Policy change on Israel a failure, time to apologise
On May 11, 1949 Australia was one of 37 countries to vote in favour of Israel’s membership of the United Nations. Since then there has been overwhelming bipartisan support in Australia for co-operation with Israel in trade, security, technology, the environment, medicine and diplomacy.
This public engagement has been part of a broader Western position that recognised the existential horrors of World War II against the Jewish people necessitated a safe homeland. Yet throughout this time there have also been those dedicated to the destruction of that homeland, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. It was this same desire to destroy the state of Israel that underpinned the attacks of October 7, 2023.
What was not expected, though, was that the savage attacks at the Nova concert and kibbutz Be’eri and other sites would foreshadow a change in Australian policy away from Israel and also trigger an unprecedented and escalating plague of anti-Semitism here.
It did not have to be so. Australian policy could have been different, and it could still be different.
However, to identify where Australia went wrong it is important to understand what lay behind the Hamas attacks 16 months ago. The loss of life on all sides since the atrocities of October 7 is agonising. However, let me be clear that the pathology was Hamas seeking to use Israeli citizens as human targets to deliberately incite a response, and use their own citizens, especially women and children, as human shields.
It deliberately sought to use citizens on both sides as human sacrifices. In that context the atrocities arguably had four strategic objectives: First, to unleash a wave of unrestrained barbarism against, in particular, Jewish women and children, so as to bring agony and terror to Israel.
Second, to provoke a response that would draw Israel into Gaza with the purpose of miring and defeating them in the sandbox of urban warfare.
Third, to provoke an allied military response from Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran and perhaps other neighbouring states that would militarily degrade, defeat or destroy Israel and eradicate the Jewish inhabitants. And finally, to isolate Israel diplomatically from friends and allies.
Undoubtedly, the Hamas atrocities brought unimaginable agony, but they failed to achieve the first three strategic objectives in the face of Israel’s response. However, the change of policy in Australia has meant the Australian government has perversely aided Hamas’s objective of diplomatically isolating Israel.
Fortunately, the continued commitment to Israel of the Biden and Trump administrations has meant this isolation, while painful, has not been ultimately successful. But it has hurt.
When Hamas welcomes the Australian government’s approach and Israel rejects its approach, it is pretty clear something is wrong with how the government has responded to October 7. This has had profound domestic consequences.
The government’s actions and inactions have, in my view, permitted the dark forces of anti-Semitism to rise in Australia far more rapidly and extensively than they would have otherwise done. This was not the intention – but it was the foreseeable consequence of government action and inaction.
This then must stop: the government should now take three steps to stand against terrorism and anti-Semitism. First, it should co-sponsor a resolution at the UN that restores Australia’s longstanding policy position and reaffirms there should be no two-state solution without Israel, nor until Hamas has been displaced as the government of Gaza, and not until the Palestinian government recognises Israel’s right to exist.
Ironically, a two-state solution is more likely to occur under these clear conditions than under the new Australian position where recognition of Palestinian statehood is blind to Hamas continuing its authoritarian rule of Gaza.
Second, there should be a national parliamentary apology to Australia’s Jewish population for the rise of anti-Semitism and the dark stain it has left on so many lives. An acknowledgment of the failures that have led to this moment would help bring accountability and healing.
And third, there should be a national bipartisan summit on combating anti-Semitism, involving the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, state and territory leaders, Jewish community leaders, and police leadership from all jurisdictions.
The simple goal must be a redoubled safety and counter-terrorism plan to combat all forms of anti-Semitism with practical community safety, policing and deradicalisation initiatives.
While the federal government has changed its position, civilian co-operation through projects such as AUSiMED have remained constant in trying to build medical and humanitarian bridges between Australia, Israel and the Palestinian people. AUSiMED is a medical research partnership between Australia and Israel to which the Lowy Foundation has contributed more than $1.5m. It is a powerful example of how civilian co-operation and medical research can build ties between people, religions and cultures.
Greg Hunt is honorary enterprise professor at the University of Melbourne, and a former federal health minister. This is an edited speech for an AUSiMED event on Monday to honour Steven Lowy.
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