Labor’s anti-Israel obsession

As a former national president of the ALP, Warren Mundine is correct to suggest it is NSW Labor that will suffer from its anti-Israel escapade. Israel is the only vibrant democracy in the Middle East; it can look after itself. But, as Mr Mundine says, NSW Labor risks becoming a fringe party. With the ALP’s state conference 10 days away, its obsessional turn is marked by no less than 39 resolutions on the Israel-Palestinian issue compared with only 17 resolutions on other topics in international affairs.

NSW Labor leader Luke Foley decided last year that if his MPs took trips sponsored by Israel they should spend equal time in Palestinian territories. The real agenda is to ban Israel-sponsored trips altogether. The pro-Palestinian MPs within the party know very well that key sites within the occupied territories are no-go areas on security grounds; the equal time rule cannot work in practice.

A key proponent of the anti-Israel push is former foreign minister Bob Carr, who directs a China relations institute at a Sydney university. He might reflect on which country — Israel or China — is open and transparent, and which country is execution happy.

As Mr Mundine put it: “Name another country that the Labor Party bans people from going to? There are none. What is the difference with this country? The only difference is that they are Jewish”. And Michael Forshaw, who chairs the ALP’s international affairs policy committee, makes the telling point that “for years people from the Left travelled to Moscow or Cuba ... nobody ever tried to stop them through the party.’’

The factors now at work within NSW Labor are Green-Left-style activism and base pandering to the Muslim vote in western Sydney. Why attempt to penalise Israel because it has the wit and means to tell its side of the story? It is quite open in its advocacy and the elites who undertake these trips are used to making up their own minds. The tragedy is that Palestinian leaders have squandered many opportunities to achieve a peaceful settlement of their dispute with the Israelis.