ISABELLE MULLEN: Anthony Albanese could pay a high price for failing to take a firm stance on anti-Semitism

Somehow the Prime Minister has become stuck in the middle of an Israel Palestine conflict spanning decades.

It’s an unenviable position for Anthony Albanese to be in.

In the past he has been involved in pro-Palestinian protests, making him an easy target for the Coalition who insists he isn’t doing enough to combat anti-Semitism.

Now the Middle East conflict has become an Australian problem.

A global Jewish human rights organisation has warned Jews to reconsider non-essential travel to Melbourne.

Benjamin Netanyahu has given the Coalition a gift.

In a single social media post Israel’s Prime Minister has put his money on Peter Dutton in Australia’s election race.

For him, the burning of Melbourne’s Adass synagogue is personal and political.

He told his 3.1 million followers on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, that Albanese is solely to blame.

“Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israel position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel to ‘bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible’.”

He’s referring here to our vote at the UN general assembly.

But we were far from the only country to vote that way.

A total of 157 countries from around the world voted for Israel to withdraw its troops from the West Bank, the Gaza strip, and East Jerusalem.

Among them — the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada.

Only eight voted against it, while seven abstained.

Netanyahu has a problem with Australia breaking away from the United States and changing our position after 20 years.

Dutton has been quick to call the Prime Minister a “sell out”, insisting he is chasing Greens votes in inner city Sydney and Melbourne in the lead up to the Federal election.

What Dutton hasn’t said is that John Howard also voted for the “peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine” in 2001.

Early the following year he told the Australia/ Israel Jewish Affairs Council in New York that all parties “must continue to work ultimately towards a just settlement and a peace… (that) includes the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for a homeland.”

Fast forward to this year and the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to put a stop to violence in the Middle East, demanding Israel comply with international law.

Netanyahu has a problem with this.

Particularly after Israeli’s have been murdered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, and taken hostage.

More than 1200 Israeli’s — most of them civilians — were killed in the October 7 terror attacks, while 250 were kidnapped.

The Coalition has politicised this heading into the election.

“If there were 100 Australians still held in a cave network or in a tunnel network 13 months after being dragged from their homes kicking and screaming, the Australian public would be rightly outraged,” Dutton said in Tasmania.

It’s hard to argue with that. It is outrageous.

Dutton says anti-Semitism spiralled out of control in Australia because the PM didn’t “properly condemn” a pro-Palestinian protest on the steps of the Opera House on October 9.

But the following day Albanese did tell Sunrise “There’s no victory in the slaughter of innocent people.”

And he told Sky News that images from the rally were “horrific” with “slogans which are anti-Semitic and just appalling”.

Two weeks ago, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif.

All three are accused of war crimes relating to Gaza.

Since October 7, more than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100,000 injured.

Meanwhile, anti-Semitic attacks have become more common here.

Labor MP Josh Burns is a Jew, his office was covered in graffiti in Melbourne, a car was torched in Sydney and now a synagogue has been firebombed.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced a Commonwealth lead taskforce Avalite to target anti-Semitism.

But he could pay the price for trying to keep everybody happy.