic State-linked materials and symbols were found with the perpetrators of the atrocity at Bondi Beach on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. ISIS and its ideological offshoots are not Islam. They are a violent, nihilistic cult that hijacks religious language to sanctify the murder of innocents. Since 2017, I have interacted with Muslims across countries, cultures and professions. I have worked alongside them, learned from them and shared conversations. Even where we disagreed sharply, including on Israel, Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nothing I encountered remotely resembled the ideology that inspired the Bondi attackers. The Islam I know is not one of death-worship. The struggle against extremist violence is not Jews versus Muslims, or the West versus Islam. It is humanity versus dehumanization. It is life versus an ideology that thrives on death and division. Grief does not require us to abandon clarity. The answer to terror must be a redoubling of efforts to build bridges between Jews and Muslims, and between Muslim-majority nations and Israel. The Abraham Accords did not emerge from fantasy. They emerged from years of quiet engagement, shared interests, and the recognition that endless conflict only empowers extremists. Extremists do not own faith. They do not own identity. And they do not get to define our future. The writer, Assistant to the U.S. President and Special Representative for International Negotiations (2017-2019), played a key role in developing the Abraham Accords.