The peak body of Australian Jewry has delivered a stinging rebuke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as strongly chastising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in letters to the two leaders.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has told both leaders, in the letters sent on Wednesday, to address their two governments’ policy differences “through diplomacy rather than public posturing”, and accused them of playing to their respective domestic constituencies.
In the letter to Netanyahu, the council condemned his denouncing Albanese on social media as “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”.
It said these comments were “inflammatory and provocative, and demonstrated a woeful lack of understanding of social and political conditions in Australia”.
“These comments have played straight into the hands of opponents of Israel and antisemites, to the detriment of the Australian Jewish community.
"Had we been consulted, we would have warned against such a clumsy intervention into Australia’s domestic politics. The charge of antisemitism, whether made directly or indirectly, is a serious one and never to be made lightly. Doing so only invites scepticism, and undermines the efforts we and the government have been making to combat this pernicious phenomenon.”
In both letters the council expressed “deep dismay and concern” at the “war of words” between the two leaders. Both parties had been at fault, it said.
In the letter to Albanese the council said his July 30 statement accusing Netanyahu of being “in denial” about the consequences of the Gaza war “was excessive and gratuitously insulting”.
“It was unseemly for an Australian Prime Minister to depart from diplomatic norms concerning the leader of a country with which Australia has had friendly relations for many decades.
"You could simply have said that you vehemently disagreed with the Israeli Prime Minister, without descending into a personal attack,” the letter said.
It also condemned Wednesday’s comment by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who, responding to Netanyahu’s description of Albanese as weak, said, “strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up, or how many children you can leave hungry”.
“This from a senior minister whose responsibilities go directly to maintaining social cohesion in Australia, a priority to which you have repeatedly committed your government,” the letter said.
The council told both leaders, “the Australian Jewish community will not be left to deal with the fallout of a spat between two leaders who are playing to their respective domestic audiences”.
The dramatically deteriorating relations between the traditional allies has presented a fork in the road for many Australian Jews, with leading figures increasingly critical of the Israeli prime minister.
Albanese on Wednesday said of the Netanyahu attack, “I don’t take these things personally. I engage with people. Diplomatically he has had similar things to say about other leaders.”
The Israeli government is reacting to Albanese’s announcement Australia will recognise a Palestinian state, and the government’s refusal of visas for high profile Israeli figures to visit Australia, including right wing parliamentarian Simcha Rothman.
Sky News has revealed Netanyahu also wrote to Albanese on Monday accusing him of “pouring fuel on this antisemitic fire” by the Palestinian decision.
Ophir Falk, foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, told the ABC late Wednesday, the Albanese government was “morally bankrupt”.
“Instead of supporting Israel and demanding the unconditional and the immediate release of the hostages, the Australians government chooses to recognise a Palestinian state, on the backdrop of the October 7 massacre. It’s a huge, huge, huge prize for terrorism.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar told the Erin Molan Show this week that “what the Australian government is doing these days is shameful”.
“Instead of battling against antisemitism in Australia, as they should, they are doing the opposite – they are fuelling antisemitism.”
He described as “mad” the government’s banning “the entrance to Australia of Israeli politicians and other figures, with no justification, by saying that will be against the public order or will cause emotions among the Muslim population in Australia.” This was “totally false”, he said.
Albanese told a news conference, “Australians look at their TV coverage […] They look at the increased settler violence in the West Bank, they look at the decision that Israel has made in March to restrict the access of aid, food and water that people in Gaza needed, and they look at that and they think that something needs to change. The cycle of violence needs to change. Australia is a part of a global community.”
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
