Labor must explain why it’s trashed a historic friendship

Penny Wong speaks in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

On Monday evening, Foreign Minister Penny Wong delivered a speech defending the government’s increasingly hardline stance on Israel. In it, she compared Israel, a thriving liberal democracy, to Russia and China, two authoritarian states, ruled by oppressive dictators and both guilty of massive human rights violations.

When it comes to our previously friendly relations with ­Israel, the death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach continued to play out last week, as the Albanese government sliced off Australia’s previously principled vote against a one-sided UN resolution on “the question of Palestine”.

We had previously voted no or abstained. But this one repeated the demand of the last resolution, where the government changed our position: Israel unilaterally withdraws from all disputed territory without any negotiations and pays compensation to the Palestinians.

Curiously, no obligations were required from the Palestinians, with arrangements relating to guaranteeing Israeli security totally absent. The resolution rewards Palestinian aggression. If the Palestinians can receive international recognition for a state without engaging with Israel or moderating their positions, then why would they be motivated to undertake the process to do so?

The recognition matter should be resolved in the context of a ­negotiated outcome between ­Israel and the Palestinians, including agreement on final borders. We should only move on formal recognition to leverage building an outcome that delivers peace with security.

Will the Albanese government recognise Palestine before the next election? Its calculated electoral manoeuvre seems to be to campaign on all its anti-Israel measures this term, most recently denying a former Israeli justice minister a visa and “respecting” the clear violation of the due process “complementarity” provision governing the International Criminal Court after it issued ­arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even though there’s a likelihood there would be a larger electoral backlash of those concerned about extremism, the government could promise to recognise Palestine in the next term if re-elected, claiming a mandate for the decision. Having signed up to this latest UN resolution, it can point to the international conference to be held in June to achieve a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and pin recognition to its outcome.

However, we’d give recognising Palestine about a 20 per cent chance of happening before the election if the government calculates that not recognising now will cost it more votes than it would ­receive by promising to do it in the next term.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea which was destroyed when firebombed last week. Picture: Instagram

Earlier this year, in a response to Norway, Spain and Ireland’s announcement that they would recognise Palestine as a state, Biden administration officials stressed that the US President believed a Palestinian state should be established through negotiations, not unilateral recognition.

The same is president-elect Donald Trump’s own firm view. It’s part of his presidential record. Israel is likely to approach the Trump transition team with a ­request to contact Australia to ­explicitly communicate the president-elect’s opposition to the move.

Our government should take note of Trump’s strong warning to Hamas to return the hostages before his inauguration. It’s a clear sign that Trump is already claiming ownership of US foreign policy following his success with the Abraham Accords. He would be likely to take any major diplomatic shifts taken without consultation or recognition of this reality during this period as a personal affront. That may well play out in his approach to tariffs and consideration of our other national interests. We have little to gain and much to lose from such a confrontation.

As far as Israel’s reaction to any unilateral move on our part, it’s worth looking at Israel’s response this year to recognition of Palestine by Norway, Ireland and Spain. Alongside summoning their ambassadors for a reprimand, Israel is considering preventing diplomats from these three countries from operating in Palestinian Authority territories. Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced it was revoking the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian diplomats. Israel is considering downgrading diplomatic relations and refusing requests from senior officials of the countries that announced recognition of a Palestinian state to visit Israel.

It’s not clear what price we would pay with Israel if we adopted a unilateral policy on recognition. But we’d certainly be on the receiving end of loaded condemnation, even if it didn’t result in Israel recalling its ambassador. Any influence we did have with Israel would plummet.

The potential downgrade in relations for us would mean a likely drop-off in the sort of security co-operation that has kept Australians safe from terrorist attacks and helped protect our troops on operations by accessing Israeli force protection technology and threat intelligence. Our ability to influence Israel or play any meaningful role on the Palestinian issue and in the broader Middle East would be severely diminished.

Ben Chifley and Herbert Evatt leaving an RAAF plane after their arrival at Sydney Airport from Canberra in 1949.

The Albanese government keeps saying its approach to Israel and Palestine is all about us realigning with a consensus international position. But there’s no consensus and it’s not just about recognition of Palestine. We’ve never seen a time when a government has set out so determinedly to trash a diplomatic relationship.

This government has torn to shreds a 76-year friendship forged in two world wars and built on the strong Labor tradition established by Ben Chifley and Doc Evatt. Every part of the relationship has now been tipped on to Labor’s ideological bonfire. It’s as if a rupture in Australia-Israel ties is the Albanese government’s desired policy goal.

Australia’s domestic anti-­Semitic escalation and foreign policy vilification of the Jewish state aren’t coincidental but inter­dependent. Torture by slow burning and death by a thousand cuts, respectively.

Given that Labor went into the last election promising to be bipartisan on Israel policy, it’s up to the government to explain why it is so focused on smashing ties now.

Anthony Bergin is a senior fellow at Strategic Analysis Australia. Mike Kelly is co-convener of Labor Friends of Israel.