‘Antisemitism has broken loose’
"It's become quite pervasive, and the federal government should be ashamed of itself for allowing that to happen," the 1994-95 federal Liberal leader said.
Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister Alexander Downer has launched a broadside against the Albanese government over antisemitism in Australia and its record on the Israel-Hamas war.
In an exclusive interview with The AJN on Monday, Downer, who was foreign minister throughout the Howard government from 1996 to 2007, said today’s government should “exercise moral authority” rather than sending “mixed messages”.
“Antisemitism has broken loose in Australia. It’s become quite pervasive, and the federal government should be ashamed of itself for allowing that to happen,” the 1994-95 federal Liberal leader said.
Interviewed at the Melbourne launch of an Australian support group for Israel’s volunteer emergency response organisation United Hatzalah of Israel (UHI), Downer was pressed on what the government should be doing to combat an explosion of anti-Jewish conduct in Australia.
“They should exercise moral authority by being unequivocal in their support for the Jewish people and for diversity in Australia – and stop playing footsie with Islamic extremists who they are trying to appease in order to ensure that votes in critical electorates in NSW don’t drift to the Greens and away from Labor.”
Downer said the government has sent “mixed messages – and this is not an issue which lends itself to mixed messages”.
Asked as a former FM what kind of report card he would issue for incumbent Penny Wong on Canberra’s responses to the Israel-Hamas war, Downer drew a contrast with her handling of other regions. “I think she’s done other things quite well, for example, in the South Pacific.”
But with October 7, “I would have thought it was quite a simple issue – killing more than 1000 people, raping women, abducting people, holding them hostage for nearly a year, killing some of the hostages, probably more have been killed than we realise.
“And to start talking about recognising a Palestinian state … When Hamas have behaved like that, it’s incomprehensible, because all [Wong] has been doing is giving comfort to Hamas. This is not a muddy issue. This is a simple, clear issue.”
Introduced by communal figure Danny Lamm, a UHI international board member, Downer told his audience that October 7 was “one of the most repulsive things that I’ve seen”.
He drew applause when adding, “If I had been the prime minister of Israel and that had been done to my people … I would go after them, and I would do exactly what the PM [Benjamin Netanyahu], his cabinet – and I think the people of Israel – have decided, which is to destroy Hamas’s ability ever to do something like that again.”
Downer recounted his direct intervention into Australia’s UN voting on Israel, which began when DFAT strongly recommended Australia not vote against referring Israel to the ICJ over building its security barrier during the Second Intifada.
Downer overrode the advice and Australia was one of only six countries that voted against the UN resolution.
Visiting for the launch, Dov Maisel, UHI’s vice-president of operations, showed harrowing video footage of UHI volunteers aiding wounded Israelis under fire on October 7; some lured by Hamas snipers using roadside corpses as bait. He explained how UHI has been transformed under the pressures of the 10-month war.
Australian Friends of UHI (AFUHI) executive director Darya Rubenstein recounted the courage one volunteer had drawn from his community. “He told me he could do what he did on October 7 because he was with his brothers.”
AFUHI president Abe Weiszberger said Australian Jews need to support “an organisation that saves lives every day”.
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