Australia’s foreign policy elite has held a romantic view of Israel which extends back to its birth in 1948. By internalising Zionist mythology, Canberra has afforded the Jewish state a latitude it rarely extends to others: the freedom to attack its enemies without mercy and in violation of international law. It does this by casting Israel’s actions as “self-defence” regardless of the provocations and aggression it has regularly initiated.
Predictably, the attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 were presented as a stand-alone event without any pre-history so Israel could be seen as responding to terrorism in self-defence. Despite being documented in gruesome detail, operations Cast Lead, Protective Edge and countless horrors perpetrated against Palestinians since 1948 were, in Orwell’s words, “carefully unmentioned”.
However, Tel Aviv’s genocide in Gaza which has been unrelenting for over 300 catastrophic days, with vital material and diplomatic support from Washington, London, Canberra and other Western governments, is beginning to sour the romance.
It’s not that Western governments are coming to their senses and reeling from the slaughter. They continue to share Israel’s contempt for Palestinians and seem unmoved by footage of the Gazan charnel house. The fantasy of plucky, democratic Israel surrounded by hostile neighbours is not yielding to the reality of a violent, expansionist, apartheid state: a description confirmed by the world’s leading human rights organisations but stubbornly rejected by Prime Minister Albanese.
The change is being driven by public revulsion at the appalling scenes of human suffering and the callous indifference of its perpetrators. The annihilation of babies and their mothers is increasingly difficult to pass off as “self-defence”, despite the strenuous efforts of the corporate media to censor it. The old excuses just aren’t working anymore and the gap between elite and popular opinion is being stretched to breaking point.
For Senator Wong and Anthony Albanese, maintaining continuity between the old romance and the new realities has proven impossible and left Australian foreign policy in a parlous mess.
First, when the killings escalated they tried to switch the discussion from Israel’s right to self-defence to the growing domestic threat of antisemitism. Charges of antisemitism are a shield which has protected Israel from legitimate scrutiny for 75 years. On this occasion the strategy was only partially successful because they had to exaggerate the new danger without explaining the role of Israel’s barbarities in generating it.
As public pressure mounted, the Labor Government reluctantly conceded that they would only recognise Palestine as part of a peace process which they know doesn’t exist, despite unconditional recognition being ALP policy for several years. To exacerbate the contradiction, they expelled a Senator from the party for being uniquely faithful to what the ALP national conference insists is an “important priority” for a Labor government.
The Albanese Government reverted to calling the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza “occupied territory”, an overdue correction which was subsequently confirmed by an opinion of the ICJ that Tel Aviv and Washington immediately rejected. This change moved policy away from the “disputed territory” nomenclature of the previous conservative coalition which had placed Australia outside the international consensus.
Next they reiterated their support for a 2-state solution which both the Netanyahu Government and the Israeli Knesset have explicitly and unambiguously rejected.
In Australia, ICC and ICJ rulings against Israel tend to be either ignored or produce anodyne statements about the importance of all states respecting international law. Unlike the case of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, economic and diplomatic sanctions – even sporting sanctions – remain off the table.
The bombing of schools, mosques, hospitals, universities, refugee camps and “safe zones” in Gaza is now so routine, it barely elicits an angry tweet from the foreign minister. When Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed that it is permissible to starve Gazans to death, an expression of “deep concern” posted on social media was as much as he could expect from Canberra.
When Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir recommended murdering Palestinian detainees because Israel’s prisons were overcrowded, the Australian Government didn’t reconsider its close friendship with Israel. When he recommended cutting off fuel and aid to Gaza – a clear war crime – Wong didn’t think it was even necessary to drag the Israeli Ambassador into DFAT for a ‘please explain’.
Canberra seems incapable of either speaking or acting unilaterally, as if we have no national interests. Australian foreign policy is now willingly vicarious. Comments on Israel-Palestine are now issued with our “international partners” such as New Zealand, the UK and Canada, putting us at odds with almost all of our regional neighbours in Southeast Asia.
In the most recent joint heads of government edict, Iran is blamed for attacking Israel on the 13 April without mentioning that Tehran was retaliating against Israel for its murderous 1 April attack on Iran’s mission in Damascus. This selective use of history which portrays Israel as an innocent victim of Persian aggression has become de rigueur, or what Antonio Gramsci sarcastically called “common sense”.
In this case, Iran has no right to self-defence against Israel’s murderous attacks on its military officers in Syria, or its allies and scientists in Tehran. After Israel assassinated Hamas leader and lead ceasefire negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, Tehran was told by US Secretary of State Blinken not to escalate tensions in the region: apparently he said this with a straight face. Predictably, Canberra followed suit.
Australia’s policy towards Israel-Palestine is not constrained by Washington nor the influential Israel lobby. We are not reluctant policy hostages, but willing and complicit participants in the crime of genocide. History will judge Australia harshly. This shames all of us.
Dr Scott Burchill is Honorary Fellow in International Relations at Deakin University. He is the author of The National Interest in International Relations Theory (Palgrave Macmillan 2005), Misunderstanding International Relations (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) and co-author and editor of Theories of International Relations (5th ed Palgrave Macmillan 2013). He has also taught at Monash University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Tasmania.
He is a regular commentator on ABC Radio and TV.
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