Rita Panahi: Scott Morrison making the right move on Jerusalem
SCOTT Morrison’s review of Middle East foreign policy, and where our embassy in Israel should be, is welcome and overdue, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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AUSTRALIA should follow the US in developing a backbone and moving our embassy to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. It is overdue and would show the world that Australia stands with Israel, a beacon of democracy, decency and diversity in the Middle East and our greatest ally in the region.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison deserves praise for reviewing Australia’s foreign policy in the region as he considers formally recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem. It’s absurd that Israel is the only sovereign nation that cannot, in the eyes of many in the international community, determine where its capital is.
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The review will also include Australia’s policy towards the Iranian regime and our voting record at the United Nations, where too often, we have abstained rather than vote for what is right and just.
Australia cannot to sit on the fence when an ally is repeatedly attacked by despot nations nor can we remain timid in the face of brutality. How can we in good conscience turn a blind eye to the antics of a UN corrupted by barely concealed anti-Semitic sentiment?
The UN has a Human Rights Council full of brutal regimes with deplorable human rights records, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bahrain, Venezuela and Qatar. Morrison has raised the issue but he now needs to summon the courage to follow through with decisive action. What a refreshing departure it will be from the limp diplomacy of the Julie Bishop/Malcolm Turnbull era in which Australia abstained from important votes at the UN, including a vote against the US over the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a vote that was sponsored by those bastions of democracy and freedom, Yemen and Turkey.
Then there was the symbolism of Foreign Minister Bishop in a hijab in Tehran, sending a message of weakness and appeasement to a barbaric regime that beats and imprisons women who fail to observe hijab laws.
In contrast, Morrison will review Australia’s symbolic support of the woeful Iran deal struck by former US president Barack Obama and we will vote “no” at the UN to recognising the Palestinian Authority as the chair of the G77 group of nations.
“Our government will be voting against that resolution. We won’t be abstaining. We will be voting against that resolution because we don’t believe that conferring that status, especially at this time, would add to the cause of moving parties towards the two-state solution,” Morrison said.
The move raises the prospect of a bolder, braver PM with the sort of sound judgment and courage lacking in his predecessor.
It is hoped that once the Wentworth by-election is done and dusted, we will see much firmer action from the government in key areas such as energy, population and border protection as well as the ancillary culture war issues such as free speech. The “uniqueness” of the Wentworth electorate limits what the PM can do — what may be hugely popular with many Australians can be electoral suicide in the affluent, leafy seat of Wentworth.
Morrison is no Donald Trump but the decision to review Australia’s relationship with Iran and Israel is a road that Trump has successfully trodden.
Trump has sounded the death knell for the Iranian nuclear deal and imposed strict sanctions that are crippling the Iranian economy.
US presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all vowed to recognise an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but only Trump turned the election promise into reality.
That decision was predictably met with hysteria from the usual suspects, who promised that it would lead to World War III and long-term bloodshed. All in all, the fallout was not unlike the regular conflicts, protests or “days of rage” that the Israelis contend with on a regular basis.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has praised Australia and welcomed the strengthening ties between the two nations. “I spoke today with Australian PM @ScottMorrisonMP. He informed me that he is considering officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel & moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem. I’m very thankful to him for this,” Netanyahu tweeted.
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council has also welcomed Morrison’s decision, calling it “courageous, measured and principled”.
“Australia’s bipartisan policy of supporting a two-state peace would be better served by recognising the simple fact that Jerusalem is and has been Israel’s capital and not submitting to Palestinian threats and extortion. Not only the US but a number of other countries, including Russia, the Czech Republic, Vanuatu and Guatemala, now acknowledge this incontrovertible reality,” AIJAC Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein said.
Meanwhile, a number of Middle Eastern embassies were reported to be holding emergency meetings yesterday in response to the Prime Minister’s announcement. Izzat Salah Abdulhadi, head of the Palestinian diplomatic delegation to Australia, labelled Morrison’s comments “alarming”.
And Indonesia has said it is considering withdrawing from its trade deal with Australia.
Australia must ignore the unhinged protests against Israel which falsely paint the Middle East’s most inclusive and democratic nation as an “apartheid state”. There are Arabs sitting in the Knesset; people of all religions and races work and live in Israel. You won’t find too many Jews in Gaza.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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