Via Paul Kelly:
The majority of the “wise men” expert panel created to advise the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, rejected his fallback compromise of recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but keeping the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv.
Morrison’s retreat at the weekend confirms he should never have raised the option of moving the embassy since the cost to Australia in foreign policy, diplomatic and trade terms would have been substantial and unnecessary.
The best that can be said is that a grand folly has been avoided. Morrison needed a face-saving fallback and his departmental advisers knew this. There is, however, no national-interest justification in Morrison’s compromise as the expert panel majority recognised. The big test is yet to come: how exactly will Indonesia react?
Before any of you commenting loons react to that, remember this also at The Australian:
Australia’s Jewish community has warned Labor against any reversal of the Morrison government’s decision to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, declaring such a move “would be considered a hostile act”.
The Zionist Federation of Australia has written to Bill Shorten and opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong to express concern about the party’s position after they confirmed Labor would recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital only in the final stages of a two-state solution.
The entire move was orchestrated by the Jewish lobby on behalf of Israel, a foreign country with more power than the Chinese lobby. It was never in Australia’s interests and still isn’t given our Muslim neighborhood.
The entire policy should be thrown out. All it does is make Aussies more of a target for no gain whatsoever.
