Frydenberg pushes for Israel embassy move to Jerusalem

Josh Frydenberg has launched a forceful pitch for the government to follow through with moving its Israeli embassy to ­Jerusalem.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Scott Morrison in Singapore yesterday. Picture: EPA

Josh Frydenberg has launched a forceful pitch for the government to follow through with moving its Israeli embassy to ­Jerusalem, despite a regional backlash and domestic pressure to influence Scott Morrison’s ­review.

The Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader said yesterday the government would not be “backing off” considering the move, and laid out the reasons why it should proceed.

The Prime Minister was forced yesterday to fend off critic­ism of his Israel embassy revie­w from Indonesia and Malays­ia, and accusations by Bill Shorten that Mr Morrison was making Australia “look stupid”.

In addition to threats from Indon­esia to stall a bilateral free-trade deal, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned Mr Morrison he risked encouraging terrorism if Aust­ralia relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv.

In response to the inter­national and domestic criticism, Mr Frydenberg — a Jewish MP — told Sky News that Canberra already accepted Israel’s sovereignty over West Jerusalem.

“There will be people who say to you that Australia shouldn’t move its embassy to Jerusalem but let me tell you why I believe Scott Morrison’s absolutely right to make a principled statement that we now are beginning a proces­s to consider,” he said.

“There is a fundamental point here, that the government is not backing off: Australia determines its own foreign policy ­decisions around the locations of its embassies.”

Mr Frydenberg said that under a two-state solution it was accepted that Jerusalem would be the capital of Israel, and that it was flawed thinking to believe the international strategy to hold out from moving embassies would encourage the peace process.

“I can tell you right now that the peace process is frozen and as long as Hamas are in control of Gaza — Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation — then you’re not going to get a deal between the parties.”

Mr Frydenberg said Indonesia would always have a different view on Israel from Australia, and Canberra shared “values and histor­y” with Israel.

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, a strong supporter of Israel, also backed Mr Morrison and accused Labor of wanting to “subcontract” foreign policy to foreign governments. Mr Pyne said if Australia moved the Tel Aviv embas­sy it would also set up a diplomatic post in East Jerusalem.

“If we moved our embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem after this process has been completed, if that’s the recommend­ation, it would be in the capital of Israel, which is Jerusalem,” Mr Pyne said. “In the event that there is a second state in Palestine, in the West Bank and Gaza, their capital would be likely to be East Jerusalem … and you would expec­t that Australia would then open an embassy in East Jeru­salem in the state of Palestine.”

Meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Singapore yesterday, Dr Mahathir said he had raised the issue with Mr Morrison, suggesting that ongoing posturing over the embassy move was not “helpful”.

After the meeting, Dr Mahathir — renowned for trading barbs with Australian leaders, including Paul Keating in the 1990s — said he pointed out to Mr Morrison that “in dealing with terrorism, one has to know the causes”.

“Adding to the cause for terror­ism is not going to be helpful,” he said. “I pointed that out. Australia has not made any decis­ion. They’re looking into it.”

Dr Mahathir’s comments came a week after Pellegrini’s cafe owner Sisto Malaspina was killed in an alleged Melbourne terror attack.

The Prime Minister hit back at the Opposition Leader, saying foreign governments should not have veto over Australian policies, and accusing him of being “quick to take cues on Australia’s foreign policy from those outside Australia”.

“Bill Shorten doesn’t want to consider this question at all,” Mr Morrison said.

“I’ve put in place a process to do it properly and to ensure the position we ultimately arrived at is one consistent with Australian interests and not related to other matters, because Australia has to be sovereign in determining its foreign policy. We can’t have it determined by any other nation.”

The relocation, floated before the by-election last month in Wentworth, which has a large number of Jewish voters, has strained relations with Indonesia and left the two nations’ already-concluded free-trade agreement hanging in the balance.

Jakarta is one of the Palestinian state’s strongest supporters. The US decision to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem earlier this year sparked angry, mass demonstrations outside its Indonesian mission.

Mr Morrison has talked down the difficulties that the embassy discussion has created with Jakart­a. He said on Wednesday that Indonesian President Joko Widodo did not conflate the issue­s of the Israel embassy and the trade deal during their Singapore meeting.

Indonesian Trade Minister Eng­gartiasto Lukita said this week the issue had derailed the signing of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and that the deal was unlikely to be signed without an assurance the embas­sy would remain in Tel Aviv.

Former top defence official Brendan Sargeant, who opposes shifting the Australian embassy, said Mr Morrison had no choice but to follow through with the revie­w of its location.

“I don’t think Jakarta should determine our foreign policy, but we should be sensitive to concern­s and how they might see Australia,” Mr Sargeant said.