ALP resolution: a not so happy ZFA
Dr Danny Lamm, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia has called the ALP resolution on the Middle East at its national conference “a laundry list of complaints against Israel”.
Dr Lamm said: “Last week Western Australian Labor Senator Joe Bullock took to the opinion page of the Australian, warning that “obsessives” and “cranks” were trying to hijack his party’s Middle East policy. Judging by the results of today’s ALP National Conference, Senator Bullock’s prediction has come to pass.
Dr Danny Lamm
The so-called ‘compromise’ ALP resolution on Israel-Palestine was the fruit of hallway negotiations that dragged on until the last possible minute. Yet the end product of this inter-factional haggling turned out to be as predicted by Senator Bullock: “reckless, poorly thought-out and frankly foolish.”
Amongst the most pernicious facets of this misbegotten Labor resolution is the moral equivalence that pollutes it to the core. Both explicitly and implicitly this declaration places the jihadi theo-fascists of Hamas on the same plane as progressive democrats of Israel.
But it gets worse. The resolution contains a blatantly one-sided laundry list of complaints against Israel whilst simultaneously endorsing the “special circumstances of the Palestinian people, their desire for respect”. And with its ex cathedra declaration that Jewish settlements are “illegal”, the ALP veers dangerously close to out-and-out ethnic bigotry with the implicit assertion that any future Palestinian state must be devoid of any Jewish population. In this respect the ALP is echoing the infamous declaration made in 2010 by Mahmoud Abbas that “we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli” within an independent Palestinian state.
And finally this resolution ends with a biased diplomatic threat aimed solely at a single party – Israel. In the event Middle East peace negotiations do not proceed to the ALP’s satisfaction, it declares the intention to consider unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
The whys and wherefores of such diplomatic failure will apparently be irrelevant to the ALP. Even if the breakdown in negotiations is the result of Palestinian recalcitrance – as has often been the case in the past – the Palestinians will nonetheless be rewarded.
The perverse incentives that permeate this resolution are mind-boggling in their stupidity. And while the resolution’s statement of opposition to BDS is all well and good, it can hardly counterbalance the broader malignancies in the policy adopted by the ALP.
Founded in 1927, the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) is the national roof body that unites all pro-Israel organizations within the Australian Jewish community. And as such the ZFA would like to express it’s appreciation to all those members of the Australian Labor Party who fought the good fight behind-the-scenes against this ill-advised and ill-conceived resolution.
We look forward to working with Israel’s friends on a bi-partisan basis towards the achievement of a Middle East peace agreement that is fair and enduring. It is tragic that the resolution approved by the 2015 ALP National Conference does injury to that effort.”
Dr Ron Weiser
In Sydney, the Honorary Life President of the Zionist Council of NSW Dr Ron Weiser added: “The Zionist Council of NSW views with disappointment the resolution passed at the Australian Labor Party (ALP) National Conference on the 26th of July (coincidentally Tisha B’Av) on the Israel Palestinian issue.
This resolution dents the bipartisan approach that has existed in Australia in order to reach a Two State for Two People solution by not understanding what these words mean.
The Two State for Two People solution is the position that the Jewish people and the State of Israel have supported and aimed towards from even before her establishment.
This key point was neither recognised by the ALP resolution nor understood by the movers of the motion.
The Palestinians have sought to avoid direct negotiations with Israel precisely to avoid having to recognise Israel as a Jewish State and have literally conned some members of the international community into allowing the Palestinians to bypass direct negotiations and gain unilateral recognition.
Sadly the Australian Labor Party has fallen into this trap.
Despite Labor’s welcome words of commitment to the Two State for Two People solution, Labor does not actually require the Palestinians to agree to Israel as a Jewish State.
It is a deviation from the principled stand by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard when she emphasised on the 25th of November 2011 that “A just and secure Israel as a homeland for the Jewish People is an indispensable part of a just and secure world”.
Until the ALP recognises that under a Two State for Two People resolution a requirement is not merely recognition of the State of Israel per se, but recognition of the State of Israel as the vehicle for Jewish self-determination, the ALP is not really pushing for the aforementioned solution.
Rather this new ALP resolution merely requires a Two State Solution where Labor recognises the “special circumstances of the Palestinian people”, but does not mention the rights of the Jewish people, or the Jewish right to self-determination, or the existence of Israel as a Jewish State.
There is no mention of any special circumstances around the situation of the Jewish people, only of the Palestinians.
The resolution allows the Palestinians to avoid coming to the negotiating table, as if negotiations will not proceed the ALP will apparently blame Israel and will consider unilateral steps to recognise a Palestinian State.
Therefore as per Labor’s resolution, the Palestinians have further encouragement to avoid sitting down with Israel to actually negotiate a Two State for Two People solution.
By the Palestinians simply doing nothing and agreeing to nothing, Labor will consider rewarding them by supporting unilateral moves towards a Palestinian State.
It should be noted that the Labor resolution ignores years of positive statements and actions by Prime Minister Netanyahu in support of the establishment of a Palestinian State and highlights some unscripted throwaway lines made in the heat of an election campaign. Comments later retracted by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
This is all the more disingenuous and astounding when one considers that not a single statement by Palestinian leaders about how they will never agree to Israel as the Jewish State, nor the general incitement that occurs in the Palestinian media and education system against the Jewish State, were worthy of mention in the new ALP policy stance.
It should also be noted that the Labor Party resolution falsely makes a pre determination that the “settlements are illegal under international law”.
For me the labor party has made one thing easy.
If ever had any doubts, I know how to vote in the next election
The far – too many antagonists of Israel in the Labored party had the encumbrance that they did not want to humiliate leader Bill Shorten at their National talk – fest / Conference, who is indeed a friend of the Middle East’s only democracy.
So they were amenable to ameliorate / modify slightly their ‘communique’ of Israel bashing as detailed above ”laundry list” comment of Danny Lamm.
It is befuddling why too many of our spokespeople in other articles do not see that broadly, the left are so, so biased against Israel that it is acceptable to make generalizations.
Thus I take the reader to another realm.
In the years 2013 – 14 John Kerry tried blackmailing Israel with comments of increased boycott threats, international isolation, IF THE PEACE TALKS BROKE DOWN!
He also shamelessly used the obscene moniker of apartheid state if Israel ceased conceeding to the unilateral Palestinian demands – on HOLOCAUST REMEMBERANCE DAY!
But the most sickening was his threat of a new Intifada!If Israel did not comply
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173736
Kerry Threatens Israel with ‘Third Intifada’
“Failure of the talks will increase Israel’s isolation in the world,” says US diplomat, warns of possible “chaos.”
Any doubts? Do a basic google search: ‘Kerry blackmail’
The left’s attempts at delegitimization of Israel knows no bounds.
It is incumbent on Jews who have not lost their ken to appreciate how important their vote will be. Soon.
Let our would be enemies remain in opposition.
One wonders how things would have been under the leadership of the incipient challengers Tanya Plibersek or Anthony Albanese or Tony Burke or whoever the troglodytesof totalitarianism eventually choose. eventually choose to replace poor Bill Shorten
It is incumbent on Jews who have not lost their ken to appreciate how important their vote will be. Soon.
As if Israel gives a toss what the resolution says. Meanwhile here, in the desperate diaspora, our so-called Zionist representatives feel so compelled by whatever hang-ups they have, that anything short of complete endorsement of the polices of Likud amounts to being anti-Israel.
Congratulations to the ZFA and Ron Weiser for calling a spade a spade – so different from the welcoming statements made by the ECAJ and AIJAC to this latest statement of Labor Party policy.
Can anyone please explain to me how there is any possibility of Israel and the Palestinian Authority resuming negotiations on the only game in town – Resolution 242, Oslo and the Bush Roadmap – when the Palestinian Authority was unilaterally disbanded by Mahmoud Abbas on 3 January 2013?
A legal technicality to be dismissed? Hardly.It still takes two to tango.
And what if by some miracle negotiations were resumed? No mention by the Labor Party of Palestinian Arab intransigence that could see these negotiations come crashing down for the umpteenth time on such issues as:
1. Israel as the national state of the Jewish people
2. Demilitarization of any new Palestinian Arab State
3. Right of return to Israel of millions of Palestinian Arabs
4. Making the West Bank “Judenrein”
The two state-solution was first proposed in 1922 when the groundwork was laid for an Arab State in at least 78% of Palestine and a Jewish State in not more than 22% of Palestine. Rejected by the Arabs and accepted by the Jews this significant proposal seems to have escaped the notice of the Labor Party and many of our Jewish organisations.
Perhaps they would all be better off returning to that two-state solution and urging completion of the job in the remaining 6% of the Mandate – the West Bank and Gaza – where sovereignty still remains undetermined – not by creating another Arab State – but by dividing the residue among Jordan and Israel in direct negotiations.
That would give the Arabs about 80% of Palestine and the Jews 20% in two sovereign independent states as was first contemplated in 1922.
The Labor Party could then turn its problem-solving attention to trouble spots like Syria, Libya,Yemen, Turkey, Nigeria, Ukraine and Islamic State – or even the plight of ordinary Australians.
Flogging a dead horse leaves a terrible stench.
The ALP is a collaborator in the diplomatic assault that is part of the campaign for the phased extinction of Jewish national self-determination.
Instead of saying this loudly and clearly to his ALP comrades, the courageous Mr Dreyfus has chosen to support them.