UK PM Rishi Sunak serves up Albo a lesson in leadership

In the midst of despicable carnage in the Middle East, the British Prime Minister has displayed something all too rare among our politicians - he displayed leadership, writes James Morrow.

This time, let there be no looking away.

Forty babies dead, murdered, decapitated by Hamas terrorists – not, as some would say, “militants”.

The scenes that confronted Israeli soldiers who found the crime, committed by Hamas in the name of anti-Semitism and sheer Jew-hatred at a kibbutz close to the Gaza border, were so awful that the young troops who found the tiny dead bodies were seen crying and comforting each other after.

Now, turn your attention from the horrific scenes left behind by Hamas the UK, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak displayed something all too rare these days, particularly in a West desperately in need of a confidence boost.

He displayed leadership.

More than that, he rejected the poisonous both-sideism that has corrupted too many leaders since news of the awful events in Israel made themselves known to the world.

Sunak wasted no time in showing his solidarity with the Jewish community, visiting Finchley United Synagogue in North London.

Leadership.... Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Picture: Getty

“I am unequivocal,” Sunak told a packed audience.

“There are not two sides to these events. There is no question of balance. I stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. The United Kingdom stands with Israel.”

Now, let us cast our gaze closer to home, to Australia, and the leadership of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Where is he on Wednesday, days after the attack?

Up in Uluru, fighting what the polls suggest is a losing battle to get his Voice to Parliament referendum up.

Yes, to be fair, Albanese has said the right things in the days after the attack, including cleaning up the mess Foreign Minister Penny Wong made when she tweeted that Israel should show restraint.

(Really? Decapitated babies? And Israel should show restraint?)

Yet he – and most of his ministers – appear to be living in hope that the dreadful situation in the Middle East will go away, rather than raise the spectre of regional war abroad or domestic terrorist attacks at home.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Uluru on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

He has not even convened a meeting of the National Security Council.

And he has been joined in this by too many of his ministers, including Tony Burke whose western Sydney electorate saw a shameful demonstration Sunday where a local prominent imam expressed his “joy” over Hamas’s attacks to a whooping crowd.

Profiles in courage, this is not.

For a man who has previously run the line that Australia’s international reputation is at risk if voters don’t endorse his Voice to Parliament referendum, perhaps he might want to look at the way scenes from the Opera House have played out around the globe and focus on what really matters.

Some will of course say – running the line of terrorist apologists everywhere – that civilians have or may be killed by Israel as they attempt to root out Hamas.

Palestine supporters ignite flares outside the Sydney Opera House. Picture: Getty

The difference is that Israel tries to avoid killing kids.

Hamas, and their friends, make it their stock and trade, brutalising innocents to increase their own power.

If ever there was a dividing line between civilisation and barbarism, this is it.

Will the Prime Minister abandon the last few days of his media strategy on the Voice to convene the National Security Council and address Australia’s Jews, who in Sydney were only two days ago shamefully told to stay away from the Opera House lest they attract trouble?

A large gathering is planned for the Jewish community in Sydney Wednesday night.

There’s just enough time to get on a plane from Alice Springs.