Australia’s naivete and ignorance and its betrayal of Israel
'The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are rehashing nothing more than an unrealistic dream without really understanding what practicalities lie behind that expression'
It is with amazement and disbelief that one reads the joint statement issued on August 11 by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, announcing Australia’s intention to recognise a non-existent Palestinian state.
Can these really be the leaders of a serious country who are genuinely aware of the realities of the Middle East, or are they perhaps merely trying to assuage and pamper an aggressive and uncontrollable pro-Palestinian and violent anti-Israel lobby in Australia’s parliament and mollify unruly pressure on the streets of its cities?
Australia’s intention to “recognise the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September to contribute to international momentum towards a two-state solution, a ceasefire in Gaza and release of the hostages” is indicative of considerable lack of political and legal realism, even to the point of naïveté.
Both the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are surely well-advised by their advisers and by Australia’s world-renowned international lawyers, that there simply exists no such entity as a “State of Palestine” that can be recognised. By the same token, they are presumably advised that UN General Assembly resolutions have absolutely no legally binding status and are nothing more than the political viewpoints of those states supporting them.
As such, the declared intention to recognise a non-existent state of Palestine is merely pulling wool over the eyes of those wishing to believe such a futile and ill-advised political act.
Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong reaffirm in their joint statement Australia’s wish to contribute to the “two state solution as the basis of peace and security for the peoples of the region”.
The “two-state vision” may indeed have been an honourable vision of hope enunciated many years ago in 2002 by former US President George W Bush and reiterated ad infinitum since then and up to present day, as a meaningless form of lingua franca by international leaders and UN resolutions.
However, it has never been accepted by the Palestinians and Israelis themselves. To the contrary, the Palestinians have refused to recognise Israel’s very right to exist independently, and the issue of Palestinian statehood remains, pursuant to the Israeli-Palestinian 1993-5 Oslo Accords, an open negotiating issue between them.
In paying lip-service to the “two-state vision” the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are rehashing nothing more than an unrealistic dream without really understanding what practicalities lie behind that expression.
At the same time, in advocating imposition of a two-state solution without a negotiated agreement between the parties, they are undermining the agreed negotiation process established by the internationally witnessed and endorsed Oslo Accords.
In relying so heavily on what is described in the joint statement as “major new commitments from the Palestinian Authority, including to reform governance, terminate prisoner payments, institute schooling reform, demilitarise and hold general elections” the Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister are surely fully aware of the fact that the Palestinian leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas made the same commitments in the Oslo Accords, commitments that to this day have not been realised and have been violated, together with most of the Palestinian commitments in those accords.
As such they are knowingly deceiving both themselves and the Australian public by paying valueless lip-service to empty commitments that no leader of the Palestinian Authority is able and genuinely willing to implement.
In seeking to “work with partners on a credible peace plan that establishes governance and security arrangements for Palestine and ensures the security of Israel” the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are voicing an equally unrealistic and unrealisable vision.
Joining such regional allies as France, Russia, the UK, Norway, Ireland, Spain and Canada in ganging-up against Israel at the United Nations and unilaterally recognising a non-existent Palestinian state, undermines the Oslo Accords. It undermines the Palestinian commitment to negotiated resolution of the conflict. It also undermines the obligation of those very states that signed the Oslo Accords as witnesses, to maintain the integrity of the accords.
All this is the very antithesis of promoting peace. It encourages the Hamas terrorist leadership and their Palestinian Authority partners in their stubborn refusal to free the Israeli hostages, and in their determination to continue their terror campaign against Israel. It encourages the other states in the UN as well as the international public, in their continued hostility to Israel.
With this ill-advised and irresponsible statement, as well as the policies that it describes, Australia is regrettably abandoning its traditional support for Israel – a support that has consistently been based on a solid commonality of political, security, economic and cultural interests between Australia and Israel.
One may ask if this is ill-advised policy really serves the genuine interests of Australia, its society and people. And this begs the question whether the damage that has been caused will ever be repaired.
Ambassador Alan Baker, the former Legal Adviser of Israel’s foreign ministry, participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO. He presently heads the Global Law Forum at the Jerusalem Centre for Security and Foreign Affairs.