The friendship between Australia and Israel is on life support. There is a lot of blame to go around

Australia’s once-friendly relationship with Israel has spiralled from simmering tension into outright hostility after a remarkably caustic intervention into Australian domestic politics by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a scathing social media post, Netanyahu went significantly further than Israel’s top diplomat in Australia or any of the nation’s leading pro-Israel organisations by accusing the government of taking an “extreme anti-Israeli position”. He also directly linked Friday’s arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue to Australia’s “scandalous” voting record at the United Nations and the decision to decline a visa to a former Israeli cabinet minister.

Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the Albanese government for the Melbourne synagogue attack.Credit: Getty Images, Alex Ellinghausen

He also appeared, in a stunningly broad claim, to suggest that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic.

Netanyahu’s post marks a turning point in the Australia-Israel relationship: one that has traditionally been described as a friendship, and often, inaccurately, as an alliance. Now the gloves are off, and diplomatic niceties have been thrown into the bin.

The attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea certainly appears to be a disgraceful antisemitic attack. Naturally, many people presumed the perpetrators were motivated by opposition to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. As of now, though, we have only suspicions, not evidence. At the time of writing, police have not identified any suspects or made any arrests. We don’t know what the attackers’ motivations were and whether they have been influenced by the Albanese government’s actions.

Compare Netanyahu’s rhetoric with that of Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, just a few hours earlier: “I don’t hold the government, the Albanese government, as responsible for the rise [in antisemitism],” Maimon said at a press conference outside the Israeli embassy in Canberra.

The destroyed interior of the Adass Israel synagogue.

Maimon said he was “disappointed” with Labor’s change in voting positions at the UN but added: “You don’t measure a relationship based on one or two votes.”

Netanyahu’s social media post deserves scrutiny. He blasted Australia’s decision to vote in favour of a motion on Wednesday calling for Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as soon as possible. Australia’s vote was indeed an important shift, given it had abstained or voted against similar motions since 2001. It is entirely legitimate to disagree with the decision, question its timing or criticise the way the government has explained the rationale for the shift.

But can it really be branded scandalous and extreme, given 157 nations voted in favour of the motion, with just eight abstaining and seven voting against? Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, France and Germany all voted in favour of the resolution.

Some self-reflection would not go astray from Israel’s leaders and advocates about why the nation has become so isolated on the international stage. The war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ monstrous massacres on October 7, 2023, has stretched on for more than a year with no end in sight and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians dead.

The two-state solution is going nowhere under Netanyahu’s government, the most far-right in Israeli history. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently called for Palestinians to be encouraged to migrate from Gaza so that Israeli settlers can move in, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is preparing plans to annex the Palestinian-dominated West Bank. Netanyahu, the great survivor of Israeli politics, is a divisive leader who has been ordered to take the stand on corruption charges and has been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Which is not to say the Albanese government has masterfully handled its relationship with Israel. It clearly has not, given that Australia is being singled out for such vituperative attacks. Relations got off to a rocky start in 2022 when the government caught Israel off guard with the timing of its decision to no longer recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Many Israelis were offended that Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not visit a kibbutz massacre site when she visited Israel in January, unlike some other foreign dignitaries. Australian Jewish community leaders are fuming over what they describe as a lack of government consultation and declining access to key decision-makers. They say relations between Labor and the Jewish community have never been worse.

Albanese has repeatedly condemned the rise in antisemitic incidents over the past year, but he has not gone far enough for many in the Jewish community. This includes some Jewish Labor members, who believe Albanese and his colleagues have minimised attacks on the Jewish community by regularly following their condemnation of antisemitism with criticism of Islamophobia. “We need leadership,” says Nick Dyrenfurth, who is Jewish and leads the Labor-aligned John Curtin Research Centre think tank. “It is time to call out antisemitism without reference to any other ‘isms’.”

Then there is Netanyahu’s coda: “Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism.” Such a sweeping statement leaves no room for civil disagreement or nuanced debate. In Israel, there is lively and often heated discussion about Netanyahu’s leadership, Israel’s strategy in Gaza and the question of a two-state solution. A survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute this month found that six in 10 Israelis are pessimistic about the future of democratic governance in their country. They are presumably not antisemitic.

Wong this week said: “Australia supports and has historically been a friend of Israel.” That longstanding friendship is now on life support, and the Australia-Israel relationship has descended into dysfunctionality and acrimony. For that, there is lots of blame to go around.

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