Ignorance trumps racism – mostly.
Some politicians will undoubtedly get an election surprise but will they realise it’s on account of their passivity or active support for Israel?
If they don’t read comments on their social media posts they won’t know that, besides the usual ratbags, an increasing tip-of-the-iceberg number of moderate voices are commenting, sadly, “This is wrong or not good enough. You’ve lost my vote.”
“Is it racism that guides these politicians?” Ali Kazak asks. That seems to be true of Peter Dutton and his fellow travellers.
The Jewish Council of Australia has emerged to decry Israel’s role in Palestine but supporters of Israel who can’t see beyond their awful history have the louder voice.
However, I believe most politicians come to parliament with the same low to zero interest in foreign affairs as the general population.
In getting up to speed re Israel, they take their lead from fellow politicians and mainstream media, mostly dominated by US politicians, media and military machine which are all subject to strong and persistent pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists.
As for “Australia’s moral values” – on Israel, politicians should take their lead from those who have educated themselves thoroughly re Palestinian and Israeli history and have not succumbed to wilful US blindness.
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