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“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?”