On 6 October, the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, wrote to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese to propose a bi-partisan motion commemorating the anniversary of the heinous terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel. The following day, Albanese moved a motion that was significantly different to that proposed by Dutton, to the extent that the Opposition did not support it.
The Albanese motion, by its omissions when compared with the motion proposed by Dutton, clearly sought to distance the Albanese Government from overt support for Israel and the Australian Jewish community.
The motion declined to “stand with Israel” and “to redouble efforts to work with Australia’s Jewish community to ensure that the rise in antisemitism in Australian society is properly repudiated and addressed.” It also declined to express any recognition that Israel “shares the same liberal democratic values as Australia and other western nations” and is fighting to defend those values. And it failed to condemn Australians “seeking to celebrate and promote the barbarous actions of terrorist organisations.”
By its additions when compared with the motion proposed by Dutton, the Albanese motion draws a false moral equivalence between Israel and its murderous terrorist enemies, by referring to a “cycle of violence”. It also undermines Israel’s self-defence by calling for de-escalation and ceasefire as Israel contemplates retaliation for tremendous, incessant aggression and while Israel’s enemies continue to brutalise hostages and to attack Israeli civilians every day, from behind their own civilians.
FOIWA is dismayed at the apparent unravelling of decades of bi-partisan support for the Jewish nation and the Jewish people.