Shame on Wong, Albanese for Labor anti-Israel stance

Few groups in this country have the resilience of Australia’s Jewish community. After centuries of anti-Semitism it has developed a fighting spirit virtually unseen in our modern world. The Labor government, led by Anthony Albanese, has taken this resilience for granted, and abandoned it during an unprecedented torrent of Jew-hatred here. The maelstrom of anti-Semitism sweeping our nation can only be stemmed by denying pro-Hamas demonstrators the opportunity to express their hate. With calls to free Palestine “from the river to the sea” (effectively calling for the total annihilation of the Jewish state and its people), it’s clear this is not limited to critique of Israel’s war conduct. This attitude must not be allowed to take root and pollute the wider Australian society with an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel ideology. As philosopher Edmund Burke said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Joe Benson, Alice Springs, NT

As The Australian’s excellent editorial points out, it is surprising that it’s taken so long for Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, to rebuke Penny Wong and the Albanese government over its unconscionable criticism of Israel (“Wong makes a mess on Israel”, 19/12). Wong’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. Preposterous too is her support and continued funding of the compromised UN Relief and Works Agency. The support of biased anti-Israel UN resolutions, which are not tied to the release of hostages, can be compared to her and the government’s weak posture in the face of Chinese aggression.

Alan Franklin, St Ives, NSW

The Australian was right to call out Penny Wong’s “odious comparison” of Israel with authoritarian Russia and China in her recent Bob Hawke Lecture. And good on Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, for taking Wong to task; it’s an admonishment millions of Australians would support. Peter Dutton would have been the more appropriate politician to deliver the lecture.

With his trip to Israel, Dutton paid his respect at two sites of the Hamas terrorist attacks, Kibbutz Be’eri and the Nova music festival. Indeed, Dutton is the first Australian politician to meet Benjamin Netanyahu since October 7. Bob Hawke’s prescient words, “If the bell tolls for Israel … it will toll for all mankind”, are being deliberately dishonoured by both Wong and Anthony Albanese.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

I hope the people of Israel and Australia’s Jewish community know that the majority of this country is with you in your fight against terrorism and your fight for democracy and the rule of law. I think most people are ashamed of Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong in their completely unprincipled stand against Israel and their bid to shore up the local Muslim vote for the coming election.

Victoria Webster, Norwood, SA

I note that green-left pro-Palestinian protesters have been conspicuously silent during the many decades in which atrocities were committed by the Assad regime in Syria. This silence extends to the absence of protesting against other human rights abuses committed by dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, including Hamas. It falls upon Israel, being the Middle East’s only democratic country, to be singled out for noisy protests by people who turn a blind eye to the acute absence of civil liberties and high incidence of violence found in other countries in that region of the world.

Shaun Miller, Prahran, Vic

The Australian quotes Foreign Minister Penny Wong as saying: “Australia …(has) been calling for a ceasefire, for the release of hostages and for the provision of aid into Gaza’’ (“Israeli minister rips into Wong”, 19/12). There are two things wrong with Wong’s statement. First, aid is flowing into Gaza from Israel at a rate many times greater than that to every other war zone on the planet, one of the worst being Sudan, where the UNHRC reports “25 million people including 14 million children are in dire need of humanitarian assistance”. Has anyone heard Wong comment on that? Second, her list of priorities “ceasefire … the release of hostages” is in the reverse order. Hamas kidnapped the non-combatant civilians, not all Israelis, which initiated this conflict. Their release and a ceasefire must be set in the same sequence.

Alan Slade, Dover Heights, NSW