ALP must return to allies on Gaza

Unless it wants to repudiate the decades of sensible bipartisanship that have underpinned our relations with Israel, the Albanese government should have no difficulty backing US opposition to the Palestinian Authority’s fatuous UN resolution demanding Israel withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank. Absurdly, as Ben Packham reported on Tuesday, the eightpage draft, due to be debated on Thursday, makes not a single mention of Hamas’s barbaric October 7 slaughter of Jews – the worst such massacre since the Holocaust and an epochal event certain to dominate what few prospects there are for change in the Middle East for years to come.

Nothing could be more nonsensical, irrational or unacceptable than to wilfully ignore the massacre and make out it never happened. Yet that is what the venal Palestinian Authority – bankrupt, discredited and with its “authority” shredded – is demanding the world do by supporting the resolution.

Whatever political anxieties Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have about seats in western Sydney with significant numbers of Islamic voters, Australia must not be part of the shameful charade. Our national interest lies unequivocally in standing firmly with the US and other nations against the resolution, not pandering to those seeking to ignore the unspeakable evil committed by Hamas. As opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham correctly described the resolution, it is “deeply counter-productive to long-term peace efforts and is an entirely one-sided motion” that shamefully ignores the horrors and atrocities committed on October 7 and the fate of the hostages.

Senator Birmingham is right. It will be a debacle for Australia’s national interest and our more than 75 years of close ties with Israel if Mr Albanese and Senator Wong fail to heed his advice and go off on the same irrational tangent they did four months ago when they turned their backs on the US alliance and Israel and joined the 142 UN members in awarding the PA de facto UN membership.

The PA’s resolution has set a test for the Albanese government that it must not fail.

After its skittish and irresolute stance on Israel and Gaza since the war started, it is time for the Albanese government to put Australia back where its national interest belongs – firmly with our allies, not pandering to those who seek to overlook Hamas’s grotesque and unforgivable terrorism.