Australia’s political and media response to Gaza, including the invitation to Israel’s president, reflects the influence of pro-Israel lobbying and the shrinking space for lawful criticism.

The powerful Zionist lobby has our political, media and academic class bluffed. Not surprisingly the lobby has seized the initiative following the tragic Bondi killings.

The lobby invited the Israeli President Herzog to visit Australia before it was considered by the Australian Government. Then, true to form, the Australian government followed and issued a formal invitation for the visit. The tail wagging the dog!

The Zionist lobby in the US effectively commands the support of the two major parties. The same is true in Australia. Few opinion leaders in Australia are prepared to defy the lobby.

John Lyons of the ABC in Pearls and Irritations on 4 October 2021 said: “In 40 years of journalism I’ve dealt with some smart and powerful lobby groups. But none compares to the pro-Israel lobby in Australia. It is formidable, well-funded and effective…. Says senior journalist Peter Greste: “personally I think the pressure that the Israeli lobby places on Australian journalists is frankly outrageous”.

In the name of balance our media gives credibility to Israeli propaganda. No one would think that we should give equal treatment to those who deny the Holocaust. Neither should we give balance to those who deny the continuing Holocaust in Gaza today.

None of our media have taken seriously the assassination of almost 300 Palestinian journalists and assistants by the IDF. The National Press Club withdrew an invitation to Chris Hedges a world renowned journalist about the failed western media coverage of the genocide.

So much of our media, including, shamefully, the ABC is intimidated by the Zionist lobby and Zionist propagandists. In our mainstream media Palestinians and Muslims are treated as much less human and less valuable than white Jews and white Christians. Just contrast the media coverage of Christian Ukraine and Muslim Gaza.

Israelis and their defenders consistently play the victim game but refuse to accept that the victims of the Holocaust in Europe are now the perpetrators of a new Holocaust in Gaza.

I have not seen or heard the lobby say one word against the genocide. It attacks those Jews who opposes the genocide. Those Jews believe that “never again” embraces all humanity, Jews and Palestinians alike.

Are only Zionists allowed to grieve? Are we expected to be silent about Palestinian grief?

Speaking of Zionist lobbying, Bob Carr – former Premier of NSW and Foreign Minister – put it this way in Pearls and Irritations on 2 December 2021: “My experience as Premier and Foreign Minister confirms that the (Israeli) lobbying exceeded that marshalled by any other diaspora community. As Foreign Minister on my first visit to the UN I released a very routine statement noting the latest burst of Israeli settlement activity was not helpful to the peace process. From Australia arrived a request I make myself available for a telephone conference with the community. This expression had only one meaning that as Foreign Minister, I should justify myself to Mark Leibler and Rubenstein who would patiently explain to me that Australia was not entitled to criticise settlements even though a clear breach of international law.”

In a speech to the Jewish Community Centre in Perth on 24 July 2018 Mark Leibler boasted of his lobbying power and gave tips for lobbyists. He gave some case studies: “a good example is the advocacy we undertook at the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council in relation to the recently returned ABC correspondent Sophie McNeill’s coverage of the Middle East. She should never have been given this posting by the ABC because she was ideologically attached to the Palestinian cause. I don’t believe that the ABC would have sent her if they had known but they weren’t going to create a controversy by pulling her out. That said our representations both public and private undoubtedly moderated her behaviour because she knew she was being watched”.

Leibler gave another example in Perth undertaken ahead of an ALP’s national conference: “Bob Carr and his associates we’re making worrying in-roads on the diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state, particularly in western Sydney electorates with a strong Muslim influence. A great deal of sustained behind the scenes lobbying was done with the leader and with individual politicians whose voice carried weight to ensure the damage was limited.”

Another example was the targeting of Antoinette Lattouf who was fired by the ABC after sharing a Human Rights Watch report on social media which detailed Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. The federal court judge who found that the ABC contravened the Fair Work Act by terminating her employment also found that the decision of the ABC was made to appease pro- Israel lobbyists.

A further example of the lobbying was the collapse of the Adelaide Writer’s Festival following the withdrawal of invitation to speak given to the Palestinian novelist Randa Abdel-Fattah. There is also ongoing litigation instigated by the lobby against renowned journalist Mary Kostakidis over alleged anti-Semitism.

Pressure was also applied by the Zionist lobby to university managements to quell protest, call in police and treat peacefully protesting students as terrorists at the time of the Gaza Solidarity Encampments throughout 2024 and later.

The stock in trade of the Zionist lobby is to describe even the slightest criticism of Israel as antisemitic. I find this personally offensive. When I was Secretary of the Department of Immigration under the Fraser government, we were active in facilitating the migration to Australia of Jews from the Soviet Union. A major influx of Soviet Jews arrived under special humanitarian visas in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The lobby consistently plays the ‘victim’ and refuses to acknowledge that the victims of the Holocaust in Europe are now the perpetrators of a new Holocaust on the victims in Gaza.

If I criticise Israel over genocide that does not make me antisemitic. If I criticise India that does not make me anti Hindu. If I criticise Japan that does not make me anti Buddhist or Shinto. If I criticise Indonesia that does not make me anti Muslim.

But the weaponisation of antisemitism, the use and misuse of the term, stores up danger for the future when there is a serious problem of antisemitism. And there will be. When language is debased truth is likely to be lost.

Research by the Scanlon Foundation Image Mapping Social Cohesion 2025 revealed negative attitudes towards people of different religious faiths as follows…4 per cent negative feelings towards Buddhists, 14 per cent for Hindus, 15 per cent for Jews, 18 per cent for Christians and 35 per cent for Muslims. Asked about perceived racism, 67 per cent of all Australians said that racism was a problem in Australia

Those survey figures confirm my personal experience that racism and Islamophobia are far bigger problems than antisemitism.

There has undoubtedly been a rise in antisemitism in the last two to three years. In January 2025 the Anti-Defamation League which describes itself as “the world’s most extensive study of antisemitism globally” said that “46 per cent of the world’s adult population harbour deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes, more than double compared to our first worldwide survey a decade ago”. That comes as no surprise. The upsurge in antisemitism has occurred at the same time as the genocide in Gaza. The two are closely linked. But the Zionist lobby dishonestly refuses to recognise the context of genocide in Gaza which is driving antisemitism.

Professor Iian Pappe in the Palestine Chronicle of 23 April 2025 describes the ugliness and cowardice of so many in the west for failure to recognise the context of Gaza: “ignoring the genocide in the Gaza Strip and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank can only be described as intentional and not out of ignorance. Both Israel’s actions and the discourse that accompanies them are too visible to be ignored unless politicians, academics and journalists choose to do so. This kind of ignorance is first and foremost the result of successful Israeli lobbying that thrived on the fertile ground of European guilt complex, racism and Islamophobia. In the case of the US, it is also the outcome of many years of an effective and ruthless lobbying machine that very few in academia, media and politics dare to disobey."

Professor Henry Reynolds in Pearls and Irritations of January 24, 2026, wrote: “surveys of opinion in the Jewish community have found that 76 per cent considered themselves Zionists while 86 per cent feel a sense of responsibility that the state of Israel continues to exist. This helps us understand why there is so much determination to relate the growth of the criticism of Israel in recent times to antisemitism rather than to the utter barbarity of the IDF in Gaza and the continuing pillage of the settlers in the West Bank…. It would greatly facilitate social cohesion if the leaders of the mainstream Zionist organisations could trace the true source of discomforting community criticism back to Israel rather than the broader Australian community."

Israel, like other settler societies have two homelands, Australia and Israel. We know of older Australians who regularly spoke of England as “home “. We even sent our soldiers to fight in England’s wars. Many Israeli Australians do the same, fighting in Israel’s wars against the indigenous people of Palestine.

In the aftermath of the Bondi killings Israeli flags were prominent amongst the floral tributes. There are extremely well funded propaganda programs for politicians and journalists to visit Israel. The Zionist community in so many ways exhibit a conflict of loyalty between Israel and Australia.

The lobby instigated the coming President Herzog visit. Herzog heads a state that has committed genocide as determined by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry in September last year. An Australian – Chris Sidoti – was a member of that Commission.

Following the October 7 attacks President Herzog said that an “entire nation” is responsible for the attacks. Many would argue that that was an incitement to genocide against all Palestinians.

Eighty-three per cent of the casualties in Gaza are civilians, yet Herzog says that Israel puts “a huge focus” on reducing civilian casualties.

Organisations like Human Rights Watch allege systemic discrimination, persecution and apartheid against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Herzog turns a blind eye.

On 9 October 2023 Herzog was photographed brazenly signing a bomb that was to be dropped on Gaza to kill Palestinians. That picture tells us an awful lot about the character of the Israeli president.

Herzog said that Israel is acting in self-defence and is adhering to international law. That is just not true.

• Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian land – West Bank, East Jerusalem, see Security Council, (2334/2016), and the ICJ (July 2024). Israel refuses to end such occupation as it has been ordered to do.
• The 4th Geneva Convention affirms that it is illegal to transfer Israel’s population into occupied land. Israel is doing that.
• Israel is directly contravening ICJ orders in impeding aid into Gaza.
• Israel’s indiscriminate or disproportionate acts targeting civilian healthcare and aid workers is a violation of international humanitarian law.
• Forced evictions and displacement breaches international humanitarian law that Herzog refuses to acknowledge.
• UN human rights experts have highlighted Israeli crimes against humanity – murder, torture, sexual violence and war crimes with starvation as a weapon targeting civilians. Herzog denies it.

Along with our political, academic and media class our PM dare not defy the lobby. We need a public inquiry on the lobby’s activities even more than on antisemitism. If there was such an inquiry, I expect the lobby would insist on its terms of reference and membership!

It is outrageous and destructive in almost every way that a Labor Prime Minister would invite a war criminal like Herzog to our shore. He is the criminal head of a criminal state.

Anthony Albanese brings shame to what I thought was the Party that had a vision of “a light on the hill”.

He talks about social cohesion and humanity, but his actions belie his words.

One word he won’t speak is “genocide”. He  does not want to offend the lobby.

I joined the ALP over 70 years ago. Today I am ashamed.