Inside Labor, Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong are walking a tightrope as calibrating a unified response to the growing conflagration in the Middle East is proving more fraught.
In early 1984 I was one of a party of journalists that travelled with then Labor foreign minister Bill Hayden through the Middle East. A reminder of that trip surfaced last weekend – only a few days after Hayden’s death – when I found an old report filed by telex from Damascus, outlining Hayden’s hopes and fears for the stalling Middle East peace process.
For the federal opposition, coordinating a reaction to the outrage triggered by the Hamas terror attacks has been relatively straightforward. The pro-Israeli view has a pronounced upper hand among Coalition MP’s – strengthened in recent years by the actions of Scott Morrison who delighted the Netanyahu government with a decision to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Former Labor foreign minister and onetime head of the International Crisis Group, Gareth Evans, who earlier this year addressed the federal ALP caucus in support of formal recognition of Palestinian statehood, sees it differently.Getty That oversimplifies the party’s geopolitical divide. It’s correct that in south-west Sydney the Muslim population comprises a significant proportion of votes in some key seats – on ABS figures, around 25 per cent in the electorate of Watson, 32 per cent in Blaxland and 14 per cent in McMahon .
Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong seek to tread a narrow path, with carefully chosen words that express outrage and horror at the Hamas terror attacks, while signalling distress at the mounting civilian toll in Gaza. Some of her ministerial colleagues with large Muslim constituencies have been much more direct. Industry Minister Ed Husic, and Minister for Early Childhood Education Anne Aly have talked of Gazans being “collectively punished” by Israel .
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