‘Sensible and principled position’

Rabbi Benjamin Elton has defended the letters written by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) to Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Benjamin Netanyahu after a war of words broke out between the two leaders last week.

ECAJ president Daniel Aghion called on both Albanese and Netanyahu to address their policy differences “through diplomacy rather than public posturing”, adding that if things needed to be addressed publicly “they should be said using measured and seemly language befitting national leaders”.

Albanese accused Netanyahu of being “in denial” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, before Netanyahu said Albanese would be remembered as a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”.

Aghion said Netanyahu’s intervention into Australian domestic politics was “clumsy” and his comments were to the “detriment of the Australian Jewish community”.

The Rabbinical Association of Australia then issued a statement distancing itself from the ECAJ letters and affirmed its “unwavering public support for the State of Israel and its Prime Minister”.

But Rabbi Elton of Sydney’s The Great Synagogue said he personally would not have criticised the ECAJ letters.

“I felt that the ECAJ took a sensible and principled position on the war of words between the two Prime Ministers, which helps nobody and doesn’t help the Australian Jewish community,” Rabbi Elton told The AJN.

“I think the ECAJ were exactly right to identify that this spat was very damaging for the position of the Australian Jewish community.”

Rabbi Elton said he was also offended by the language used by Netanyahu.

“We can have disagreements with the Prime Minister, with the government and some of its policies and positions, for example on the recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“ECAJ also disagrees with the Albanese government’s position on the recognition of a Palestinian state, but I think using words like ‘weak’ is rude and I don’t think we should tolerate rudeness.”

Rabbi Elton also added that he felt it was “deeply unfair” of Netanyahu to accuse Albanese of abandoning Australia’s Jews, particularly after he appointed an antisemitism envoy.

“He has devoted a huge amount of resources to our security and safety,” said Rabbi Elton.

“We don’t have to agree with everything the government says or does to recognise that they do have the interests of the Jewish community in Australia at heart, and while they might disagree with us or we might disagree with them, they should not be ascribed to weakness.”