The foreign minister would have anticipated that Australia’s decision would anger Jewish groups and the Coalition, but she wants Palestinians to have their own homeland.
For all the fury directed at the Albanese government from Jewish groups and the opposition over how it voted on the latest batch of United Nations resolutions on Israel, it should be recognised that Australia was among 157 nations to express support for the two-state solution, compared with eight against and seven abstentions.
Those opposed were Israel and its staunchest defender, the US; Hungary and Argentina, both now ruled by far-right populists; and the four Pacific minnows of Papua New Guinea, Palau, Nauru and Micronesia, whose devout Christian faith gives them a bond with Israel and Jews. Abstentions were recorded by Cameroon, Czechia, Ecuador, Georgia, Paraguay, Ukraine and Uruguay.
