Bob Carr: Donald Trump may unleash Israel over settlements

Bob Carr has declared Donald Trump’s election could empower Israel to seize the West Bank.

Donald Trump, left, at Trump Tower. Picture: AP.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr has declared Donald Trump’s election could empower Israel to seize the West Bank, comments that will stir a growing debate within Labor about its ­position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mr Carr, an influential voice within NSW Labor’s dominant Right ­faction, said Mr Trump’s election could ­“unleash (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to approve a rash of new settlements and even annex the West Bank … that would destroy a two-state ­solution”.

“If that happened, nobody would be getting up at a (Labor) conference to shield a Trump-Netanyahu axis from the strongest criticism,” Mr Carr said.

His comments come as groundwork is laid for NSW Labor’s conference, due to be held in July, and follow sharp divisions in the US over its abstention from a UN vote demanding an end to Israeli settlements “in the occupied Palestinian territory”.

Secretary of State John Kerry, in a speech on Wednesday, again rebuked Mr Netanyahu, saying the West Bank was being “broken up into small parcels like a Swiss cheese than can never constitute a real state”.

Tensions within the NSW Right, formally known as Centre Unity, are expected to increase over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as policy committees begin to meet and discuss motions in February for the conference. Any toughening of the Right’s stand against Israel would represent a rebuke against Mr Shorten, who enjoys the support of the faction.

Labor’s position recognises a commitment to a two-state solution, and notes “settlement building by Israel in the occupied territories that may undermine a two-state solution is a roadblock to peace”.

NSW Labor general secretary Kaila Murnain said the party’s position was “unanimously ­supported” at the last conference. However, that position was ­arrived at after months of negotiations within the NSW Right and NSW Left and the wider party.

At times, those negotiations included federal and state players including deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek, frontbenchers Tony Burke, Jason Clare and Mark Dreyfus, state health spokesman Walt Secord, and Mr Carr. Those talks would make it more difficult for the party to change its policy again.

Mr Carr, noting the Labor platform included the recognition of a Palestinian state if progress toward a peace deal was not made, said it was “ridiculous to speculate about future policy because the international situation is so fluid.

“Trump could bully both sides to get on with final status negotiations based on two states, that would astonish the world and render him an unlikely statesman,” he said.

Some within the Right have raised concerns about Mr Shorten’s meetings with Israeli politicians, including Mr Netanyahu. The Australian last week reported that state MP Shaoquett Moselmane, linking to a tweet from Mr Shorten’s account praising Mr Netanyahu as “a good friend of Australia”, said the Israeli leader should be tried for international human rights violations.

In an email circulating among party members, a former candidate suggests the Queensland Labor Friends of Palestine and its partner organisation in NSW should work “to entrench the recognition of Palestine as federal Labor policy before the next federal election”. However, senior Queensland sources indicated it would be unlikely such a motion would receive wider support.

Acting Opposition Leader Chris Bowen said Labor had “long supported, and continues to support, a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. “We support Israel’s right to exist within secure and recognised boundaries and the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Settlement building on occupied Palestinian land that undermines a two-state solution is a roadblock to peace. Labor has called on Israel to halt settlement expansion and to support renewed negotiations toward peace.”