Sussan Ley reassures the Jewish community

Sussan Ley has been elected as the first woman to lead the Liberal Party in the Australian parliament.

Although under pressure with her mother dying in Albury, the new Leader of the Opposition faced the media with composure and confidence.

A journalist asked her: “In comments you’ve made over the years, you told parliament that you support the Palestinian cause, in part out of the knowledge that the victors of World War Two, including Australia, wrote a homeland check to cover the sins of the Holocaust and centuries of anti semitism in Europe, but it was the Palestinians who had to cash it. Do you still agree with that statement today?”

She had been the sole voice in parliament discussing Palestinian autonomy when the House of Representatives celebrated Israel’s 60th anniversary in 2008.

Sky News recently reported that Sussan Ley failed to declare that the Palestinian Authority had paid her land expenses when she visited the West Bank in 2011.

“The acts of barbarity perpetrated by Hamas last week, and the terror group’s ongoing use of more than 100 innocent Israelis, including babies and children, as human shields, has irrevocably changed the region,” she said.

Following October 7, Sussan Ley said: “Condemning this terrorist group and its terrorist activities, the worst the world has seen since 9/11, should not and cannot be taken as any negative expression against the Palestinian people.”

Today, the new Leader of the Opposition responded to the journalist: “One of the great privileges of advancing in years and understanding is looking at issues that you might have once seen through one prism, through a different prism, and when I became deputy, colleagues raised with me some of these issues, and they have been thoroughly ventilated between then and now.

But I do want to say that following my appointment as deputy, I took a trip at the invitation of Julie Leeser, an outstanding colleague and dear friend to Israel, and I spent a lot of time seeing what was happening on the ground and the impact of that trip, and the changed geopolitical circumstances of the Abraham accords with Israel reaching out for peace to Saudi to Morocco, and then, of course, the hideous events of October the seventh in Gaza, have changed my thinking on the entire subject.

Having said that I remain a steadfast friend of the Palestinian people, and I wish that we had, right now, a partner in this peace process, and I wish that we had a leadership of the Palestinian people that was not letting them down quite so badly, because right now, what we are seeing is not a party interested in peace with Israel. It is not a party interested in a secure Israel behind secure borders, and it is not a party interested in a just and lasting peace.”

Sussan Ley then focused on Australia’s Jewish community.

“One of the biggest threats to social cohesion in this country is the prime minister’s approach to Jewish Australians.

We have a foreign minister, Penny Wong, who has let down Australia in the UN, and we have a Prime Minister who is intent, it seems, on letting down Jewish Australians on the streets of our cities.

And one thing I have heard consistently over the last two years has been this sense of isolation, fear and real concern for our wonderful Jewish Australians.

We will work very hard to hold this prime minister and this government to account, because it is not acceptable to see what we have seen on the streets of our cities, in the universities, and to hear the stories that I have heard from our Jewish Australian community. Particularly when it’s young women who are studying, it has made my heart break.

Social cohesion is really important, and we will get that right.”

Peter Wertheim, the co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said: “We congratulate Sussan Ley on being elected as the new Federal leader of the Liberal Party.  As Deputy leader, Sussan was a consistent supporter of our community and of Israel, and we look forward to continuing to work with her.

As was observed by the party’s founder, Robert Menzies, a party should regard its time in opposition as an opportunity for renewal of its platform and policies so as to restore its unity, sense of direction and electoral appeal.  We wish Sussan Ley, the new Deputy leader Ted O’Brien and their team all the very best in the important tasks that lie ahead.”

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council also congratulated the new opposition leader and her deputy.

Executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein said: “In recent years, Sussan has become a staunch friend of the Jewish community. She participated in a study visit to Israel as part of AIJAC’s Rambam Israel Fellowship Programme in 2022 and has been principled and informed in speaking out in support of Israel, especially during the current war with Hamas.

She has consistently and constructively engaged with our community and listened to our concerns and we look forward to working with her in her new role.”