"Carr ... Offers No Criticism of ... a 'Palestinian Lobby' While Acknowledging The Lobbying of ... Arabs on Australia's Foreign Policy"

In an op-ed entitled (should you wish to google it) "A great read with deeply troubling insights into the mind of Carr and his Israel-lobby obsession"  published in yesterday's The Australian newspaper, Gerard Henderson, executive director of the Sydney Institute and a longtime friend of Israel, has offered his thoughts on Bob Carr's Diary of a Foreign Minister, which he considers "very much the real Carr".


And in so doing he's told of an incident that sheds further light on Carr's negative attitude towards Israel, and suggests that it began earlier than often thought.

The incident in question occurred in the immediate wake of 9/11, when Carr was premier of New South Wales.  Ken Burns, the American documentary film maker (his output includes the acclaimed The Civil War, which had been shown on Australian television), was due to present the prizes at a dinner marking the annual event known as The Premier's History Awards.

Reveals Henderson:

"...The date was September 17, 2001....

It turned out that Burns was a last-minute scratching from the event. It was around a week since al-Qa’ida’s terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Air transport from the US had been disrupted.

Moreover, word got around the audience that Burns was not keen on flying in the wake of what Americans term 9/11.

At the start of the dinner Carr came over to talk to me. I expressed commiserations that his guest Burns was a non-starter. To my surprise, Carr seemed quite shaken by the 9/11 attack.

He said to me that he had now come to the conclusion that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 had been a mistake.

Carr stated his belief that the Arab world would never accept the creation of a Jewish state and that Islamists would continue to target Western nations.

From around late 2001, I noticed a change in Carr’s attitude towards Israel."

Henderson, inter alia, makes the excellent point that Carr's book contains "numerous references" to the importance, particularly in Sydney's western suburbs, to the Arab Muslim votes, and that while he  'is ready to bag what he terms the “Israel lobby” in Australia and to identify ... AIJAC figures ... as allegedly exerting improper influence' he 'offers no criticism of such an entity as a “Palestinian lobby” while acknowledging the lobbying of Muslims and non-Muslim Arabs on Australia’s foreign policy towards the Middle East'.

(For many years the Palestinian representative in Australia was Ali Kazak, whose vigorous lobbying efforts were often in the limelight; see also here)

Henderson believes the book

"indicates that Carr is somewhat unhinged in so far as Israel is concerned. He cannot accept that [Julia] Gillard’s long-time support for Israel reflects her real position...."

Hat tip: reader Ian

"How Will I Explain This On The Steps Of The Mosque At Lakemba?": Australian Foreign Minister Carr's Stance On Israel Condemned

Today's Sydney Daily Telegraph (12 December, Aussie time) carries an exclusive column by the prominent Labor federal politician Michael Danby, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence.

Danby, at one stage of his career the only Jew in federal Parliament, is (like Foreign Minister Bob Carr, once considered friendly towards Israel) a leading figure on the Right of his party (the ALP), and has been a pro-Israel advocate since his student days.

In his column he condemns what he sees as Carr's manipulative betrayal of Israel, which, he claims involved Carr ringing around keyparty  figures to ensure that pro-Israel Prime Minister Julia Gillard (pictured, with Bibi Netanyahu) was undermined.

Writes Danby, inter alia:

"As NSW premier he [Carr, in 2003] awarded the Sydney Peace Prize to Palestinian ideologue Hanan Ashrawi. As the only major figure in the Australian Jewish community to defend his actions, I used the Voltaire argument, namely his right to say things with which others disagreed.... 

Parliament last month saw a switch in Australia's stance at the UN creation of a Palestinian state after Julia Gillard's pro-Israel position was challenged and then overturned by Carr and others....

Some caucus members worry about every Palestinian - who is, by aid dollars per capita, the most highly subsidised minority in the world, including $350 million of Australian taxpayer funds.

By contrast, poor gentle Tibet gets little sympathy. More than 80 Tibetans have burned themselves to death in the past 18 months as a result of Chinese oppression.

Tibetans launch terrorist attacks on no one. They acquire no Iranian missiles to attack Chinese cities; they strap on no suicide vests to blow up no children on school buses.

Yet the Tibetans can't get a meeting with our Foreign Minister and they don't get a dollar from the UN.

We avert our eyes when a real power like China crushes under its boot an ancient people like the Tibetans. Yet our Foreign Minister asks of the Palestinian vote at the UN: "How will I explain this on the steps of the mosque at Lakemba?"

Nor are there any caucus resolutions over the 200,000 in the living death of North Korean concentration camps or the 300,000 African Muslims of Darfur butchered by their Islamist government in Sudan.

But the ostensible, domestic motivations for our changed vote are the most troubling aspect of the debate inside the Labor Party during the final week of parliament. It is self-defeating to suggest, as was widely claimed, that voters in western Sydney (who swung against the NSW Labor Party by 30-40 per cent at the last state election) will be influenced by votes at the UN.

Corruption at the heart of both the Left and Right of NSW Labor and the clear lack of infrastructure, particularly in western Sydney, are the real turn-off in Sydney seats. Phoning around, then speaking on the matter and ultimately threatening to speak against the Prime Minister is unforgivable behaviour for any minister in any cabinet government...."

Read the entire article here (hat tip: reader Shirlee)

In a recent column in the Jerusalem Post, the internationally-known and widely respected Jewish leader Isi Leibler, for a quarter of a century the dominant figure in the Australian Jewish community until he made aliya over a dozen years ago, also condemns Bob Carr's position, contrasting it with the demonstrated pro-Israel stance of almost all Australian federal administrations (regardless of party) down the years.

Explains Leibler, with justification:

"Much of this historical bipartisanship can be attributed to a vigorous Jewish community, renowned as being one of the most vibrant Zionist communities in the Diaspora. Its leadership has never failed, to speak upand take a principled stand on behalf of Israel when appropriate."

Of Carr, he writes in part:

"On a few recent occasions, votes by Australia at the UN appeared to deviate from the norm, but this was rationalized as temporary pandering to the Arabs to solicit votes for elections to the Security Council.

The dramatic tilt against Israel was spearheaded by Foreign Minister Bob Carr who exerted enormous pressure on the Labor caucus and compelled Prime Minister Gillard to backtrack from her decision to oppose the Palestinian initiative. Had she not complied, she would have been humiliatingly defeated and possibly toppled as Prime Minister. 

Carr was vigorously supported by former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, at one time one of Israel’s greatest supporters, notorious (whilst inebriated) for having called on Israel to “nuke” the Palestinians if they failed to halt the terror. Hawke was intimately connected to Israel’s Labor leaders but after Menahem Begin was elected Prime Minister in 1977, he changed his views and today regards Israel as “intransigent”. He was supported by another veteran Labor politician, former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, who since retiring from government has been consistently canvassing the Arab cause. Both fervently lobbied Labor ministers to repudiate Gillard’s policy....

Carr visited Israel in August this year meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders including Ashrawi.

 On his return to Australia, he raised eyebrows when he dispatched a delegation to Iran to solicit votes for Australia’s UN Security Council candidature. There were also unconfirmed rumors circulating that undertakings were made to the Arabs in return for their support.

His backing of Israel during the Gaza campaign was lukewarm. In the Senate, he made the astonishing statement:  “Any response by Israel needs to be proportionate and not lead to civilian casualties. We have on more than a dozen occasions called on both sides to exercise restraint”.

Setting aside the moral equivalence inherent in this remark, he was effectively demanding that Israel – which more than any army in history goes out of its way to minimize civilian casualties – take no action to defend its citizens from missile attacks.

He was even more forthcoming after the UN vote when he proclaimed “I don’t apologize for the fact that Australia has interests in the Arab world. If we had voted no, that would have been a body blow to our interests in over 20 countries. The truth is they all see this as a bedrock issue.” He also dismissed suggestions that the Palestinians intended to exploit their new observer status to initiate charges of war crimes against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Carr’s change of policy was confirmed when he joined the European bandwagon and hauled Israel’s Ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem over the coals following Israel’s decision to build homes in the Jerusalem suburbs and adjacent areas – which the Bush Administration had agreed should remain within Israel....

 [U]nless Gillard succeeds in persuading the Labor Party caucus to change its approach, in the short term Israel should not expect support from Australia under Foreign Minister Carr. Like many of our European “friends”, Carr may continue insisting that his motivations are based upon having the Jewish state’s security at heart and trying to save Israel from itself. But when the chips are down, he will abandon us as he did at the UN General Assembly.""

A recent scene in Sydney

Leibler also notes a salient demographic factor:

"With close to 500,000 Moslems now living in Australia, many concentrated in key Labor Party electorates, their influence has impacted on a number of Labor Ministers. Combined with the vehement anti-Israeli orientation of the far left Labor factions, this enabled Carr to persuade the Cabinet to tilt its policy against Israel."

(The number of Jews in Australia is around 100,000.)

Incidentally, the results of Britain's 2011 Census were announced today.

Of potential relevance to the way politicians react to issues affecting Israel, that Census shows that there are 263,000 declared Jews – and 2.7 million Muslims.

She'll be right, mate! Good vibes on Israel from Australia's Julia Gillard

During a recent interview, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, spoke of the close relationship between his country and Australia.  "We see Australia ... as ... a very good friend and ally which has historic ties here in Israel", he said. 

Australia can indeed boast strong links with Israel.  In Palestine during the First World War an Aussie soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel Eliezer Margolin, led in succession two Jewish volunteer regiments; his ashes lie buried in Rehovot, where there is a memorial to him.  Australian jurist and politician 'Doc' H. V. Evatt,  President of the UN General Assembly during 1948-49, took a key part in negotiations that led to the creation of Israel.

 In 1965, owing to the indefatigable efforts of the well-known Jewish leader  Isi Leibler, then of Melbourne and now of Jerusalem, Australia became the first country in the world to raise before the United Nations the plight of Soviet Jewry.  And in 1991 Isi Leibler's brother Mark, at that time President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, played  no small role in getting the UN General Assembly to rescind its shameful Resolution  3379, passed in 1975, which declared that "Zionism is a form of racism". 

The outstanding support for Israel of Aussie prime ministers Bob Hawke (Labor) and John Howard (Liberal) is legendary, while today Liberal Opposition leader Tony Abbott seems as staunch a friend of Israel as his immediate predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull.  In May, when Kevin Rudd's Labor government expelled a Canberra-based Israeli diplomat in retaliation for the use of four Australian passports by the team wanted over the assassination in Dubai in January of a ruthless Hamas arms dealer, Abbott's deputy, Julie Bishop, who had been a minister under Howard, accused the government of over-reacting and pointed out that Israel had not been definitely implicated in the affair; she added that in any case 'It would be naive to think that Israel is the only country in the world that has used forged passports, including Australian passports, for security operations', and suggested that Australia itself had done so.  Abbott, who shared her view that the expulsion was unwarranted, resisted furious demands from the government benches that she be sacked.

There are hopeful signs that Australia's new Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (pictured with Bibi Netanyahu, whom she met in July last year when she led the Australian delegation to the inaugural Australia-Israel Leadership Forum in Jerusalem), will be a firmer friend of Israel than was the ousted Rudd.  She is on record as saying that she looks forward to fostering ties between Australia and Israel at various levels: political, business, scientific, and social, and that Australia has much to learn from Israel in the high-tech field. 

A supporter of a two-state solution who has called on Israel to freeze West Bank settlements in pursuit of peace, she has no illusions about the  terrorist nature of Hamas.  During Operation Cast Lead she defended Israel's actions, a view she has since reiterated: "We made it clear ... that we understood Israel's need to defend its people .... I think we do need to remember that this was an Israeli response to continued rocket attacks out of Gaza into civilian areas.  There was no pretence that the rockets coming out of Gaza were heading for strategic targets or military targets; they were aimed at civilians.  And in those circumstances obviously a nation state is going to respond to the continued shelling of its people."