Former Anglican bishop of Canberra Goulburn, George Browning, has criticised federal Opposition leader Sussan Ley over a letter she sent to members of the Republican Party who had written to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, attempting to stop him from recognising a Palestinian state at the UN this week.

Dear Sussan, (he wrote)

I had expected better from you. Your letter to members of the US Republican Party is outrageous on so many fronts. Politically, you have linked yourself and, by association, Australia, to the aggressive, partisan, conflict-driven politics of the US.

You must know that the US does not even rate being in the list of countries that can genuinely be called “democratic”. You have linked yourself to a person who believes he is the greatest president the US has ever had, who believes he can assert his will through bullying tactics, anywhere in the world, who seeks material wealth for himself in every “deal”, and who has the vomit-inducing audacity to align himself with the Christian faith.

Your letter makes it clear you support action you do not have the courage to name.

Through the voice of its prime minister, Israel has been long making it clear it will never allow one inch of land to be deemed “Palestinian”. To say the action of recognition has prompted Netanyahu to retaliate and deny Palestinians any rights or autonomy is taking us for fools. This is what Netanyahu has always said. His recent announcement of significant new settlements cutting off East Jerusalem is, fact totem, annexation.

Your letter makes it clear you do not, in fact, support a two-state solution. The act of recognition has come far too late, but it is at least a statement that Australia, along with most of the world, condemns the internationally illegal actions of Israel in confiscating Palestinian land and degrading, humiliating, a race of people.

In not calling for a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, you clearly condone actions that have been officially called genocide.

You have seriously underestimated the moral conscience of ordinary Australians. The actions of Hamas on 7 October were inhumane and contemptible. But what Israel has unleashed is barbaric. Israel has long since lost any right to consider itself the victim. It is not. Its right to exist has never been under threat from Hamas, no matter what words might be exchanged. The contrary is true.

The right of Palestinians to exist has been under threat because the international community has not had the will to enforce both sides of the 1947 partition plan. More lately, if the international community had stepped in as soon as Israel commenced taking Palestinian land beyond its side of the 1967 borders, we would not be in this position. There would not have been a Hamas, there would not have been a separation wall and there would not have been over two million Palestinians subsisting without hope, cut off from the rest of the world, on a narrow piece of land on the edge of the Mediterranean.

Because the international community has failed, we are in this unfolding genocide. Well done Australia, for taking action that should have been taken more than 50 years ago. I can only hope we follow through with meaningful action.

Sussan, you and your party need to decide whether you wish to be part of a global desire for justice and peace, lived within acceptable global commitments for justice and harmony or whether you do not.

You, of course, face the same question in relation to environmental and ecological responsibility. I believe you are intelligent. You do understand basic science, even economics. Either we want at this late hour to live in expectation of a planet that can support liveability for generations to come, or we don’t. If we don’t then, sure, dig up, cut down, and despoil.

Good luck leading a political party that wishes to regain power with such a mindset.

Sussan, where you are now politically is not where I think you were when you first entered politics. Then, I am sure you wished to do your part to make the world a better place. Such is politics, that after one term, remaining in power becomes the sole objective. Your problem is the extreme right-wing ideology you are called to heed and serve in your colleagues is not where the rest of us are. Listening exclusively to an echo chamber is false, perhaps fatal, comfort.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.