Reason behind Scott Morrison’s controversial Israel embassy shift

SCOTT Morrison has followed the lead of US President Donald Trump with his latest move. This is the reason behind the controversial plan.

PM Scott Morrison has announced a policy switch by moving the Australian embassy in Israel. Picture Kym Smith

THERE is a direct link between Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s controversial support for moving Australia’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and the by-election in Wentworth.

Liberal candidate Dave Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel, has urged the move and discussed it with the Prime Minister.

And it would be backed by many of the electorate’s voters next Saturday, some 13 per cent of whom are Jewish.

Mr Sharma, the former ambassador to Israel, said since May he had been recommending the Government consider a change in policy.

He told ABC Radio the Government’s policy review was in the context of a United Nations vote on a Palestinian issue.

“I have argued in fact not that it should be moved but that we should be open to considering the idea,” said Mr Sharma.

“I think I made that point several months ago in May so this is not a new argument I’ve been making on the public record, having said Australia should be considering this for some time.”

Mr Sharma said he supported “the emergence of an independent sovereign Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace and security”.

Liberal candidate for Wentworth Dave Sharma.

But it involves an abrupt about-turn in public statements by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who wants to follow US President Donald Trump in shifting diplomats from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and in ranking Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

“That’s their policy, it’s not ours,” Mr Morrison said in May when still Treasurer.

The US decision was seen in some quarters as a threat to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestine impasse.

Back in June then foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop rejected a shift, saying, “Jerusalem is a final status issue and we have maintained that position for decades and we are doing all we can do to ensure that any support we give to the Palestinian Authority is only used for purposes that we determine.”

And the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs Frances Adamson warned a move could cause problems among Arab states.

“None of these things should be seen in isolation and we need to see what effort the Americans will put into a Middle East peace process, but I think from all sides it made what was already a very, very difficult process even harder,” said Ms Adamson