Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and Labor must clarify their Israel-Gaza position urgently

Senator Penny Wong on Sunday called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and senior Labor ministers have to get their positions on the international security threat arising from the Hamas attacks on Israel and rising domestic threats from anti-Semitism straight and clear. What’s more, they have to do it immediately.

Each day of doubt and confusion exponentially increases the fear within the Australian Jewish community, emboldens the racists and amplifies the hate speech.

The first thing that the political leadership has to do is separate the two issues and take appropriate action for each.

As part of a global campaign to isolate Israel from its international friends and to divide the Jewish people, as blame is shifted from the Hamas attacks to the deadly drawn-out Israeli response in Gaza, there is a conflation of the actions of the Israeli government and Jews.

A community gathering in support of Israel at Caulfield Park in Caulfield, where violent clashes broke out on Friday night. Picture: Tony Gough

In Australia, the US and UK there have been anti-Semitic attacks and protests aimed at Jews, synagogues and businesses under the guise of equating the Israeli government and Jews. It is not anti-Semitic to criticise the Israeli government but it is anti-Semitic to attack Jews.

Yet, like so many foreign policy issues where there should be prepared, confident and clear responses to obvious questions – whether on China, the Pacific or Israel – the Albanese government seems unprepared, hesitant and contradictory.

Five weeks after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel that killed 1400 people and captured 240 hostages and four weeks after the Israeli retaliatory invasion of Gaza to eradicate the terrorists has killed thousands, the Albanese government is still sending mixed messages.

The Foreign Minister’s weekend call for a ceasefire in Gaza, a demand that Israel be held to a higher standard and to stop bombing hospitals, while further clouding Australia’s international policy, are points open to foreign policy debate.

But by not explicitly condemning anti-Semitism and by observing that the organisers of a violent protest outside a synagogue in Melbourne’s Caulfield – which had to be evacuated – had apologised was not a clear response.

Wong’s appeal was to “all communities” not to promote hatred although it is only the Jewish community being subjected to vile and violent demonstrations, boycotts, death threats and a tsunami of social media attacks.

Coming after other ministers have not rejected the slur of genocide and used the language of war crimes in relation to Israel, her response extends the equivalence of diplomatic language to a domestic security situation in which there is no equivalence. Jewish mobs are not protesting outside mosques in Lakemba in western Sydney.

The responses from Wong and the Prime Minister in parliament on Monday did little to clear the confusion, with Albanese playing down Wong’s comments.

Clearly trying to take the heat out of the focus Wong’s remarks drew, Albanese pushed the parliamentary debate back to the parliamentary motion a month ago condemning the original Hamas attacks and avoided declaring what the government’s position was on ceasefire and breaches of international law.

Labor’s equivocation on the Middle East violence and Israel has developed over decades as demographic shifts now have the ALP holding 10 of the top 12 electorates with people of Middle Eastern ancestry and including the top three held by ministers Jason Clare, Tony Burke and Chris Bowen, according to census data.

Of the top 10 seats with the highest Jewish ancestry, five are in Victoria including Macnamara held by Labor’s Josh Burns which tops the list. Macnamara has more than twice as many people of Jewish ancestry as those with a Middle Eastern background, while Higgins, narrowly won by Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah last year, has roughly equal numbers. So, by the numbers, there is a greater threat to Labor from a backlash from voters of Middle Eastern background than from Jewish voters. But, even allowing for electoral threats to Labor, there is still a need for decisive and unequivocal declarations about anti-Semitism and social discord.

In 2005, at the time of the ­Cronulla riots which were directed against people of “Middle Eastern appearance”, then prime minister John Howard was criticised for saying there was no “underlying racism in Australia”.

Since then there have been a number of laws introduced to combat racism, discrimination and hate speech.

The evidence of anti-Semitism is as clear as the protest in front of the Sydney Opera House and there is also a clear need for the security and unity of Australian society. To counter the first and ensure the second there needs to be clearer, stronger leadership from the Albanese government in consort with state authorities.