A full year after the October 7 terror attacks which killed more than 1200 Jews and sparked a conflagration in the Middle East which cost tens of thousands of innocent lives, the Albanese government remains captive to its original ambivalence and equivalence towards Israel.
Even Anthony Albanese’s formal statement on the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks could not simply be a declaration of sympathy and memorial for those killed and captured but sought to broaden the context to all lives lost since and social division in Australia.
There was no better time than the anniversary to remind everyone that the deliberately barbarous acts of terror on men, women and children a year ago were a calculated act by Iran and terrorists to disrupt Middle East peace negotiations, ensure a hard response which would inevitably kill thousands of innocent Muslims and isolate Israel.
There was also the aim of dividing faiths and inciting anti-Semitism which have both set back Australian tolerance and spawned hatred.
Whether it has been a terrible mistake or is the result of an ideological position that Labor cannot publicly reveal or plausibly defend, the result either way has been a moral and political failure that has diminished our standing with allies and friends and left the government condemned and hounded from all sides.
The initial call from Penny Wong as Australia’s Foreign Minister for Israel to exercise “restraint” even before the smoke on the killing fields had cleared set the tone for an accusatory attitude which implied Israel would breach “international law”, gave succour to pro-Palestinian protests, pushed positions well beyond our allies, particularly the United States, desperately sought to balance anti-Semitism with Islamophobia, delayed the concession that Israel had a “right to respond” beyond its “right to defend itself” and proposed a timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state even without Israeli agreement.
Such actions meant Australia’s long history of support for the state of Israel was diminished and we were at odds with the US which meant what little real effect we could have in influencing the means of retaliation or arguing for ceasefires was virtually eliminated.
Domestically the political and social fallout from confused or weak messages from the government about Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, was even worse because not only did Jewish citizens feel betrayed but also Muslim communities sensed the absence of principles and likewise felt betrayed.
Labor only took clear and unequivocal action after prompting from the opposition and community leaders or extremist attacks from the Greens, who have adopted the genocidal claims of the terror groups and their backers.
The government appeared unable to deal with violent protests even against their own MPs’ offices.
Labor’s response to Peter Dutton’s identification of a policy split with the US over Israel’s right to respond to Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon was to accuse the Opposition Leader of a “patent lie”.
In fact, the “patent lie” was Labor’s outright dissembling and no amount of soft soaping from ‘Mr Nice Guy’ and Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, trying to fix the problem on the eve of the first anniversary as more rockets rained on Israeli cities is going to change the facts.
The Prime Minister did “unequivocally” condemn the October 7 Hamas attacks and correctly described the attacks as “calculated”. He repeated his call for Australia to “never again” see the shadow of anti-Semitism but clearly felt compelled to do more than just mark the anniversary.
Beyond the initial attack Albanese acknowledged “the distress the conflict has caused here in Australia” and declared that beyond October 7 “the number of civilians who have lost their lives is a devastating tragedy”.
“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred. There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith,” he said as protesters in Sydney prepared to celebrate the vile terrorist attacks.
Albanese is right but, unfortunately, the confused way in which the government has handled foreign policy and domestic politics in the last 12 months has contributed to social division and Israeli and Jewish isolation.
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