Zionist social media influencers and Labor Party members Ofir Birenbaum and Sophie Calland are gearing up for the federal election.
Calland is a key organiser of Better Australia, a third-party group registering to attack the Greens and Teals for threatening “Australia’s economic and social stability”.
A draft document leaked to the Guardian states Better Australia will be an “authentic and diverse community ‘ground force’ to create a social movement”.
It’s a strategy designed to hide its far-right connections.
NSW Labor recruited Calland in October 2023, where she is active in Alexandria branch. She also joined Labor Friends of Israel.
Calland’s husband Ofir Birenbaum is a “close friend of the Australian Jewish Association” (AJA), which is a strident critic of the Anthony Albanese government.
AJA President David Adler is a founder member and advisor of astroturfing lobby group Advance, which has amassed $14 million to target Greens and Teals in the election.
Birenbaum is also a Labor party member, joining the Rosebery Branch last November.
Birenbaum recently teamed up with the Daily Telegraph to document alleged antisemitic experiences in Gadigal Country/Sydney. The plan came unstuck at the Cairo Takeaway.
Birenbaum is a leader in Together with Israel and an early organiser with Christian Zionist organisation Never Again is Now.
Calland was the public face of Better Council during the local government elections in September. The owner of Better Council’s ABN is Alex Polson, a Liberal National Party member who once worked for Senator Simon Birmingham.
Like most of the other members of the Better Council organising team, Polson was a key organiser in Together with Israel.
Better Council urged voters to “PUT GREENS LAST”, claiming the Greens had betrayed their environmental roots for an antisemitic obsession with Israel.
At a Better Council Zoom meeting, volunteers were told that the Inner West campaign was a reward for Mayor Darcy Byrne’s strong resistance to an August 2024 Boycott Divestment Sanctions motion, similar to one passed by the Labor-run Bankstown-Canterbury Council.
The newly formed Queensland Jewish Collective (QJC) adopted Better Council’s electoral strategy for the Queensland state elections.
QJC partnered with the AJA and was supported by Queensland Zionist financier Stephen Fenwick, who previously donated $1 million to Advance. QJC’s front person and director is Israeli Australian Hava Mendelle, whose recently migrated Israeli wife Roz Mendelle is also heavily involved.
The campaign relied heavily on billboards, some of which were very similar to Advance ones. It may have played a role in one Green MP Amy McMahon narrowly losing her seat.
Advance announced in October that it had raised millions to use in attacking the Greens in the federal election.
Its biggest donor last year was the Liberal-aligned Cormack Foundation.
Advance used some of those funds in the Prahran by-election in Victoria. The Greens maintained their primary vote, but failed to get sufficient preferences to hold the seat.
Calland, Hava and Mendelle are part of a recently formed organisation Minority Impact Coalition (MIC) that aims to pressure Labor not to preference Greens.
MIC describes itself as “grassroots” and claims to have no links to Advance.
Calland has become a regular at NSW Labor’s Alexandria branch meetings, where she has strongly supported Israel against accusations of genocide. Birenbaum joined NSW Labor and has attended one or more Rosebery meetings.
In the past 18 months, motions in support of a Gaza ceasefire and recognition of a Palestinian state have been passed throughout several of Sydney’s Labor branches.
Even before his membership of the Rosebery branch came through, Birenbaum tried to influence the debate inside Labor.
Birenbaum attended an Alexandria branch meeting where a Labor Friends of Palestine motion was before it last October. The motion easily passed, with Calland one of two people voting against. Six members voted for the motion and one abstained.
Calland then moved a counter motion that opposed a ceasefire. Birenbaum, who has served in the IDF, spoke and vigorously defended the IDF against allegations of war crimes. Calland’s motion was ruled out of order as inconsistent with the previous motion.
Birenbaum has also become involved in some covert campaigning.
Birenbaum approached Sydney Greens’ federal candidate Luc Velez in Green Square on December 11, quizzing him on Greens’ policy on Palestine. Observers say he was wearing video glasses.
As Velez talked about the Greens’ support for human rights and international law, he became aware Birenbaum was using the glasses to film him.
Later Birenbaum posted the video he had shot covertly on his Facebook page.
Birenbaum filmed a small pro-Palestinian protest in Newcastle for more than half an hour and then interacted with protesters complaining he felt unsafe.
He also used his video glasses at Gadigal Country’s Invasion Day rally.
Birenbaum has also continued to lead and speak at Together with Israel rallies, organised in response to the antisemitic graffiti and arson attacks. He spoke alongside Senator David Sharma and retired MP Michael Danby, founder of Labor Friends of Israel.
Birenbaum told a rally in January: “The time for lip service [to antisemitism] is over, and the time for actions – not just from us, but from our [Australia’s political] leaders – is now. No more press conferences, no more concerned looks, and no more [empty words, like] ‘this has no place in Australia’.
“Our leaders cannot just throw more money at security, at a task force for this, and a strike force for that — it does not treat the problem, it treats a symptom.
“So I’m asking [Albanese] once again, what are you going to do about it?”
[Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist and former Professor of Journalism at UTS. Yaakov Aharon is a Jewish-Australian who lives in Wollongong. This is abridged from a longer piece in Michael West Media.]