Bondi Beach Reappraised: A Turning Point in History

by Dan Lieberman / February 6th, 2026

Writing an article that references the murders of innocent people is difficult. Concerns of invading privacy, of not being sufficiently empathetic to the tragedy, and of clumsily using the deceased for undeserved purposes hampers the narrative. By treading softly and expounding sincerely, the screams of anguish heard at the Bondi Beach massacre diminish, the reverberations to its aftermath increase, and the aftermath emerges as a turning point in history.

Bondi Beach is not new to the American public. Bondi Rescue, an Australian television program, which follows the daily lives and routines of the professional lifeguards who patrol Bondi Beach, has been available on You Tube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. Simple rescues from swimming accidents have exploded into deadly actions that no reality TV can duplicate.

The deadly action at Bondi Beach, on December 14, 2025, cannot be rationalized and cannot be deemphasized. Nevertheless, it has been insufficiently studied. Was it a single unrelated act or did events excite extremists who enlarged upon previous conflicts between two factions? A YouTube video, Bondi Beach Palestinian Protest and Israeli Counter Protest, 7 September 2025, provides clues. On that date, a small group of Bondi Beach citizens, which included Jews Against the Occupation, displayed signs on the beach that protested the genocide and waved two Palestinian flags. A few counter protestors gathered at the top of the stairway entrance to the beach. From observations of a video of the event, nobody on the beach confronted the protestors. The protestors and anti-protestors soon met face-to-face and engaged in serious scuffles. The police immediately intervened and no violent confrontations occurred. From the top of the stairs, an uncalled for rhetoric, including “arrest them,” “terrorists,” and “Bondi Beach is ours,” emanated from the growing number of counter protestors.

The beach protest grew in size, scope, and intensity. As the morning progressed, other groups joined the genocide protest and more Palestinian flags appeared. Coincidentally, the number of counter protestors increased and Israeli and Australian flags appeared. Some people on both sides welcomed confrontation and others enjoyed combative words that invited confrontation. If police did not keep the sides separated, they would have seriously harmed each other. For two hours, the police cordoned both sides and they were able to disburse without incident.

SKY News Australia reported, “Pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters have clashed at Sydney’s Bondi Beach as police were forced to intervene in several scuffles.” This report is an example of how almost all the protests have been carelessly reported. This demonstration, as others, was a demonstration against a genocide and not directly a pro-Palestinian demonstration. The counter demonstrators approved the genocide. Because the Palestinians are victims of the genocide and Israelis are the perpetrators, it is natural that the Palestinians are favored and the Israelis are condemned. The counter demonstrators, those who challenged the genocide, favored the perpetrators and demonstrated hatred for the Palestinian victims. The misuse of demonstrable nouns has skewed the understanding of the demonstrations. Protesting against genocide is an honorable activity and has no counter arguments; counter demonstrations come from those who are dishonorable and favor the genocide. This is not semantics; this is the reality and establishing the reality, by using correct words, is essential for knowing the truth. Care should be taken in properly identifying demonstrations against the genocide and characterizing those who glorify the genocide.

Another event that brought tension and dissension to the Bondi Beach community occurred from threats made to an Australian couple who had previously spoken and written against the genocide on social media and opened a store in Bondi Beach. Protests occurred in front of the store, with shouts of “Bondi Beach is Jewish.” Threats were made upon the lives of the store owners. Efforts to gain support from authorities did not materialize, and I believe the couple vacated the premises and left Bondi Beach.

Counter-demonstrators modified the arguments from arguing genocide to arguing “who controls Bondi Beach?” Knowing that tensions will be aggravated by appearances of demonstrators on the beach, why have a huge Hanukkah celebration by a Jewish contingent of more than 1000 participants, which could be interpreted by extremists as an “in your face” message that said, “Jews control the beach?” And who organized the celebration ─ ultra-orthodox Chabad that actively raises funds for the IDF, has purchased drones and body armor for the Israel military, and strongly approves the concept of Greater Israel and not abandoning stolen lands. The insignificance of the Hanukkah holiday added to the inanity of having a huge beach celebration. Hanukkah is a minor holiday in Judaism and its strappings are a modern concept.

All Jewish holidays are described in the Hebrew Bible and, in all Jewish holidays the observers attend synagogue. Hanukkah does not appear in the Hebrew Bible and has no synagogue observance. It appears in the Septuagint, the Greek interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, which is not used by modern Jews, and in the Books of Maccabees, which are part of the Catholic Bible. Why Jews celebrate Hanukkah and what they are celebrating has been elevated for chauvinist and political purposes; the Zionists need heroism from ancient history to bridge the gap between the Jews as occupiers and the Jews as occupied.

Just as the history of Masada has been twisted from a “complex, mixed group of refugees, local fighters, and possibly brigands, whose story is far more nuanced than the myth” to a band of Zealot Jews going to heroic death before succumbing to Roman rule, the history of the Maccabees has revisions. At Masada,

…the dominant faction was indeed “the bandits,” who, as noted by Josephus, sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem went down from Masada to Ein Gedi in a raid. They killed hundreds of women and children at the balsam plantation there after the workers fled, and disrupted production of the precious fragrance. It was an effective raid designed to damage Roman interests in the region.

The moment that they damaged the balsam production, they affected empire finances… We know that the revolt happened during a period of weakness in the Roman Empire. They needed money. And it seems [the raid] crossed a red line for the Romans, so they sent their soldiers to destroy the perpetrators.

At Hanukkah, the history of the Maccabees has been erroneously portrayed.

Portrayal as the first victory of an oppressed society in defeating its oppressors is disputed by the historical narrative.

• The Akkadian Empire vs. Sumer (c. 2334 BCE) ─ The world’s first true multi-ethnic empire was formed, unifying Mesopotamia under Akkadian rule and ending Sumerian political dominance.
• The Mycenaean Greeks vs. Palace Kings (c. 1200 BCE) ─ Collapse of elite rule during the Bronze Age collapse.
• Roman Republic (509 BCE) – Romans overthrew their last king, Tarquin the Proud, establishing a republic.
• Athenian Democracy (508 BCE) – Cleisthenes’ reforms followed the overthrow of the Athenian tyrant Hippias.
• Rebellion Against Qin Dynasty China (209–206 BCE) ─ Rebel leader, Liu Bang defeated his rivals and founded the long-lasting Han Dynasty, which adopted a more moderate Confucian system.

Portrayal as a rebellion against Seleucid oppression has detractors.
The Priestly class, which maintained the Temple, favored Hellenism and its Greek culture; the middle class Pharisees intended to maintain traditional Judaism. These forces clashed in a Civil War which brought the Seleucids (Greeks) and Ptolemy’s (Egyptians) into a battle for control of the area.

Portrayal as liberation of the Jewish people might have been otherwise.
Israelis glorify the Hasmoneans for purifying the Temple and liberating Jerusalem, but the Hasmoneans behaved as a bloodthirsty clan whose members turned on each other. Later high priest and ruler, John Hyrcanus, forced Idumaeans, who wished to maintain their land, to be circumcised and adopt Judaism.

Portrayal as a Maccabee victory against the Seleucids has been contradicted by archeology.
Recent archeologic discoveries, described in the conclusion of The Rise of the Maccabees, A.M. Berlin, indicates that the Seleucids, after ending their war with the Ptolemy’s, vacated Judah to defend Damascus. The political and military vacuum allowed Jewish tribes and the Maccabees to occupy and control the area.

Bondi Beach Reappraised ─ A Turning Point in History
Actions against the genocide and sympathy for the Palestinian cause have escalated rapidly during the last three years. Using the hockey stick reference, they are approaching an inflection point, where the asymptote becomes nearly vertical, rapidly involving more people and more frequent demonstrations, and arriving at a turning point in history. The demonstrations in Australia have brought the world perspective close to that turning point — solidifying how it is represented, how it is perceived, and how it achieves victory.

Unlike the United States, where demonstrations against the genocide have featured college campuses and a younger generation, with law enforcement and government colluding to suppress the protestors and charging them with fabricated anti-Semitism, the Australian demonstrations against the genocide have been more widespread. All age groups have participated, efforts by law enforcement and government to limit the demonstrations have failed, and the public has quickly and successfully acted against provocative charges of anti-Semitism and nefarious attempts to relate the anti-genocide demonstrations to attacks on the Jewish community.

Posed as a holiday celebration for gift giving to children, the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach seems to be an attempt to overshadow the anti-genocide protests, to convince Australians that those favoring the genocide hold the high ground, have been the victims in history, and have the resilience and perseverance to unite and overcome oppression and adversity. This has always been the Zionist duplicity — never compromise, play the victim, twist history, win, win, win, and in the words of Ariel Sharon, “Seize the high ground,” physically and morally. If the provocation causes an eruption of murderous activity from extremists, capitalize on the moment with additional charges of anti-Semitism.

The strength of the demonstrations in Australia, and the success in refuting the charges of anti-Semitism applied to them, places Australia as the focus of the anti-genocide movement. Stitching the movements from several nations together into one fabric, by magnifying the national movements into a coordinate international movement that moves the Asians, Middle Eastern, Africa, all European, North and South American, and Pacific Island peoples to rally voices protesting the genocide, chains and isolates the genocide deniers.

Keeping the protests confined to stopping the genocide of the Palestinian people, with no mention of “Free, free Palestine,” which can be a subject of other protests, enables legal action against those who contest the genocide. A present French probe examines Elon Musk’s X social media violation of laws that contain “denial of crimes against humanity.” A September 16, 2025 report by the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem and Israel “recognised that genocide has been committed, and continues to be committed, against Palestinians in the Gaza strip.” Human rights agencies, nations, and institutions have certified the genocide and indicted Israeli officials for committing “crimes against humanity.” Legal means exist to indict those who speak out in favor of the genocide of the Palestinian people, which is more deadly than other genocides. Other hundreds of genocides that have occurred throughout history, either extinguished memories of peoples, decimated cultures, killed a massive number of lives, or displaced peoples. The genocide of the Palestinian people attempts to do all.

The Zionists are willfully extinguishing existence of Palestinian life and culture in the present, past and forever; erasing all identification and memories, as if the Palestinians never existed, and ordering their replacement with a fraudulent history that has the Jews as a continued presence in the lands of Judah and Samaria. We know of

• Hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed and buried.
• The total destruction of Gaza, levelling it to non-existence.
• Palestinian towns, such as Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Acre, Jaffa, and Hebron either completely Judaized or slowly being converted into Israel appearances.
• Recent expropriation of 182 hectares (450 acres) at Sebastia, a West Bank site of Roman ruins, “an aggression against Palestinian landowners, against olive trees, against tourist sites and a violation of the history and the heritage of Palestine.”
• Golda Meir’s famous remark, “A land without people for a people without land.”
• The constantly uttered, ”There never was a Palestinian state.”
• Replacement of the historical and archeological records with myths and fabrications that make 1,000 B.C. seem like yesterday. Contemporary Jews are intimately linked with ancient Hebrews, who had no birth certificates, no land deeds, and disappeared from history 2500 years ago. Israel is made to appear as a successor to a Hebrew civilization of Judah and Samaria, which was nothing more than hilltop villages that, maybe, in small locations and various times had a minor monarch. The principal feature of the Hebrew “civilization” is that it left nothing of value to future civilizations.

The struggle to prevent the complete annihilation of the Palestinian people contends hundreds of millions of voices against hundreds of thousands who carry arms. Distressing that few nations have joined the struggle and few nations show tendency to join the struggle. The intensity of citizen voices asymptotically multiply and approach a level where sound becomes a weapon, where decibels are so great, the sound wave can pulverize a wall and cripple those who shield themselves behind the wall; a wall of indifference crushed by those who make a difference, a genocide prevented by a turning point in history.

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Dan Lieberman publishes commentaries on foreign policy, economics, and politics at substack.com.  He is author of the non-fiction books A Third Party Can Succeed in America, Not until They Were Gone, Think Tanks of DC, The Artistry of a Dog, and a novel: The Victory (under a pen name, David L. McWellan). Read other articles by Dan.

 

Could ionospheric disturbances influence earthquakes?

This study does not aim to predict earthquakes

Kyoto University

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Kyoto, Japan -- Researchers at Kyoto University have proposed a new physical model that explores how disturbances in the ionosphere may exert electrostatic forces within the Earth’s crust and potentially contribute to the initiation of large earthquakes under specific conditions.

The study does not aim to predict earthquakes but rather presents a theoretical mechanism describing how ionospheric charge variations -- caused by intense solar activity such as solar flares -- could interact with pre-existing fragile structures in the Earth’s crust and influence fracture processes.

In the proposed model, fractured zones within the Earth’s crust are assumed to contain high-temperature, high-pressure water, potentially in a supercritical state. These zones behave electrically like capacitors and are capacitively coupled with both the ground surface and the lower ionosphere, forming a large-scale electrostatic system.

When strong solar activity increases electron density in the ionosphere, a negatively charged layer can form in the lower ionosphere. Through capacitive coupling, this space charge may induce strong electric fields inside nanometer-scale voids within fractured crustal regions. The resulting electrostatic pressure could reach magnitudes comparable to tidal or gravitational stresses known to affect fault stability.

Quantitative estimates in the study suggest that ionospheric disturbances associated with large solar flares -- corresponding to increases in total electron content of several tens of TEC units -- could generate electrostatic pressures on the order of several megapascals within crustal voids.

Ionospheric anomalies, such as increased electron density, lowered ionospheric altitude, and slowed abnormal propagation of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances, have been repeatedly observed prior to major earthquakes. Traditionally, these phenomena have been interpreted as consequences of stress accumulation within the Earth’s crust.

The new model provides a complementary perspective by proposing a bidirectional interaction: while crustal processes may affect the ionosphere, ionospheric disturbances themselves may also exert feedback forces on the crust. This framework offers a possible physical explanation linking space weather phenomena and seismic processes without invoking direct causation.

The study discusses recent large earthquakes in Japan, including the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, as examples that are temporally consistent with the proposed mechanism. In these cases, intense solar flare activity occurred shortly before the seismic events. The authors emphasize that such temporal coincidence does not establish direct causality, but is consistent with a scenario in which ionospheric disturbances act as a contributing factor when the crust is already in a critical state.

By integrating concepts from plasma physics, atmospheric science, and geophysics, the proposed model broadens the conventional view of earthquakes as purely internal Earth processes. The findings suggest that monitoring ionospheric conditions, together with subsurface observations, may help improve scientific understanding of earthquake initiation processes and seismic hazard assessment.

Future research will focus on combining high-resolution GNSS-based ionospheric tomography with space weather data to clarify the conditions under which ionospheric disturbances may exert significant electrostatic influence on the Earth’s crust.

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The paper "Possible Mechanism of Ionospheric Anomalies to Trigger Earthquakes: Electrostatic Coupling Between the Ionosphere and the Crust and the Resulting Electric Forces Acting Within the Crust" appeared on 3 February 2026 in International Journal of Plasma Environmental Science and Technology, with doi: 10.34343/ijpest.2026.20.e01003

About Kyoto University

Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

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DOI

10.34343/ijpest.2026.20.e01003 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Possible mechanism of ionospheric anomalies to trigger earthquakes – Electrostatic coupling between the ionosphere and the crust and the resulting electric forces acting within the crust –

Article Publication Date

3-Feb-2026

 

How rice plants tell head from toe during early growth

3D imaging of fertilized rice seeds reveals how “body axis” is formed

Tokyo Metropolitan University

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image: 

3D imaging of early embryogenesis in rice. 3D confocal imaging on clarified cells reveals the structure and properties of individual cells inside a growing embryo, starting from a single zygote.

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Credit: Tokyo Metropolitan University

Tokyo, Japan – Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have uncovered how fertilized rice seeds begin to divide and establish their “body axis.” Using a new imaging method, they discovered that while the first cell divides in an asymmetric way initially, this is followed by random growth and the apparently “collective” determination of a body axis. This is a significant break with known pathways, a rare glimpse into the birth and growth of plant embryos.

 

A key puzzle in plant science is how plants develop their “body axis,” the reference direction by which they grow different parts of their anatomy. Scientists are only beginning to come to terms with the complex series of events which lead to axis formation, starting from a single fertilized cell or zygote. Studies on Arabidopsis, or thale cress, have shown that the axis is already decided when the zygote splits into two distinct daughter cells. They each contain different proteins and undergo different growth; one begins to elongate, while the other doesn’t. This means that they have decided their “apical-basal” (tip to base) axis from the first time they divide. However, while Arabidopsis is an important model organism for plant science, it is not clear whether this mechanism is carried over identically to other plants.

Now, a team of scientists led by Assistant Professor Atsuko Kinoshita from Tokyo Metropolitan University have studied the rice plant. They used three-dimensional confocal microscopy to image the three-dimensional structure of the early embryo, starting from a single zygote up to a few hundred cells. Plant cells are notoriously difficult to study like this due to poor imaging once the cells become crowded. Their unique success came from using new techniques to make the cells clear, letting them peek inside clusters.

The team discovered that rice develops through radically different steps to Arabidopsis. Firstly, the rice zygote splits by a plane which is diagonal to its long axis, leaving two asymmetric daughter cells, an apical and basal cell. Curiously, both cells set about dividing in an apparently random way, producing a roughly spherical blob with no apparent directionality. To get a better idea of what was happening inside, they traced the appearance of auxin, a key hormone in plant growth. Only on the second day, after a few tens of cells were produced, was auxin discovered at the center of the blob. The auxin then spread towards the basal cell side. This suggests that there is some way in which the cells act “collectively” to allow axis development over the whole spherical blob. This is clearly different from the localized, single-cell level “polarization” found in Arabidopsis and shows that maintenance of the apical-basal axis is robust against the apparent randomness of the cells in the embryo.

The team’s findings not only present a rare glimpse into the embryogenesis of an important plant for agriculture but also highlight a new framework by which embryo development may be traced in a wide variety of other plants.

This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP20K06689, JP24H00857, JP25K01990, JP24H00856, JP25H00933, and JP22H04978, JST PRESTO Grant Number JPMJPR22D6, and JST-Mirai Program Grant Numbers JPMJMI23C1 and JPMJMI20C8.

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Journal

Plant and Cell Physiology

DOI

10.1093/pcp/pcaf171 

Article Title

3D imaging reveals robustness and plasticity of cell division in rice early embryogenesis

 

Next generation genetics technology developed to counter the rise of antibiotic resistance

UC San Diego biologists leverage gene drive advances to stop genes responsible for drug resistance

University of California - San Diego

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Drug resistance has accelerated in recent years with the emergence of deadly bacteria and “superbugs.” UC San Diego biologists have developed a new CRISPR-based technology capable of removing antibiotic-resistant elements from populations of bacteria. 

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Credit: Bier Lab, UC San Diego

Antibiotic resistance (AR) has steadily accelerated in recent years to become a global health crisis. As deadly bacteria evolve new ways to elude drug treatments for a variety of illnesses, a growing number of “superbugs” have emerged, ramping up estimates of more than 10 million worldwide deaths per year by 2050.

Scientists are looking to recently developed technologies to address the pressing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are known to flourish in hospital settings, sewage treatment areas, animal husbandry locations and fish farms. University of California San Diego scientists have now applied cutting-edge genetics tools to counteract antibiotic resistance.

The laboratories of UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences Professors Ethan Bier and Justin Meyer have collaborated on a novel method of removing antibiotic-resistant elements from populations of bacteria. The researchers developed a new CRISPR-based technology similar to gene drives, which are being applied in insect populations to disrupt the spread of harmful properties, such as parasites that cause malaria. The new Pro-Active Genetics (Pro-AG) tool called pPro-MobV is a second-generation technology that uses a similar approach to disable drug resistance in populations of bacteria.

“With pPro-MobV we have brought gene-drive thinking from insects to bacteria as a population engineering tool,” said Bier, a faculty member in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. “With this new CRISPR-based technology we can take a few cells and let them go to neutralize AR in a large target population.”

In 2019 Bier’s lab collaborated with Professor Victor Nizet’s group (UC San Diego School of Medicine) to develop the initial Pro-AG concept, in which a genetic cassette is introduced and copied between the genomes of bacteria to inactivate their antibiotic-resistant components. The cassette launches itself into an AR gene carried on plasmids, circular types of DNA that replicate within cells, thereby restoring sensitivity of the bacteria to antibiotic treatments.

Building upon this idea, Bier and his colleagues developed a follow-on system that spreads the antibiotic CRISPR cassette components via conjugal transfer, which is similar to mating in bacteria. As they described in the Nature journal npj Antimicrobials and Resistance, the researchers showed that this next-generation pPro-MobV system can exploit a naturally created bacterial mating tunnel between cells to spread the key disabling elements. They demonstrated the process working within bacterial biofilms, which are communities of microorganisms that contaminate various surfaces and can be extremely difficult to remove under conventional cleaning methods. Biofilms also contribute to the spread of disease and are created in the majority of infections that lead to serious disease, in part because biofilms help combat antibiotics by creating a protective layer of cells that is difficult for antibiotics to diffuse through. The new technology therefore carries potential in health care settings, environmental remediation and microbiome engineering.

“The biofilm context for combatting antibiotic resistance is particularly important since this is one of the most challenging forms of bacterial growth to overcome in the clinic or in enclosed environments such as aquafarm ponds and sewage treatment plants,” said Bier. “If you could reduce the spread from animals to humans you could have a significant impact on the antibiotic resistance problem since roughly half of it is estimated to come from the environment.”

The researchers also found that components of the active genetic system could be carried and delivered by bacteriophage, or phage, which are viruses that are natural evolutionary competitors of bacteria. Phage are being specially engineered to combat antibiotic resistance by evading bacterial defenses and inserting disruptive factors inside cells. pPro-MobV elements, the researchers envision, would work in conjunction with such engineered phage viruses. This active genetic platform also can incorporate a highly efficient process known as homology-based deletion as a safety measure to remove the gene cassette if desired.

“This technology is one of the few ways that I’m aware of that can actively reverse the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes, rather than just slowing or coping with their spread,” said Meyer, a professor in the Department of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, who studies the evolutionary adaptations of bacteria and viruses.

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Journal

npj Antimicrobials and Resistance

DOI

10.1038/s44259-026-00181-z 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

A conjugal gene drive-like system efficiently suppresses antibiotic resistance in a bacterial population

Article Publication Date

2-Feb-2026

COI Statement

Professor Ethan Bier is a co-founder of the start-up company Agragene.