‘Back on track’? Why that’s the wrong question on Israel
Anthony Albanese was recently asked how to get the “relationship with Israel back on track from here”. But do we want to, asks Amy Remeikis.
Source: Sky News Australia
“Prime Minister, how do you get the relationship with Israel back on track from here?”
This was a question asked of Anthony Albanese on Wednesday, after alleged war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu denounced him as a “weak” leader who had “abandoned Australian Jews” and “betrayed Israel”.
What led to this? Australia is joining most of the rest of the world in the (largely symbolic) act of recognising Palestine and has cancelled the visas of far-right Israeli politicians who called Palestinian children “little snakes” and the “enemy”. Children.
Netanyahu is wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Palestinians are being deliberately starved through Israel’s policies.
It is not an allegation that Israel has plans for the mass removal of Palestinians in Gaza, it is documented. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, most of them women and children, and that is just the numbers we have from when Gaza still had infrastructure in place.
We have no idea how many are still trapped beneath the rubble. No way of counting the missing. Israel’s forces are not fighting against a military. There is no safe place for people in Gaza, no way out, and no way to be safe.
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And still, STILL, our leaders are being asked “how do we get the relationship with Israel back on track?”.
When do we stop pretending that Israel has any moral authority to criticise any other nation state?
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke managed to hold back most of his exasperation in an interview with ABC’s RN Breakfast Wednesday morning when he said that “strength” “is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry”.
For two years, the Albanese cabinet has been split on how strongly it reacts to Israel’s incursions in Palestine. There has been a long-held view, repeated publicly, that this is not Australia’s fight, and the risk of domestic damage, through upsetting the Israel lobby and the right-wing apparatus outweighed any good from Australia taking a stand.
The ongoing protests, culminating in the Sydney Harbour Bridge march, radically altered that. There can be no denying that this is not the “fringe” issue some in the Labor cabinet were desperately attempting to paint it as. There can be no denying that Australia has a moral obligation to stand up for international and humanitarian law. There is no denying that at some point in the future, when the political winds have finished shifting, there will be a reckoning and what Israel has done in Gaza will be officially classified as a genocide, and Israeli figures will be on trial for war crimes.
Thousands of protesters marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of action on Gaza. Picture: AAP
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Under these circumstances, as signatories to international conventions against war crimes and crimes against humanity, Australia’s relationship with Israel SHOULD be uncomfortable. It’s the price of taking a (long overdue) stand.
But this isn’t a position Australia has been in for some time. Having settled into its role as the US’s deputy sheriff under John Howard, Australia’s agency in international diplomacy has been largely cowed into submission. Any question of how Australia may respond in an international crisis now comes with the additional layer of “what will the United States think?”.
Which is why we have Coalition leader Sussan Ley still arguing that Australia’s relationship with Israel, which she describes as a “strong” and “enduring” relationship dating back to 1947 when Australia was the first signatory for the UN resolution that created Israel, needs to be prioritised over a probable genocide.
“We are seeing a relationship that has deteriorated, and the consequences of that are not good, and they are spilling over into our relationship with the US, our most important ally,” she said on Wednesday.
“The Prime Minister needs to explain how he is going to get this relationship, that he has so badly mismanaged, back on track.”
The question (and you may notice “back on track” also appeared in the journalist’s question that started this), for anyone who believes Australia should have sovereignty and just as importantly, a backbone, is why?
Why must Australia appease leaders wanted for war crimes? Leaders who continue to support the mass slaughter of children and the forced displacement of an entire population? Leaders who have crossed every red line the international community has ever purported to uphold?
In more diplomatic language, Albanese outlined the shift we have seen from the government.
“Do I think too many innocent lives have been lost? Yes, I do. What’s important is that the international community thinks that as well, overwhelmingly. And also that is what Australians see,” he said.
“Australians look at their TV coverage, in spite of the fact that there’s limited media presence in Gaza. They look at what’s happening there, they look at the increased settler violence in the West Bank, they look at the decision that Israel has made in March to restrict the access of aid, food and water that people in Gaza needed, and they look at that and they think that something needs to change. The cycle of violence needs to change. Australia is a part of a global community.”
Or as Burke put it earlier in the day: “What is happening in Gaza is beyond belief, and, you know, you – no one should ever sacrifice their principles of humanity when they give way to their rage. And I understand the rage of Israel following October 7. October 7 was disgraceful, disgusting, there are breaches of humanitarian law everywhere that happened from Hamas that day. None of that is the fault of starving Palestinian children.”
The question is not “how does Australia get its relationship with Israel back on track”, it’s why, as a country that is supposed to stand for international law and humanity, would we want to?
Amy Remeikis is a contributing editor for The New Daily and chief political analyst for The Australia Institute
