Danby says Carr settlements statement is “ill-timed”
Labor Federal MP for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby has made further comment on Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s comments about the legality of the settlements in light of the talks currently taking place between Israel and Palestine.
Michael Danby and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
He told J-Wire: ‘Bob Carr’s emphasis on Israeli settlements is ill timed, given the peace negotiations that are currently taking place in Washington. These talks commenced, and are supported by Australia, on the basis that they are undertaken without preconditions.
One of the issues, and it is only one, of the issues being negotiated in Washington is settlements and land swaps. Obviously therefore Australia should not pre-empt negotiations freely entered into by the parties involved. With our membership at the Security Council, Australia should be emphasising the international investigation into the mass death by poison gas in Syria. In contrast the negotiations are the only hopeful and peaceful element of the current turmoil of Middle East including the mass slaughter that is taking place in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and now Egypt.’
Would I be called a cynic if I was to dare suggest that Mr Carr made a rather opportunistic off the cuff remark in the hope of winning a few extra votes in the community he was addressing? After all Mr Rudd had announced some rather strong policy to redirect unauthorised immigrants to a nearby island that was not Australia. Strangely enough, many, maybe most of these unauthorised immigrants are of the same or similar religious belief as his audience to whom he made the statement.
Maybe he sensed that there was some resentment among his audience about these moves, and there were many votes to lose.
Maybe Mr Carr knows that many of his audience would have felt far more antagonism towards Israel than love of fellow religionists.
He would not have been the first to create a diversion to obscure a problem or effects of a policy.
Have I stated the concept with sufficient political correctness?
The message that I get from Carr’s statement at the Lakemba mosque and the failure of the Labor party to either disavow or at least clarify it, is that Labor sees more value in shafting Israel and Australian Jews than sticking to principles previously enunciated by the party.
Labor is so desperate for votes that one must conclude that the determinant of the party’s position on any issue is directly related to the number of votes the party thinks any particlar statement will generate.
It is also disappointing to me and many other Melbourne Ports voters that Michal Danby hasn’t successfully managed to get any clarification from the government on Carr’s outrageous (and legally incorrect) statement. In the absence of any such clarification, all supporters of Israel must mark down the government on this issue and give credit to the Coalition for Julie Bishop’s contra views.
In a certain way I feel sorry for Michael Danby.
He has spent most of his mature life in an institution and Party which have ignored him big time. Sure he has an easy perfunctory job, member on a commission or two, attending all manner of meetings, shaking hands and painting that infectious (!!!) smile on his face, and , then, foot in mouth public statements, just like this last one:
“ill-timed” statement by Bob Carr ( the one who has raked the fattest jobs in the same Party and the same one who fooled us that he was a better friend of Israel than poor little Michael ). What, Michael, mate, the same statement should have been made by Bob Carr at a different, better time ??!!
See now why you never got any job with a bit of meat on the bone !?
Michael Danby misses the point in this latest statement.
It is not Bob Carr’s emphasis on the settlements that is of concern at this stage of Australia’s elections or the current negotiations between Israel and the PLO.
What is concerning and needs to be established is whether Carr’s view is indeed the view of Prime Minister Rudd and is also the policy of the Labor Party as was unequivocally and unapologetically stated by Carr to be the case in his famous Lakembe Mosque Declaration on 8 August.
Why do Prime Minister Rudd and the Labor Party find it so difficult to issue a one sentence press release confirming whether Rudd and the Labor Prty have indeed adopted a policy that Jews do not have the legal right to live in the West Bank?
Rudd’s office and the Labor Party are issuing press releases every minute of the day. Why not one to clear up what Carr said and Danby obviously disputes?
Australians going to vote on 7 September should be made aware in no unclear terms by the Prime Minister and the Labor Party whether the Lakemba Mosque Declaration by Bob Carr was factually correct or not.
End the confusion – and end it quickly.