AARON PATRICK: In a betrayal of the Jewish community, Anthony Albanese accepts promises he can’t enforce

The decision by Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and the Labor cabinet to promise to recognise a state of Palestine is a turning point in Australia’s foreign relations that will define the government, thrill the left and be seen as a betrayal by Jews.

By promising to support the Palestinian cause at a meeting of the United Nations next month, Mr Albanese will discard a long-held principle that the Palestinians should be rewarded with recognition for seeking peace, not war.

At a press conference in Canberra today, the Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister emphasised their hostility towards Hamas, the Jew-hating terrorist organisation which controls the Gaza Strip and began the current war, which has devastated the lives of its people.

But the pair, who also condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, are now regarded by much of Australia’s Jewish community as siding with a malevolent force that has passed on peace, and its own state, four times since 1947.

Too fraught

Mr Netanyahu is not helping. The prospect of renewed bloodshed in ruined Gaza filling voters’ internet feeds is too fraught for the West’s leading centrist and left-wing political leaders.

Mr Netanyahu’s decision last week to order Israel’s army to occupy Gaza City in a quest to wipe out Hamas and find the last Israeli hostages has hardened international opposition, including in Britain, France and Canada, which have taken similar steps towards Palestinian recognition as Australia.

Mr Netanyahu is going too far for some on the right too. On Monday New Zealand’s conservative government said it was considering recognition, citing the “humanitarian catastrophe”.

On paper, Australia’s position is highly conditional. “Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,” Mr Albanese told reporters. “We will work with the international community to make this right a reality.”

West Bank promises

In a conversation with Mr Albanese last Tuesday, the Palestinians’ nominal leader, Mahmoud Abbas, accepted conditions set by Canberra so stringent that they were welcomed by Australian Jewish leaders just two weeks ago, according to Mr Albanese.

They include removing the Iranian-funded Hamas from power, holding elections and changes that would ensure a Palestinian state is no threat to Israel, including rewriting school textbooks that teach Palestinian children to celebrate Jews’ murder.

“The Palestinian Authority has reaffirmed it recognises Israel’s right to exist in peace and security,” Mr Albanese said. “It has committed to demilitarise and to hold general elections. It has pledged to abolish the system of payments to the families of prisoners and martyrs, and promised broader reform of governance, financial transparency in the education system, including international oversight to guard against the incitement of violence and hatred.”

Mr Wong promised incremental rewards for Palestinian action towards those goals, likely including allowing a Palestinian embassy to open in Canberra.

It is unclear if Ms Wong or Mr Albanese have ever bought a carpet in the old Jerusalem’s Arab souk. If they had, they might understand Australians could be sceptical about accepting on face value promises of wholesale reform to a deeply corrupt administration from a Middle East leader who hasn’t faced an election in 20 years.

Unenforceable

The United Nations general assembly, a meeting of all members, will convene on September 9. That doesn’t give Mr Abbas much time to hold elections, disarm militias, publish new text books, eliminate Hamas, release the hostages and introduce financial transparency.

Which suggests the Palestinians are about to extract a big concession from Australia and other Western countries on the basis of unenforceable promises.

Ms Wong, standing next to the prime minister, implied the government had been preparing the shift for 16 months - an indication of her patience, preparation and hostility towards the Netanyahu government.

“It’s been more than 77 years since the world promised a Palestinian state knowing that there cannot be lasting peace for both peoples without a two state solution,” she said.

“In the nearly two years since October 7, we have been working with the international community on breaking the cycle of violence that the Middle East has known for generations across the world, nations have agreed that we cannot keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome. We can’t keep waiting for the end of a peace process that has ground to a halt.”

The Australian government may have run out patience waiting for peace. But Palestinian and Israeli leaders haven’t. As IDF tanks fuel up for another incursion, and Jews starve in Hamas tunnels, the conflict looks as intractable as ever.