Cold comfort from Labor
Labor's conference rejected the worst amendments, but its platform still weakens support for Israel.
It could have been worse. That is how some are framing the outcome from Labor’s national conference vis-a-vis the Israeli/Palestinian issue.
It is little consolation.
Yes, maverick MP Ed Husic’s highly inflammatory and divisive amendments were rightly struck down. But that fact does not mean that what was left in the platform is any good.
On the contrary, it places undue blame and expectation on Israel, while excusing the corrupt and authoritarian Palestinian Authority (PA) of responsibility and reducing condemnation of Hamas to a mere slap on the wrist.
There is within Labor’s grassroots an unhealthy obsession with Israel; a gravely misinformed chorus of feigned moral superiority that casts only the Jewish state as an oppressor and raises the importance of punishing it above real day-to-day issues faced by Australians.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cannot believe his own words when he says the platform strikes the “right balance”, for the government says it still insists on PA reform and no role for Hamas.
And as we said last week, while it is good that the government is continuing to insist on the principles dropped from the platform, the future of the party itself if it continues on its current anti-Israel trajectory is worrisome indeed.
As Allon Lee writes, placating the agitators only makes them demand more.
And platform eventually becomes policy: recognising the state of Palestine at all was itself once just a non-binding conference motion, and yet here we are.
In the meantime, this Labor platform only feeds into an environment of increasing anti-Israel sentiment, which itself fuels higher levels of antizionism and antisemitism.
Having said all that, it is a mistake to think that the outcome from the conference is a reason for Jews to abandon the Labor party. If anything, we need more members of our community who align with traditional Labor values getting involved.
Some of the rhetoric aimed at Josh Burns is also self-defeating. He is of course an MP and not above criticism; but that scrutiny must be played with a straight bat.
There are many good people inside Labor, Jews and allies, working hard to push back against this divisive tide. They need all the support they can get.