Extract from ABC News
Analysis
Benjamin Netanyahu has called Anthony Albanese a "weak politician". (ABC News: Ian Cutmor / Reuters: Maya Alleruzzo)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Australia would do exactly what Israel is doing in Gaza if Melbourne or Sydney came under attack.
His outrage was palpable, and his utterance of the word "canard" was preceded by an apparent pause and correction from saying something starting with "sh" — perhaps a four-letter word that better summed up his anger.
A week later, and partly in protest of the statehood announcement, the Israeli Foreign Minister announced he'd kick out Australian diplomats representing Canberra to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — a similar response to how Israel behaved when Norway and Spain took the same step.
Calls for cooler heads
It is telling that moments after the post from Netanyahu, labelling Albanese as a "weak politician" who had "abandoned Australian Jews", one of the country's peak Jewish groups was calling for calm.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry was quick out of the blocks to urge restraint, and for the two countries to restrain from "engaging in a diplomatic tit-for-tat" — highlighting the links between Israel and Australia's economies and its ties with the Jewish population in Australia.
"There are real-life consequences here and we want to see the countries work through any issues before things get out of hand," its co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said in a statement clearly tinged with concern that the matter has already deteriorated dramatically.
Amir Maimon has criticised Australia's commitment to a Palestinian state. (AAP: Mick Tsikas)
On Israeli television, Israel's ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, was also trying to right the diplomatic ship.
"What we need to do is calm things down, so the relations don't continue to deteriorate," he told Israel's Channel 12 hours after Netanyahu's post.
"After all, the relations between Israel and Australia are historical relations that go back to 1947, when Australia supported and helped with the partition plan.
"At the same time, we also have our own interests and it is important that Australia accepts it and respects it."
Acceptance and respect, it appeared, is demanded by Israel but not offered in return to another country in its foreign policy.
Maimon also wasn't prepared to downplay the Israeli allegations the Albanese government was fuelling antisemitism.
"The Jewish community is in fear, [others] before me have said that the relationship is friendly, but since the Labor party won, there is an encroachment, and since the 7th of October, there is a dramatic rise in manifestations of antisemitism," he told public broadcaster KAN.
'Most politically toxic leader'
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid went further than his country's envoy in Canberra, describing Netanyahu's critique as a "gift" for Albanese.
"The thing that strengthens a leader in the democratic world today most is a confrontation with Netanyahu, the most politically toxic leader in the Western world," he posted on X.
In slamming Albanese, the Israeli prime minister is playing to a domestic audience — showing he is standing up while Israel is "attacked" by a Western nation with, as he would describe it, no clue about the pressures and threats in the Middle East.
And while that may well resonate in some quarters of the Jewish community in other parts of the world too, including in Australia, it is increasingly hollow in most other quarters.
Palestinians, displaced by the Israeli offensive, shelter in a tent camp in Gaza City. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)
The war in Gaza, now in its 22nd month and with a death toll reportedly in excess of 62,000 Palestinians, is fuelling outrage against Israel.
Many analysts of the war and critics of Israel have argued for many months that the military offensive has shifted from an exercise in self-defence by Israel long ago, and is now a vehicle for its territorial ambitions in the Middle East — something Israel has repeatedly denied.
While the humanitarian considerations are clear for all to see, with horrific scenes being broadcast from Gaza each and every day, the political implications are a factor here too.
Albanese only has to see huge crowds marching across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a stone's throw from his official residence in Kirribilli, to get a sense of where public debate stands in Australia.
More than 100,000 protesters attended Sydney's March for Humanity event to protest the war in Gaza. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)
Supporters of Israel often denigrate those protesters as antisemitic, describing any legitimate rebuke of the Israeli government and military's conduct as an attack on the entire Jewish population — a conflation the prime minister himself has sought to rebut.
"Criticism of Israel is legitimate, as is criticism of the Palestinian Authority," he said in July.
An outstanding issue
Even with the shift in language, there is something Australia has not done as it ratchets up criticism of Israel.
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The warrants were also issued for his former defence minister and for senior Hamas official Mohammed Deif — a man believed to have been killed before the orders were drafted.
Warrants had been sought for another two Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but weren't issued because they had been confirmed already killed.
While Israel (and the United States) doesn't recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC, Australia is a member state. With that comes obligations under international law to enforce such a warrant — arresting an individual while in their jurisdiction.
A trip down under is unlikely on Netanyahu's agenda any time soon, particularly as he racks up the frequent flyer miles travelling to the US and friendly European nations.
But the Albanese government has been deliberately vague, to the point of avoiding answering questions on whether it would arrest the prime minister if he arrived in Australia — dismissing it as a hypothetical.
If it were to properly wade into that debate, no doubt the fury from Netanyahu would increase tenfold.
The fact it remains an outstanding issue, even with that obfuscation from Canberra, further underpins why the Israeli leader's latest intervention is unlikely to worry Australia's Prime Minister now.
No comments:
Post a Comment