David Wise, a 43-year-old small businessman who planted an improvised explosive device on a car outside a Sydney home flying a Palestinian flag, was last week handed a sentence that amounts to a slap on the wrist given the seriousness of the offence.

Wise, a supporter of Israel, admitted to having planted the bomb in early January. The sole reason was that the man who occupied the house flew a Palestinian flag and displayed a noticeboard condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Wise was charged with leaving or sending a substance/article to create false belief of danger, stalking and intimidating, entering enclosed land without a lawful excuse and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

He pleaded guilty and was given a sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment in a hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre court on May 8. The non-parole period, however, is just three months, and with time served during the proceedings, Wise may be released even sooner than that.

The sentencing received hardly any coverage in the corporate media or from the state-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation. That continues a pattern of cover-up that has proceeded at each stage, from the planting of the bomb, to the arrest and charging of Wise, to his court proceedings.

To the extent that the mainstream media has even covered the case, the emphasis has been on the “fake” character of the bomb. Made of a jerry can, rags, disposable lighter and large bolts, they have noted that it was never going to explode.

That deliberately misses the point. There have been many terrorist incidents internationally that have involved “fake” bombs, including for the hijacking of planes. The device that Wise planted was accompanied by a note declaring that the victim had one last chance to take down the Palestinian flag.

He was charged, however, with non-political criminal offences. That was a decision involving not only the top echelons of New South Wales state police and prosecutors, but also federal authorities.

At a Senate hearing on March 19, Greens parliamentarian David Shoebridge directed several questions about the case to Australian Federal Police (AFP) Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett. Shoebridge noted that the incident involved threats of very serious violence with a clear political motive. Why, he asked, had it not been taken up by the AFP?

Barrett, one of the country’s highest-ranking police officials, acknowledged that the AFP was aware of the case but had determined that it “didn't meet the remit for the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team,” which brings together state and federal policing authorities to investigate terrorism cases. The matter was left to NSW Police, as if it were a regular criminal offense.

Pressed as to why this was, Barrett simply could not proffer any explanation, stating that she would not “go into the ins-and-outs of the [terrorism] threshold.”

It is not a question of wishing that the book had been thrown at Wise, or of lending any credence to the counter-terror regime, which is draconian, punitive and anti-democratic. However, there is a clear case of politically motivated double standards.

The majority of people in prison for terror offences, mostly Islamists, never came close to planting a bomb, real or “fake.” Instead, they have generally been convicted on the basis of loose talk and/or police entrapment.

This was again demonstrated as the Wise case was taking place. On April 23, the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team oversaw massive raids in working-class areas of Sydney, involving more than 400 police and intelligence officers. The targets were seven Muslim teenagers. All under the age of 18, they have been charged with a raft of terrorism offences, based on alleged online conversations, even though police have acknowledged they had no plan to commit a terrorist act.

Those raids, and other actions involving the AFP and the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, are always coordinated with governments and have a highly political character. The clear implication is that there was a decision to downplay Wise’s offences for political reasons.

That contention is lent weight by the fact that Labor government politicians, at the state and federal level, have said virtually nothing about the Wise case. Matt Thistlethwaite, the federal Labor parliamentarian whose seat covers the area where the incident occurred, made one exceedingly vague comment on Twitter, along the lines of condemning violence in general.

The victim, who has given only his first name Theo, for fear of reprisals, has repeatedly stated that police and prosecutors displayed an indifference to his plight that evolved into a fairly open antagonism. They stonewalled and then rejected his demands that consideration be given to prosecuting Wise for more serious political offences.

The political calculations involved are not hard to discern. For the past seven months, the federal Labor government and the entire political establishment has supported Israel’s mass murder of the Palestinians in Gaza. This has been accompanied by a propaganda offensive, smearing widespread protests and anger as antisemitic, falsely conflating opposition to Israeli militarism and Zionism with anti-Jewish bigotry.

Without a shred of evidence, protests defending the Palestinians and now peaceful student encampments on university campuses have been slandered as “dangerous” and as posing a threat of violence.

The Wise case upends this narrative. The actual planting of the improvised device is easily the most serious documented case of violence in Australia related to Israel’s war. But inconveniently for the pro-genocide politicians and pundits, it was committed by a supporter of Israel, against a peaceful opponent of the Zionist regime.

In seeking a mitigated sentence, Wise’s defence asserted mental health issues, including depression. It is hard to see how that condition, suffered by so many, would lead one to carry out such a deliberate and specific political threat. The defence also hinted very vaguely at more serious issues, stating Wise said he had only a “dream-like memory of planting the bomb.” What that means remains entirely unclear.

Of more interest was the claim that Wise planted the device due to a “persecutory delusion,” based on his Jewish heritage.

Referencing this argument, sentencing Magistrate Megan Greenwood stated: “This offending arose because of persecutory delusions and beliefs you’ve had, you strongly identify with your culture and heritage and the terrible experiences of your family and others that suffered greatly during the Holocaust.”

Whatever Wise’s state of mind and mental health issues, these sentiments were not solely a psychological “delusion.” They were essentially the line that has been peddled by pro-Israeli Zionist organisations, together with the Labor government and the official media.

All of these entities have sought to tar opposition to the genocide as antisemitic, even as many anti-Zionist Jewish people play a leading role in protests and other anti-war activities. They have also sought to create some connection between the Palestinians and the Holocaust, describing the October 7 uprising as an anti-Jewish pogrom comparable to the actions of the Nazis. The only connection is the clear resemblance between Israel’s war of extermination on Gaza and the Nazis’ own genocidal program.

Domestically, pro-Israeli politicians and Zionists have made ludicrous comparisons between Sydney and Melbourne today and 1930s Berlin, based solely on the fact that large numbers of people have protested against the Israeli state.

Whatever the intention, the defence argument underscored the fact that Wise’s actions were in line with these lies and propaganda.

By treating the case as a simple criminal matter rather than a political offence, the authorities avoided an obvious question. Wise’s victim has stated that he had been doxxed in a pro-Israeli social media group prior to the bomb being planted. What, if any, were the connections between Wise and his actions and the broader rabidly pro-Israeli Zionist milieu?