Julian Leeser reports to federal parliament

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Shadow Attorney General Julian Leeser has told the federal government of his recent trip to the Middle East with Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Sussan Ley.

Julian Leeser

The full text of his report:

“I spent the last week in Israel, the Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates.

The original purpose of my visit was to examine how the Abraham accords are changing relations in the Middle East for the better.

The Abraham accords put to death two canards of this debate first that there can be no peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours while the Israel-Palestine issue remains unresolved.

And second, the central problem in the Middle East is the Israel-Palestine issue. It is not. The real challenge in the Middle East is the export of terrorism and regional destabilisation by Iran and the prevalence of failed states like Syria and Lebanon, which are being picked over by a range of terrorist organisations like ISIS and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Unfortunately, rather than celebrating the Abraham accords, I was constantly having to confront the real sense of hurt the Australian Government’s decision to reverse our policy on Jerusalem has had on Israelis.

Make no mistake, this was big news in Israel, and it has damaged our relationship with a significant ally and the only democracy in the Middle East.

I explained that this was not a bipartisan decision a that a future coalition government would revert to recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Labor’s decision-making was shambolic and wrong.

Labor had three positions on the issue in 24 hours. There was no consultation with Israel, and the decision was announced on Simchat Torah.

It is hard to think of a more chaotic piece of foreign policy making in the history of Australia

It was a decision that sends a bad message to all other countries with whom we have long standing alliances and friendships.

The decision was lauded by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad

You know you are making bad policy decisions when they are endorsed by listed terrorist organisations.

West Jerusalem has been part of Israel since 1948 it looks like every other capital city in the world. The Knesset Israel’s Parliament is there. The Supreme Court is there. The President and Prime Minister both live there. West Jerusalem is not a final status issue.

I want to address the government’s three justifications for their decision.

First, they say that the position to not recognise West Jerusalem had been the position of every government between 1967 and 2018.  The simple answer to this proposition is to say that the previous policy was wrong.  It was a pointless charade, and to me, as a Jewish Australian, it was an offensive form of antisemitism – singling Israel out by pretending its capital was somewhere other than where it actually was and it was good that it was finally corrected by the Morrison Government.  But when the correct decisions have been made by an Australian Government, it is no justification for the succeeding government to revert to the previous offensive position by saying that the correct potion was out of step with those Governments who were in error.

Second, they argue the decision was out of step with a range of countries, including France, Spain, South Korea, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, the European Union, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and Norway.

Well, Australia has its own independent foreign policy based on facts, principles and our national interest it is not about some form of groupthink.

Third, they described the Morrison Government’s announcement as a political stunt. It was not a stunt it was a policy decision made in an orthodox manner. Over two months between making the announcement that the government was considering recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the final decision, there were consultations led by the Secretaries of PMC DFAT and Home affairs, community representatives and people closely involved in the Middle East peace process. The Prime Minister raised the issue with other world leaders personally in bilateral meetings he had. Compare that process with Labor’s shambolic approach and one can only conclude that the reversal of this decision only came about to appease the extreme elements in the ALP.

On Israel, Labor speaks with a forked tongue. Before the election, Labor promised they were in lockstep with the Coalition.

The Attorney General wrote in the Australian Jewish News:

“Australia has for generations spoken with one voice in support of Israel. Labor’s own history of steadfast support for Israel extends back to well before the founding of the modern state in 1948.

… The truth is that you do not have to look far to see the reality, and value, of bipartisanship when it comes to Israel.”

It took only a few months for Labor to demonstrate that this was untrue.

As Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry has pointed out the ECAJ’s pre-election survey in 2022 asked:

“Please outline your party’s policies on the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, including any additional measures it would take if elected to government.”

In their answer, the position Labor put to the Jewish community going into the election made no mention that it would cease to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. As Peter Wertheim has written:

“Significantly, there was no statement as previously, that Labor would reverse the Morrison government’s decision. Was this misleading? It was certainly less than full disclosure.”

It is time for the Albanese Government to reverse their decision. If they don’t do it, the next Coalition government will.

Australia should not be making foreign policy in such a chaotic way, particularly when that policy alienates long-standing allies.

Julian Leeser and Sussan Ley’s trip was organised by The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council