OPINION
The Albanese government continues to try to walk a barbed-wire fence on Israel. While Foreign Minister Penny Wong is at least acknowledging Israel’s right to self-defence, she is also parroting the “protect civilians” line – a tacit accusation that Israel is somehow deliberately targeting civilians.
Elsewhere, though, the government’s response is a shambles, as it too-obviously tries to pander to its crucial, Muslim-dominated electorates in Sydney’s West, as well as mollifying the ferally antisemitic Greens.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has pushed back against Greens’ demands that she condemn Israel’s siege of Gaza as a war crime, while intensifying her call for the Jewish State to protect civilian lives as it defends itself against Hamas.
Senator Wong told a Senate estimates hearing that “the way Israel exercises its right to defend itself matters”, warning the hopes of peace in the region “will recede even further” if Palestinian civilians suffer for “the outrages perpetrated by Hamas”.
Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John called on Senator Wong in Senate estimates to brand Israel’s actions as a “textbook example of collective punishment”.
To her credit, Wong politely told the odious Steele-John where to shove it.
Elsewhere, though, the government’s response is all over the place.
DFAT officials said the government’s position on the strike on a Gaza hospital was guided by the US National Security Council, which found the rocket was fired by Hamas rather than Israel.
Which is not at all what the PM insinuated, earlier, when he tweeted about “targeting civilian infrastructure”. In other words, like so many others on the left, it appears that he uncritically swallowed Hamas’ propaganda.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham noted a tweet by Anthony Albanese saying following the explosion at the hospital in which he condemned the “targeting of civilian infrastructure”, suggesting it be deleted.
Senator Birmingham also referred to recent US sanctions against Hamas and its international operatives, asking why Australia had not enacted similar sanctions […]
DFAT officials confirmed Mr Albanese was yet to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the October 7 attack on his country.
Albanese is also having to deal with the reckoning of Labor’s shameful capitulation to its virulently antisemitic left factions. At its most recent national conference, left factions successfully demanded that Labor formally recognise a “Palestinian state” and other anti-Israel policy changes.
There was some confusion among officials over the implications of the government’s new policy of referring to Gaza and the West Bank as the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
Under questioning by Liberal Senator David Fawcett, DFAT secretary Jan Adams said she was unable to say whether that meant the government agreed with pro-Palestinian protesters that Gaza had been “occupied” by Israel for 75 years.
“Given the recent change in the terminology used by the government of ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’, does DFAT support that view that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for 75 years?” he said.
Ms Adams said she couldn’t immediately answer the question because the department’s Middle East team had been dismissed for the day to return to the government’s crisis response.
“I don’t think I’m going to give a yes or no answer to that. The terminology question has been discussed before. I have nothing new to say on the terminology,” she said.
Senator Wong also declined to address the protesters’ claim, saying instead: “Australia supports Israel’s right to exist.”
The Australian
How very generous of them.
Elsewhere, and unsurprisingly, Labor’s Muslim MPs are vociferously attacking the Jewish state for defending itself against Hamas butchers.
Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic and Early Childhood Education Minister Dr Anne Aly are the “first two” MPs in Australian history to accuse Israel of “war crimes”, according to Former Victorian Liberal Party President Michael Kroger […]
“Albanese needs to condemn these two because what Israel is doing is defending their country from the slaughterous barbarians that are Hamas.”
MSN
He won’t, of course. Not while a swathe of Labor seats in Western Sydney, including several held by ministers, need the Muslim vote.
As for Aly, the supposed “de-radicalisation expert” might want to start de-radicalising a little closer to home.