“Iran has sought to disguise its involvement, but ASIO assesses it was behind the attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on Oct. 20 last year, and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Dec. 6,” Albanese said during a press conference this week.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” he continued. “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”

While this marks the first time since World War II that Australia has expelled an ambassador, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Canberra would maintain some diplomatic ties with Tehran. Australian diplomats posted in Iran have been withdrawn to a third country.

After conducting a “painstaking”, monthslong investigation, Australia’s intelligence community believes Iran’s Guard “used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement” in arson attacks on the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney last October and Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue last December. 

“They’re just using cut-outs, including people who are criminals and members of organized crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding,” ASIO chief Mike Burgess said. 

There has been a sharp uptick in hate crimes against Jews in Australia since Israel retaliated against Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack at the Nova music festival, which killed roughly 1,200 civilians, with a war on the group’s operations in Gaza. Antisemitic attacks on Jews in Australia jumped by 316% last year, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry announced last December.

Tension between Australia and Israel has tightened since the 2023 terrorist attack due to disagreements about Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza as it seeks to wipe out Hamas. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded Albanese a “weak politician who had betrayed Israel” after the Australian prime minister announced plans earlier this month to join several other countries in recognizing a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

AT LEAST FIVE COUNTRIES TO RECOGNIZE A PALESTINIAN STATE NEXT MONTH — WHAT PUSHED THEM TO IT?

Netanyahu’s concerns came amid Albanese’s move to revoke a visa for an Israeli politician who was set to travel to Sydney and Melbourne. 

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced the cancellation of Simcha Rotman’s visa on Aug. 18, saying he intended to “spread a message of hate and division.” Rotman cannot travel to Australia for three years under the visa changes.