Piers Akerman: Albanese government’s anti-Israel stance won’t change a thing in Middle East
The Albanese government has rewarded the actions of terrorist regimes with its recognition of the ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestinians to natural resources in the disputed territories, writes Piers Akerman.
Opinion
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The Albanese government has rewarded the actions of terrorist regimes with its recognition of the “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians to natural resources in the disputed territories.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong hasn’t explained this dramatic reversal of Australia’s longstanding bipartisan support at the UN for a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict.
Not a hostage will be freed, there will be no end to terrorist rockets and nor will an entity called Palestine be created by this capitulation to terror.
In a weasel-worded statement from Wong’s office, a spokeswoman said Australia had voted with an overwhelming majority of UN member states.
Given that the UN is full of tinpot Third World nations ruled by autocratic dictators and, in some cases, extremist Islamist governments, it is not surprising the majority would vote against the only liberal democratic society in the Middle East.
Support of this particular kind for Palestinians, descendants of those who fled Israel when it was attacked by surrounding Arab nations in 1948 and who have been encouraged to stay on welfare for the past seven decades by a uniquely designated UN welfare agency which harboured terrorists in its senior ranks, goes against every principle Australia has previously upheld.
The UN vote, which still has to be rubber-stamped by the General Assembly, might have come from a meeting of inner-urban Young Laborites.
It is difficult to see the vote as anything but appeasing offensive pro-Palestine protesters and Muslim voters in the seats held by Labor ministers Tony Burke (Watson) and Jason Clare (Blaxland).
Clare accused Israel of trying to “bomb its way to peace”. Bombs seemed to have ended WWII and brought peace to Europe and Asia.
The newly-formed Muslim Vote party has said it will target Muslim voters in those seats as well as in Werriwa, currently held by government whip Anne Stanley.
The move to placate Muslims resident in Australia puts us at odds with the incoming Trump administration.
US president-elect Donald Trump has named former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to be his ambassador to Israel. Huckabee rejects the notion of an “occupied” West Bank, referring to the area using the biblical term “Judea and Samaria”.
Prior to the Albanese government, Australia referred to the region as “disputed” territory. Wong chose “occupied” territory, in line with her undergraduate approach to international affairs.
During his last administration, Trump moved the US embassy to Israel’s capital Jerusalem, historically the capital of the nation since King David’s time, about 3000 years ago. Frightened at losing heavily Muslim populated electorates, the Albanese government’s embassy remains in Tel Aviv.
Trump also imposed bans on travellers from 13 countries which had fostered international terrorism following a terrorist attack by a Somalian who drove his car into a crowd of fellow Ohio State students, before slashing others with a knife.
President Joe Biden rescinded the ban in 2021.
Under Albanese, Wong and Burke, some 1300 Gazans have been brought to Australia though security scrutiny has been questioned. More than 3000 Lebanese-Australians took advantage of taxpayer-funded flights to return to Australia as Israel pursued Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.
There has been no questioning whether those arriving or returning accept the Judaeo-Christian Australian culture, and clearly many who turn out in protest do not subscribe to liberal Western values.
The dissonance was highlighted on Thursday when Melbourne’s Myer store was forced to cancel its annual family-friendly Christmas window unveiling event because of a pro-Palestinian protest planned to disrupt the event. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said the protest “wouldn’t change a thing in the Middle East”. Neither will the Albanese government’s anti-Israel stance.
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