Albanese, fence-sitter in chief choosing politics over peace in Middle East
This week, the UN shamefully supported a motion, put forward by the Palestinian Authority, to demand Israel stop its campaign to destroy the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist regimes.
Andrew Wallace
The Australian Government chose to abstain on the vote, despite Penny Wong confessing that she had been negotiating for a vote in favour.
I’ve walked the halls of the United Nations as a representative of the Australian Parliament, standing up for Australia’s sovereignty, security, and standing in a hotly contested world. I’ve seen its manifest dysfunction and its place in global dialogue.
On 2 October 2023, I addressed the United Nations on international terrorism. I concluded that “terrorist groups and the support networks upon which they depend must not be allowed to find a safe haven anywhere in the world.”
Just five days later, 3000 Hamas terrorists murdered over 1200 innocent Israeli men, women and children in the largest massacre of the Jewish people since Hitler’s Holocaust.
Since then, backed by Hezbollah, Ansar Allah and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamas has continued its barbaric campaign of executing hostages, torture, rape, and terror – using schools, hospitals, and Palestinian civilians as human shields.
I watched bodycam footage of Hamas’ atrocities in my capacity as Deputy Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee. I then visited the sites of the attacks a few days later. I’ll never forget what I saw, heard, and smelled.
And since returning to Australia, I’ve been resolved to drive out the antisemitism which enables the horrors of World War II and of October 7.
Antisemitism infects the left and the right of Australian politics, as it has and continues to do across the world. But whereas the far-left and the far-right are indiscreet in their hatred of the Jewish people, there are those in the Labor Party who’ve mastered the art of the political untruth.
French philosopher and avowed Marxist, Jean-Paul Sartre said, “Never believe that anti-Semites are unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge.
But they’re amusing themselves, for it’s their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words.”
Anthony Albanese said, “My word is my bond.” He told Australian Jews that he was committed to keeping them safe. He told the world that “Israel has a right to defend itself, which is what it is doing.”
Yet in the last 11 months alone, we’ve seen the Labor Party abruptly break with decades of political bipartisanship when it comes to peace in the Middle East. Not as a matter of principle, mind you.
Labor’s policy shift has nothing to do with peace and everything to do with the politics of the inner city and appeasement of the Greens.
Mr Albanese and his Labor Government continue to cower to political correctness at the expense of moral clarity and conviction. You can’t trust what they say. You need to look at what they do.
His government delayed a visit to Israel in the wake of the attacks. Almost three months later, Penny Wong then refused to visit the sites of the massacres, in a show of wilful blindness.
At the UN, the Australian Government voted for a unilateral ceasefire and called for a two-state solution, while a grieving Jewish people begged for the return of their hostages, including women and children.
The Labor Government voted to recognise the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly just a few months ago, with no consultation and in defiance of our closest allies.
Prime Minister Albanese chose cowardice over courage when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s democratically elected leaders.
Labor watched on as trade unions backed Hamas and a two-state solution, and then refused to respond to the vile antisemitism on Australian university campuses.
The Prime Minister was woefully slow to act when their own Senator Fatima Payman chose solidarity with Hamas and The Greens over the Jewish people.
And they still refuse to support an urgent judicial inquiry into antisemitism on Australian University campuses, instead appointing special envoys for antisemitism, islamophobia, and social cohesion – proving the point that their issue hasn’t been a lack of information, but a lack of intestinal fortitude.
If you’re still not convinced, then I challenge you to “follow the money”.
Only a few months ago, Penny Wong prematurely reinstated taxpayers’ funding for the scandal-plagued UN Relief and Works Agency (“UNRWA”), despite an ongoing investigation into the role its staff played in the October 7 attacks.
Just last month, UNRWA sacked ten staff members for their involvement, after years of overlooking terrorist tunnels, producing vulgar antisemitic educational materials, and failing to conduct security checks on its workers.
Australian taxpayers inadvertently helped to subsidise Hamas terrorists thanks to Anthony Albanese. According to the Criminal Code, supporting a terror group is punishable by 25 years imprisonment.
Under the leadership of Anthony Albanese, the Australian Government has provided funding and support to Hamas via UNRWA. That is now irrefutable.
After Labor offered 3,000 tourist visas to unchecked Palestinians, Australia risks becoming a safe haven for terrorists among them.
Not content with its performance thus far, the Albanese Government just this week has granted taxpayer money to at least two anti-Semitic organisations through the Securing Faith-Based Places Grant.
The United Muslims of Australia publicly celebrated the October 7 attack as “the day we’ve been waiting for”. The Australian Islamic House gave a platform to Nassim Abdi, who labelled Israel as “modern-day Nazis” and which blamed the October 7 attacks on Israel’s “provocation”, shaming young victims for their “skimpy clothes”.
Anthony Albanese continues to speak out of both sides of his mouth, while rewarding extremists and anti-Semites with legitimacy and taxpayers’ funds.
Now, when Australia was required to take a stand on the world stage, once again, our Prime Minister and his government showed that they had a leg each side of the barbed wire fence. We all know what happens next.
Just a few years ago, we’d have taken it for granted that either major party would reject such a one-sided resolution, not take the coward’s way out by abstaining on the vote.
Anything else rewards Hamas for their brutality and emboldens them in their campaign to annihilate the Jewish people.
How can Mr Albanese and Penny Wong speak of “ending cycles of violence” without recognising that it is Hamas, not Israel, that perpetuates it?
The world cannot afford timidity. Australians cannot afford duplicity. Australia must stand up, or Anthony Albanese must step down.
Andrew Wallace MP is Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and Chair of the Australia-Israel Allies Caucus. In 2021, Mr Wallace was elected the 31st Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 2023, Mr Wallace represented the Australian Parliament at the UN General Assembly.
