John Howard demands Anthony Albanese stop Labor’s ‘pussyfooting’ on Hamas terrorists

John Howard has demanded Anthony Albanese display ‘leadership from the top’ to stop Labor’s ‘pussyfooting’ response to the Hamas terror atrocities.

A NSW Police officer confronts pro-Palestine supporters at Sydney’s Circular Quay Station on Monday. Picture: David Swift

John Howard has demanded ­Anthony Albanese display “leadership from the top” to stop Labor’s “pussyfooting” response to the Hamas terror atrocities and ­labelled anti-Israeli protests at the Sydney Opera House a “catastrophic descent from civility”.

As Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Hamas terrorists in Gaza with a military response that would “echo throughout the generations”, federal and NSW Labor faced outrage from the Jewish community over the handling of pro-Palestinian protesters who burned the Israeli flag and chanted anti-Semitic slurs in Sydney on Sunday and Monday nights.

Two of the most senior federal ministers from western Sydney – Tony Burke and Chris Bowen – were under pressure for failing to full-throatedly condemn local anti-­Israel preachers and activists who led the two NSW rallies celebrating Hamas’s attacks. And NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley refused to apologise for officers telling Sydney’s Jewish community to avoid the Opera House – which was being lit up in the ­colours of the Israeli flag in commemoration of Israel’s war dead and hostages – as they let an unauthorised group of 700 protesters march to the site and throw flares at the steps.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday called for calm in the community, as he said nothing justified the slaughter wrought by Hamas.

“We need to lower the temperature,” Mr Albanese said. “I don’t want to see conflict here in Australia and I don’t want to see the sort of scenes that I saw last night ... they certainly don’t have a place.”

Mr Howard on Tuesday called on all sides of politics to condemn Hamas and its sympathisers, as he accused Labor widely of being “hugely conflicted” on the issue. He said Foreign Minister Penny Wong appeared “uncomfortable” in her condemnations, and ­signalled the Prime Minister was not being unequivocal in his support of Israel.

Former prime minister John Howard. Picture: Jane Dempster

“When 9/11 occurred there was unanimity of response. I was in America, Kim Beazley was leader of the Labor Party and there wasn’t a cigarette paper between us. He completely supported our position,” Mr Howard told The Australian.

“This should be the same ... Mr Albanese should make some unequivocal statements, as should the Foreign Minister.

“Instead of that there is pussyfooting and lukewarm condemnation. And then you have the NSW Attorney-General (Michael Daley) saying everyone should remain calm and go home.

“How can you remain calm when demonstrators are invoking the memory of the Holocaust? People remain calm in that?

“I never thought we would crumple to this ... We need leadership from the top; we aren’t getting that at the moment.”

Mr Howard praised NSW Premier Chris Minns’ strong condemnation of the protests and said all politicians should show solidarity with Australian Jews.

“You can have strong views, you can argue about the Middle East but for people to invoke the memory of the most appalling crime in humanity, the extermination of six million Jews in gas chambers is terrible,” Mr Howard said. “It’s totally beyond the pale as far as I’m concerned. ... To have people chanting those things, it is a catastrophic decent from civility that I never thought I’d see.

“If you’re a law-abiding Jewish person in Sydney who wanted to go along to the Opera House and (were) told you had to stay at home, what is this?

“There is no room here for moral equivalence, when you have people murdering babies.”

It emerged on Tuesday that Mr Albanese was yet to hold a national security committee meeting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, despite 10,000 Australians being in the war-torn country and the potential hit to the global economy.

The NSC brings together the nation’s most senior ministers, ­intelligence and military chiefs and top diplomats and mandarins.

Sources said no meeting of the NSC had been called, and none yet scheduled, despite Mr Albanese getting daily briefings on the war in Israel. Mr Albanese branded the protests at the Opera House “horrific” and said they should not have taken place.

Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun at a rally showing support of Palestine, in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba.

“They’re horrific, quite clearly slogans which are anti-Semitic and just appalling, with no place. And I did say that that demonstration shouldn’t have gone ahead and I stand by that. We are a tolerant, multicultural nation.

“I understand that people have deep views about issues relating to the Middle East conflict, but here in Australia, we have to deal with political discourse in a ­respectful way.

“And I certainly didn’t see that from the footage that I saw last night, which is one of the reasons why I believe it was just inappropriate for it to go ahead last night.”

But his Leader of the House, Mr Burke, failed to directly condemn a preacher in his electorate who said he was elated at the murder of Israelis. The head of the nation’s peak Jewish body, Alex Ryvchin, called on the Workplace Relations Minister to “repudiate this incitement in the harshest and clearest terms”. The criticism came after a rally took place in Lakemba in Mr Burke’s southwest Sydney electorate, during which speakers described attacks on ­Israel as an act of “courage” and “resistance”.

Mr Ryvchin, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive, said the fact Mr Burke had said “nothing about what took place in his electorate shows a complete lack of leadership when it is needed most”.

“It cannot be that the loudest voices are those calling for Jews to be gassed while the voices of moderation, peace and tolerance are entirely absent,” Mr Ryvchin said. “Burke and his colleagues have much to answer for.”

Mr Burke on Tuesday condemned the actions of Hamas and said it was an “extraordinarily ­difficult time for anyone who is worried about their loved ones”.

“Increasing anger and division in Australia will not help anyone who is at risk and I urge everyone to try to keep the situation here in Australia as calm as possible,” Mr Burke said. “I condemn the actions of Hamas. Attacks on civilians are never justified. I hope and pray for the safety of everyone at risk in ­Israel and in Gaza.”

Mr Bowen, the Energy Minister, also failed to make any direct condemnation of Hamas or its supporters in Australia, saying only that he supported Mr Albanese’s position. “The Prime Minister has made the government’s position on these marches crystal clear. I fully support that position,” Mr Bowen said.

Additional reporting: Alexi Demetriadi