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In early 1984 I was one of a party of journalists that travelled with then Labor foreign minister Bill Hayden through the Middle East. A reminder of that trip surfaced last weekend \u2013 only a few days after Hayden\u2019s death \u2013 when I found an old report filed by telex (the only technology then available) from Damascus, outlining Hayden\u2019s hopes and fears for the stalling Middle East peace process.<\/p>\n
In summary, I\u2019d reported, he\u2019d set off with mild optimism, but was returning with his hopes \u201cseverely dented\u201d. (Australia then had \u2013 and continues to have \u2013 a small contingent posted to a multinational peacekeeping force in the Sinai.)<\/p>\n
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Bill Hayden met with Israel\u2019s prime minister Yitzhok Shamir in 1984 on a trip that ultimately cooled his optimism about peace in the Middle East.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Hayden was an activist foreign minister who sought out key players in Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt believing that an Australian perspective brought something useful to the table. In the decades since, many of the most significant figures have come and gone, and the pieces shuffled about many times.<\/p>\n But the sequence of events triggered by Hamas\u2019 barbaric October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians, including infants and the elderly, and subsequent carnage in Gaza as a result of Israel\u2019s military response, is setting a new test for Labor in government.<\/p>\n For the federal opposition, coordinating a reaction to the outrage triggered by the Hamas terror attacks has been relatively straightforward. The pro-Israeli view has a pronounced upper hand among Coalition MP\u2019s \u2013 strengthened in recent years by the actions of Scott Morrison who delighted the Netanyahu government with a decision (since reversed by the Albanese government) to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n But inside Labor, calibrating a unified response to the growing conflagration is proving more fraught.<\/p>\n Historically, pro-Israeli, pro-Zionist sentiment on the Middle East had a strong influence inside Labor.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Tensions between those whose sympathies align more with the Palestinian side, and those who remain staunchly supportive of the Jewish state, are bubbling to the surface. Rival networks of influence are working overtime through two groups in the federal parliament, the parliamentary friends of Palestine and the parliamentary friends of Israel. (The conveners of these groups are public, but their memberships are confidential).<\/p>\n Historically, pro-Israeli, pro-Zionist sentiment on the Middle East had more traction inside Labor than it does today.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last 10 years there\u2019s been a shift,\u201d observes former Victorian Labor MP, Michael Danby, one of the staunchest champions Israel has had inside the party. \u201cPreviously the Left were never given positions like prime minister or foreign minister \u2026 Today\u2019s ministers are practical and pragmatic, and say the right thing, but the Jewish community notices a deal less passion [for the Israeli cause] … They wish Albo and Penny were a bit more reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Labor foreign minister and onetime head of the International Crisis Group, Gareth Evans, who earlier this year addressed the federal ALP caucus in support of formal recognition of Palestinian statehood, sees it differently.<\/p>\n Today more of Labor\u2019s electorates include people sympathetic to Palestinian perspectives.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Even Bob Hawke, he says, once one of Israel\u2019s strongest supporters, ended up believing that \u201cyou can\u2019t be Jewish, democratic and have the whole of Judea and Samaria [the biblical names for the West Bank.]\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe mainstream sentiment of the party is where Penny Wong\u2019s head is at, where Albo\u2019s head is at, I think it\u2019s still pretty even-handed,\u201d Evans adds. \u201cBut it\u2019s also much more complicated politically now because such a significant proportion of the Labor constituencies in key places are bringing a pro-Palestinian perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n A senior government member worries that there\u2019s a \u201ca real Sydney\/Melbourne thing going on too \u2013 our Sydney people [MP\u2019s] largely represent Arab seats and our Melbourne people largely representing Jewish communities.\u201d<\/p>\n That oversimplifies the party\u2019s geopolitical divide. It\u2019s correct that in south-west Sydney the Muslim population comprises a significant proportion of votes in some key seats \u2013 on ABS figures, around 25 per cent in the electorate of Watson, 32 per cent in Blaxland and 14 per cent in McMahon (held respectively by federal ministers Tony Burke, Jason Clare and Chris Bowen).<\/p>\n And traditionally, the right-wing of the party in Victoria has been a bastion of support for Israel. However, the parliamentary friends of Palestine is co-chaired by Victorian MP Maria Vamvakinou, the member for Calwell, an ethnically diverse electorate in Melbourne\u2019s north-west.<\/p>\n Then Labor MP Michael Danby and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg during a Chanukah ceremony at Parliament House in 2015.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n She clashed on October 19 with the Coalition\u2019s Luke Howarth after he\u2019d called for the disbandment of the friends of Palestine group. Vamvakinou pointed out that her group\u2019s co-founders included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese along with onetime Liberal treasurer, Joe Hockey, and that it would neither be \u201cdisbanded … or gagged\u201d.<\/p>\n And it was the Victorian branch of the party that passed a motion in June demanding the Albanese government recognise Palestinian statehood in the current term. The demand to hasten recognition was headed off at the party\u2019s national conference in August after intensive back-room horse-trading.<\/p>\n The Australian Jewish News<\/em> later quoted federal MP Josh Burns (also from Melbourne) saying that the outcome was \u201can important [one] that was achieved through hard work and the efforts of many friends of the Jewish community inside the ALP\u201d.<\/p>\n Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong seek to tread a narrow path, with carefully chosen words that express outrage and horror at the Hamas terror attacks, while signalling distress at the mounting civilian toll in Gaza.<\/p>\n The prime minister made the striking point in his initial response to Hamas\u2019 atrocities that \u201cAustralia has the largest per capita Holocaust survivor population outside Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n But the Muslim and Arabic-speaking communities, which mostly arrived in later immigration waves than the post-war Jewish emigres, are also closely parsing each word from Albanese and Wong.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Wong sharpened her message on the Gaza death toll, telling ABC radio that \u201cthe reality is the international community won\u2019t accept ongoing civilian deaths \u2026 When friends like Australia urge Israel to exercise restraint, and protect civilian lives, it is really critical that Israel listens\u201d.<\/p>\n Some of her ministerial colleagues with large Muslim constituencies have been much more direct. Industry Minister Ed Husic, and Minister for Early Childhood Education Anne Aly (both Muslim MP\u2019s) have talked of Gazans being \u201ccollectively punished\u201d by Israel (a phrase that could denote war crimes). Tony Burke, the most senior cabinet member to break ranks with Wong\u2019s carefully formulated diplomatic language, unleased a storm of protest in Jewish circles when, in an ABC radio interview, he did not clearly reject the term \u201cgenocide\u201d as a descriptor of the firestorm currently being unleashed on Gaza, saying listeners could \u201cfind their own words\u201d.<\/p>\n Member for Calwell Maria Vamvakinou and Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic in Parliament.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n Lynda Voltz, a member of the NSW parliamentary friends of Palestine, whose electorate of Auburn in Sydney is also home to a substantial Arabic-speaking community, told the Herald<\/em> that \u201cthere has been so much stress in our community. First our area got hit with COVID, we got hit with the fall of Kabul, we get hit with Ukraine \u2013 we have all these big communities, and now we get this. You need to understand how grief-stricken our people are\u201d.<\/p>\n The battle for hearts and minds has also been playing out between advocacy groups, which have split over Australia\u2019s decision to abstain from a United Nations vote calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. Melbourne-based Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA), and the Australia\/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) wanted Canberra to oppose it outright, while the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) say the government should have supported it.<\/p>\n Six of Australia\u2019s former prime ministers (excluding Paul Keating) stepped into the war of words, seeking to calm the debate, but appear to have inadvertently inflamed it.<\/p>\n The six penned a lengthy statement, which ended by calling on Australians to \u201ctreat each other with love and respect\u201d.<\/p>\n But while it was welcomed by Jewish advocates, it was slammed by AFIC, which said the statement showed \u201cobvious bias\u201d towards the \u201cZionist lobby in Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Penny Wong sharpened her rhetoric on the deaths in Gaza this week.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n AFIC\u2019s statement went on: \u201cIn an astonishing show of collective amnesia, they [the ex PM\u2019s}] have ignored 17 years of illegal occupation and the clear and continuous human rights violations that preceded the October 7 attacks.\u201c<\/p>\n Some Islamic community leaders feel let down by Albanese, having rallied to the cause of the Voice during a visit he made to Sydney\u2019s Lakemba mosque on October 6. They feel they\u2019ve been cold-shouldered since the October 7 attacks.<\/p>\n Conversely, inside some sections of the Jewish community there\u2019s been a degree of trepidation about where Labor\u2019s heart lies.<\/p>\n Walt Secord, director of public affairs at AIJAC , says \u201cthere has been an apprehension that Labor was starting to drift away from Israel over the last decade, but the recent terrorist attacks from Gaza and their barbarity seem to have halted that. There was genuine relief at \u2026 the support and solidarity\u201d from Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns.<\/p>\n Evans, who as ICG head was deeply involved in negotiations in the region, condemns as \u201cindefensible\u201d Hamas\u2019 brutality on October 7. But he says \u201ctotally legitimate Palestinian grievances and demands\u201d must be accommodated if there\u2019s to be a lasting solution.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people lose hope they despair, when they despair, that too often tuns to rage, and rage turns to outrage … that\u2019s the dilemma.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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