Rita Panahi: Penny Wong’s appalling snub of Israel no surprise

Penny Wong’s failure to meet with Israeli representatives at the UN in September is what we’ve come to expect from a government that lacks moral clarity and sees the Muslim vote in key electorates as critical to its chances of re-election.

In times of strife you find out who your friends are.

The Albanese government should feel great shame for the weak, inconsistent and even antagonistic way it has treated one of our strongest allies during their darkest days.

Israelis, reeling from October 7 and the biggest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, have watched aghast as a former staunch ally has wavered and equivocated.

At home there’s been an unwillingness from authorities, from the Prime Minister down, to meaningfully address the scourge of anti-Semitism.

On the global stage Australia has split from the US and Israel at the United Nations on critical votes impacting the only Jewish state.

On Thursday we learned that Foreign Minister Penny Wong had failed to meet with Israeli representatives, including Benjamin Netanyahu, at the UN in September but managed to sit down with representatives from the Palestinian authority and Iran, the chief backer of terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong had failed to meet with Israeli representatives, including Benjamin Netanyahu, at the UN in September. Picture: Martin Ollman

The revelations were disappointing, appalling even, but hardly surprising.

It’s what we have come to expect from a government that lacks moral clarity and sees the Muslim vote in key electorates as critical to its chances of re-election. At the September general embassy Wong saw fit to lecture Israel about a two-state solution and demanded a “clear timeline for the international declaration of Palestinian statehood”.

Absurd fantasies at the best of times but particularly during a time of war. Australia then broke away from Israel and the US and abstained from a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its so-called “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israelis rightly described the UN vote as proof that the general assembly “continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers”.

By early December, Australia had gone from being a staunch supporter of Israel to one that abstains from crucial votes to siding with the bullies at the UN.

Australia voted in favour of the resolution demanding “Israel bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible”. A shameful capitulation that was exacerbated shortly after by Australia again siding with anti-Israeli forces at the UN by voting for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza. One can say plenty about Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s refusal to lean into important debates but he has been consistent and clear-eyed when it comes to Israel and the rise in anti-Semitism.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: Evelyn Hockstein

He has displayed a moral clarity sadly lacking in his counterpart.

Shadow Foreign Minister David Coleman condemned the Albanese government’s treatment of a key ally.

“She (Wong) has shamefully abandoned Israel in pursuit of a few votes in inner city contests against the greens. It is utterly wrong,” Mr Coleman said on Sky News Australia.

“For more than a few decades we had a bipartisan position in Australia on issues related to the Middle East and issues related to Israel … Penny Wong trashed that. Penny Wong walked away from that for a few votes and that is sordid. It is unacceptable.”

It’s hard to argue against that assessment. The conduct of the Albanese government isn’t only motivated by self-interest, it’s also driven by ideology, a broken worldview that condemns Israel and glorifies Palestinian statehood.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

Originally published as Rita Panahi: Penny Wong’s appalling snub of Israel no surprise