Albanese, Wong defend Australia’s stance on Israel following criticism from Netanyahu

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has castigated opponents blaming the government for rising antisemitism, and Anthony Albanese has stood by his diplomatic posture towards Israel after Benjamin Netanyahu tied Labor’s “extreme anti-Israel position” to the firebombing of a synagogue.

The Israeli prime minister’s extraordinary statement has placed global attention on deteriorating relations between Australia and its long-time friendly nation in the Middle East, sparking calls from the pro-Israel opposition to urgently mend ties and intensifying a dispute over Labor’s management of tensions stemming from the war.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the arsonists behind the synagogue fire should face the full force of the law.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Wong characterised the criticism of Labor’s approach as grounded in politics, not facts, emphasising that Labor’s voting in the UN was aligned with like-minded nations such as Canada and Britain, whose diplomats have increasingly lost patience with Israel’s long-running war effort.

“Turning this into a political fight is reckless even for [Opposition Leader] Peter Dutton,” she told this masthead in a statement. “The Liberals also used to support a balanced, two-state solution, but now they see political advantage in trying to reproduce the conflict here.”

The Coalition, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Jewish groups savaged Albanese for what they said was his failure to more forcefully call out antisemitism, while the opposition backed Netanyahu’s comments as the nation reacted to Friday’s shocking arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea, in Melbourne’s south-east.

Federal counterterrorism officials have now begun to investigate the incident, after Victoria’s Counter Terrorism Command was called in on Friday. The motive and suspects remain unknown.

The prime minister spoke at a Perth synagogue on Saturday, without the media in attendance, in a display of support for the Australian Jewish community. Neither he nor any ministers held press conferences on Saturday.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson accused Labor of “giving encouragement to extremists” by shifting away from Israel.

While neither Albanese nor Wong directly addressed Israel’s prime minister in their comments, their remarks represented a full-throated defence of Australia’s positioning and hit back at Netanyahu’s broader criticism that Labor has abandoned Israel and given succour to anti-Israel hate.

In separate remarks, Albanese told this masthead he wanted the alleged arsonists behind the “un-Australian and antisemitic” synagogue fire caught and to face the full force of the law, and defended the government’s contentious voting record in the UN that Netanyahu said was “impossible to separate” from the arson.

Senator James Paterson accused Labor of encouraging extremists.Credit: Joe Armao

“157 countries voted for that resolution, including four of the Five Eyes partners – Australia, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand as well as Japan and other regional partners,” Albanese said.

“The same resolution was supported by the Howard government for a number of years.
Our vote was consistent with the long-held bipartisan position of support for a two-state solution: the State of Israel and a Palestinian state side by side behind secure borders.”

Wong noted that “in our democracy, Australians are free to support or disagree with the actions of Israel”, cutting across Netanyahu’s claim that “anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism”.

She added: “But disagreement must not be used as a cloak for prejudice. Targeting the Australian Jewish community is an act of antisemitism and utterly unacceptable.”

In a statement posted to social media expressing his shock at the “classic, despicable, antisemitic incident” at the Adass Israel Synagogue, Netanyahu pointed to Australia’s “scandalous decision” to vote in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip earlier this week, along with its refusal to grant a visa to a former Israeli minister last month.

In response to Netanyahu’s claim on the nature of antisemitism, Australia’s envoy against antisemitism Jillian Segal said criticism of Israel veered into antisemitism when it held Israel to a different standard to other nations or called for the erasure of the state.

“But not all criticism of Israel by any means is antisemitic,” she said in an interview, adding that ongoing pro-Palestine protests and displays of terror insignia in Melbourne and Sydney had created a “culture of permissibility” that likely led to the firebombing.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, whom the opposition criticised for allegedly not taking swift action after the synagogue attack, confirmed late on Saturday afternoon that federal counterterrorism officials were now probing the incident.

Josh Frydenberg and Nova Peris speak in Caulfield South, Melbourne, on Saturday.Credit: Ashleigh McMillan

Earlier in the day, former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg called on Albanese to declare the firebombing a terrorist attack and create a national police taskforce to combat antisemitism, escalating the domestic political dispute over the Gaza conflict that has plagued the government since the October 7 attacks.

Frydenberg and pro-Israel former Labor senator Nova Peris held a joint press conference near the synagogue site, at which Peris said she was sad to denounce her party’s rhetoric and policies towards Israel.

“The prime minister doesn’t speak out with any conviction, with any clarity; without any courage against the misuse of that terminology,” Frydenberg said. “This is not about other forms of hate, this is not about Islamophobia.

“If there’s a fence to sit on, he finds it. He gives us mealy-mouthed words that mean nothing and lead to nothing.”

Former Australian ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma, now a Liberal senator, said Netanyahu was not attempting to act in a partisan manner, and that he probably held genuine concern about Australia’s diplomatic positioning and the safety of Jews in what has traditionally been a country with less antisemitic sentiment than Europe.

Sharma noted: “The way his words carry internationally is an asset for him politically domestically.”

The local dispute comes against the backdrop of Israel’s year-long war launched in response to Hamas’ murder of 1200 Israelis. Netanyahu and Hamas leaders have been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, and Netanyahu has become increasingly isolated on the world stage as civilian deaths have grown and Israel’s exit plan in Gaza has not become apparent.

Paterson called for the prime minister to confirm whether the national security committee of cabinet had met, and to allow the opposition leader to be briefed by Australian Federal Police.

“When there is a serious national security incident like this, the normal course of events is [that] the opposition is provided with a briefing, but … it has not yet been granted.”

The recent UN vote on Israel and Palestine marked a two-decade change in Australia’s position on the matter and coincided with Australia’s ambassador to Israel, Ralph King, being summoned by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar over the earlier decision to deny a former Israeli minister entry to Australia.

The last time Australia voted for a UN resolution calling for ­Israel to withdraw from occupied territories was in 2001. In May, Australia voted to recognise Palestine as qualified to become a full UN member, and last month, Australia backed a resolution recognising the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinians” over resources in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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