And now to the shooting in Australia where there's been a spike in antisemitic incidents.

Ali Rogin has that story.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): A deadly attack on Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach sent crowds fleeing for safety Sunday evening.

Two gunmen, a father and son, according to police, opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration where hundreds had gathered for the start of the eight-day Jewish holiday.

One alleged gunman appeared to be shooting from behind a palm tree when a bystander crept up on him and seized the gun.

A second gunman took aim from a footbridge over a nearby parking lot.

At least 16 people are dead, including the gunman and a 12-year-old child.

38 others were wounded.

Young and old had gathered for the Hanukkah event.

MAN: I feel like a kid, like she was like maybe 8 years old.

She got injured in the leg and she was crying and she was on the ground.

So she was behind her mom was on the ground as well.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Finn Green is a tourist from the United Kingdom.

FINN GREEN, Witness: I just saw an older lady get shot and she was on the floor, saw an older guy get shot, very badly injured on the left hand side.

And I just saw a bunch of people screaming, running towards me.

I didn't know what was going on.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second who was arrested is in critical condition.

One of the men was known to security services.

Australian authorities declared it a terrorist attack.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, Australian Prime Minister: This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith, an act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): The massacre is the latest in a wave of antisemitic incidents in Australia over the last year.

Synagogues and cars torched, homes graffitied and Jews attacked.

Australia blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut ties to Tehran.

But authorities have not made any claims about Sunday's massacre.

ALI ROGIN: For more on this tragedy, I'm joined by Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the nonprofit Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Amy, thank you so much for being here.

AMY SPITALNICK, CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs: Thanks for having me.

ALI ROGIN: We've seen antisemitic attacks on the rise in the past decade.

Really.

Should we be thinking about this latest attack in Australia in that global context?

AMY SPITALNICK: Absolutely.

We've seen, unfortunately, a horrific cycle of antisemitism, whether it's the far right, white supremacist, white nationalist, antisemitism like the Tree of Life attack, the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S.

history, or the attack in Australia just this weekend targeting the Jewish community marking Hanukkah, or the increasing cycle of attacks targeting Jews here in the United States and around the world under the guise of protesting Israeli policy, like the Boulder and Capitol Jewish Museum attacks this spring.

And so it's important to understand that none of these attacks are happening in a silo.

They're part of a broader normalization of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes, this idea of Jewish control and power that ultimately leads to direct violence targeting Jews.

This rhetoric doesn't happen in isolation.

Rhetoric leads to real world violence.

ALI ROGIN: And why is it that this sort of rhetoric that leads to attacks like these, why is it so pervasive now?

And I mean, we've seen it over the past 10 years, but why now?

AMY SPITALNICK: Yeah, well, antisemitism is at its core a conspiracy theory.

It's about pitting communities against one another, sowing distrust in our institutions and our democracy, and fundamentally making it less safe, not just for Jews, but for everyone.

And so as we see these conspiracy theories become normalized, whether it's replacement and invasion conspiracy theories like what we've seen here in Pittsburgh and Charlottesville and elsewhere, or conspiracy theories about Jewish or Zionist control of our foreign policy or finances or government, we're living at a really tumultuous time and people are looking for scapegoats.

And so antisemitic conspiracy theories are far more salient than perhaps they would have been a few decades ago across the ideological spectrum.

And it leads to what we're not seeing.

ALI ROGIN: I want to ask you about what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today against Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

He said that the Australian support and recognition of a Palestinian state is among the factors that led to this attack.

What do you make of that?

AMY SPITALNICK: Look, it's so important to be clear that when Jews are targeted for the actions of the Israeli government, that's antisemitism.

And therefore it makes it that much more important to be clear the distinction between Jewish people and the actions of the Israeli government.

And so when we start conflating these things, it only leads to Jews becoming less safe.

What we actually need from our political leaders, whether it's the Prime Minister, whether it's President Trump, whether it's any leader around the world who claims to be committed to countering antisemitism, is a whole of government, whole of society approach to countering this hate and extremism and a refusal to weaponize and exploit the very legitimate fears and concerns of the Jewish community right now in furtherance of a broader political agenda.

ALI ROGIN: And when we talk about that whole of community response to things like this, what can we all do, from the leaders around the world to individuals?

AMY SPITALNICK: Look, we actually have a good roadmap for this in a variety of ways.

The Biden and Harris administration put forth a comprehensive strategy to counter antisemitism.

There's a proposal from the special envoy in Australia for a similar plan there.

We know that what countering antisemitism requires is actually what requires us to build broader democratic resilience as well.

Protecting core democratic norms, building education and other resiliency to hate and extremism, becoming indoctrinated in the first place, teaching media and digital literacy, investing in hate crimes prevention, investing in the protection of civil rights like Title 6, which is what protects students and others on our campuses and in our schools.

And unfortunately, we've seen a disinvestment from so many of these programs by the Trump administration and frankly in other countries around the world as well.

And so what we need is that whole of society, whole of government approach that understands countering antisemitism is inherent to protecting our democracy, just as protecting democracy is inherent to Jewish safety.

ALI ROGIN: Amy Spitalnick with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Thank you so much.

AMY SPITALNICK: Thanks for having me.