UN vote shift ‘for two-state solution’

Labor’s support for a UN resolution recognising the ‘permanent state’ of Palestine will ‘build momentum’ to a long-term solution in the region, according to frontbencher Jason Clare.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators call for the West to stop selling arms to Israel.

Labor’s support for a UN resolution recognising the “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians to the occupied territories’ natural resources will “build momentum to a two-state solution”, according to Labor frontbencher Jason Clare, who also delivered a veiled swipe at Israel for attempting to “bomb its way to peace”.

The move by the Albanese government to back a draft resolution at the UN in New York this week, which also called on compensation from Israel for a wartime oil spill affecting Lebanon 18 years ago, sparked outrage from the Coalition, Jewish groups and experts for further jeopardising any bipartisanship on the issue and breaking with the US.

But Mr Clare, whose Sydney seat of Blaxland has one of the highest proportions of Muslim voters in the country, played down any potential diplomatic fallout following the move.

“The incoming US president has made the point he wants peace too, and I think the whole world wants peace,” Mr Clare told Sunrise on Friday.

“We want the hostages returned, we want an end to the killing and the slaughter. We want an end to the starvation of little kids in the Middle East as well. That requires an end of the shooting and the bombing, and people to get together and talk. That’s what this is about.”

Mr Clare faced backlash from Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley, who said Labor was already coming off a low base with the incoming Trump administration and needed to urgently build trust rather than break from its ally on such an important element of foreign policy.

“I’m not sure why the Albanese government has chosen this point in time to break ranks with the US administration. They have also broken a promise that there wouldn’t be differences between the major parties when it comes to Israel, Palestine and the Middle East,” she said, as part of the Sunrise panel with Mr Clare.

The two frontbenchers descended into a fiery exchange, during which Mr Clare ignored Ms Ley’s comments on the impact to the US relationship by simply asking four times: “Did you vote against a ceasefire?”

Minister for Education, Jason Clare MP. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

In the wake of questions over how Donald Trump’s election would impact the US’s stance on the Middle East, the Republican leader this week named his picks for key positions, including several pro-Israel hawks.

Labor’s support for the UN draft resolution, elements of which Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government did not agree with, was blasted by former Defence deputy secretary Peter Jennings as “a failed political strategy to try and win Muslim votes”.

“The government is clearly very focused on making quite a dramatic shift in our policy towards Israel, without ever really explaining or justifying why they’re doing that,” he said.

“People just need to realise this is actually very radical … it’s made even more puzzling when you look at the arrival of the Trump presidency and clearly what is going to be a very strong pro-Israel stance.”

Labor’s shift in position follows the Middle East conflict expanding to involve Lebanon and the ongoing “settler violence against Palestinians”.

“We have been clear that such acts undermine stability and ­prospects for a two-state solution,” Senator Wong’s spokeswoman said.

However, despite cynicism over Labor using the UN vote in an effort to win more Muslim votes at the next election, due by May, former Labor strategist and pollster Kos Samaras said the move would not shift the dial for such cohorts.

“Obviously, the Muslim community want Labor to be a lot more hardline on this issue, and I just think that this is not going to appease those voters wanting more,” he said. “I still expect both in Blaxland and Watson the primary to fall. The unknown is how much that’s going to fall.”

Strategic Analysis founder Michael Shoebridge said the support of the UN draft resolution was “performative virtue-signalling from the Albanese government”.