Australia is at a departure point

June 11, 2025

Ghaith Krayem lays things out re Palestine quite correctly. The latest sanctions move from Penny Wong marks a real point of departure by us and some partner nations from the US path.

What is the US path? Well, the position of Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, is spelt out very clearly, unless, which is possible I suppose, he has changed his views in eight years.

This from The Guardian today: “The ambassador’s position has deep roots in his evangelical Christian beliefs and longstanding support for Israeli settlement expansion. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Huckabee said: ‘There is no such thing as a Palestinian.’ In a 2017 visit to the occupied West Bank, he rejected the concept of Israeli occupation entirely.

“Said Huckabee at the time: ‘I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation’.”

So there it is, and as 75% of the UN supports a two-state outcome, the current US position is unsupportable.