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Anthony Albanese’s war of words · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, October three. Australia's first treaty has hit a
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  Speaker 1: huge legal snag. The Australian is exclusively revealing today the
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  Speaker 1: Land Council that struck a one point three billion dollar
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: settlement in Western Australia's Nungar Country accessed the emails of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Aboriginal corporations managing the deal. That story's live right now
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot Com dot a U. Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanezi has struggled to articulate the federal government's response
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  Speaker 1: to a brazen attack on Israel by Iran. In today's episode,
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  Speaker 1: Foreign editor Greg Sheridan unpicks the government incoherence surrounding conflict
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  Speaker 1: in the Middle East. It was an unbelievable moment in
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  Speaker 1: an extraordinary conflict. In May, the International Criminal Court put
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  Speaker 1: out arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
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  Speaker 1: his Defense minister. You have gland.
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  Speaker 2: The ICC prosecutor said he believes the Israeli Prime Minister
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  Speaker 2: and the Defense Minister bear criminal responsibility for a number
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  Speaker 2: of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the
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  Speaker 2: Gaza strip.
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  Speaker 1: The backlash was swift and brutal. From the United States
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  Speaker 1: President Joe Biden.
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  Speaker 3: Whatever these warrants may imply, there is no equivalence between
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  Speaker 3: Israel and Hamas.
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  Speaker 1: And from Netanyahu himself, what a travesty of justice, what
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  Speaker 1: a disgrace.
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  Speaker 4: And I assure you one then this attempt.
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  Speaker 1: Will utterly fail. But Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi and
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  Speaker 1: extension the Labor government took a softer approach.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I don't comment on court processes in Australia, let
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  Speaker 4: alone court processes globally, of which Australia is not a
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  Speaker 4: party agree and.
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  Speaker 1: The appraisal of Opposition leader Peter Dutton was unforgiving.
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  Speaker 5: I don't know why the primis is not showing leadership
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  Speaker 5: in relation to anti Semitism and he's tarnishing and damaging
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  Speaker 5: our international relationships was like minded nations. When he's not
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  Speaker 5: strong enough to stand up alongside President Biden.
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  Speaker 1: It's a moment that demonstrates how the government talks or
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  Speaker 1: doesn't talk about conflict in the Middle East.
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  Speaker 3: I think the Alberniti government has simply failed, absolutely comprehensively
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  Speaker 3: and in every dimension, on every aspect of this crisis.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is the Australians Foreign Editor.
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  Speaker 3: They've just shown themselves to be completely out of their
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  Speaker 3: depths in it. It's a provincial, although call left wing
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  Speaker 3: government which is simply completely all at sea with this
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  Speaker 3: issue in the Middle East. They don't have the imagination,
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  Speaker 3: they don't have the instincts, they don't have the knowledge frankly,
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  Speaker 3: to deal with it, and they certainly don't have the courage.
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  Speaker 3: As I've sometimes said about the Albanita government, it lacks
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  Speaker 3: the courage of its convictions. It lacks even the courage
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  Speaker 3: of its lack of convictions.
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  Speaker 1: On Tuesday night, Iran launched hundreds of rockets at Israel
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  Speaker 1: in retaliation for the death of Hesbala leader Hassan Nasralla
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  Speaker 1: and a ground incursion of southern Lebanon by Israel. But
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  Speaker 1: as Israel and Iran traded threats of reprisal, the Australian
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  Speaker 1: PM talked in circles the region.
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  Speaker 4: But we of course condemn Iran to actions. We once
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  Speaker 4: again reiterate the call that we're made along with the
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  Speaker 4: United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Italy, Germany, Japan,
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  Speaker 4: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, other nations as well, calling
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  Speaker 4: for a de escalation. We're very concerned about Iran's actions,
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  Speaker 4: which is why we condemned them.
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  Speaker 1: Pressed on whether the Australian government would support Israel's efforts
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  Speaker 1: to disable Hesbela's infrastructure, Albanizi ducked and.
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  Speaker 4: Weaved, Well, we regard Hesbela as a terrorist organization, as
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  Speaker 4: we regard hamas as a terrorist organization. We have been
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  Speaker 4: working with like minded countries and issuing appropriate statements, such
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  Speaker 4: as the ones that I referred to In.
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  Speaker 1: A radio appearance later on Wednesday morning, the PM pushed
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  Speaker 1: again for a ceasefire.
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  Speaker 4: That statement said, diplomacy, however, cannot succeed amid an escalation
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  Speaker 4: of this conflict, and tragically.
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  Speaker 3: Escalation and conflict like it's a war.
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  Speaker 5: Like how much escalation does there need to be for
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  Speaker 5: it to be a war?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it certainly is a I don't want to get
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  Speaker 4: into a definitional argument.
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  Speaker 5: What you have.
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  Speaker 1: It's a stark contrast with the unwavering support of Israel
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  Speaker 1: by US President Joe Biden.
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  Speaker 4: Magnow mistake.
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  Speaker 5: The United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of.
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  Speaker 1: Israel and again, Peter Dutton went on the offensive, accusing
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  Speaker 1: Labor of walking away from long standing by partisanship on
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  Speaker 1: issues of foreign policy.
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  Speaker 5: I just think every reasonable Australian at the moment is
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  Speaker 5: looking to their Prime Minister for leadership and what they're
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  Speaker 5: seeing is weakness. It seems to me that the Prime
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  Speaker 5: Minister and Penny Walmant at the moment are making decisions
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  Speaker 5: that are of political benefit to them domestically, but which
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  Speaker 5: are not in our national interests, and I think they
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  Speaker 5: should stand well.
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  Speaker 3: As this matter has unfolded. The government has been both
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  Speaker 3: flat footed and cowardly and incoherent. Now, when Israel began
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  Speaker 3: to strike back against Hasbella, Albanesi and Foreign Minister Penny
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  Speaker 3: Wong said two contradictory things. They said, Israel has a
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  Speaker 3: right to defend itself against Hazbolah, but then they opposed
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  Speaker 3: every single specific action that Israel too. They've been unsympathetic
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  Speaker 3: to the Australian Jewish community and Alberanesian. Wong say Israel
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  Speaker 3: has a right to defend itself, but won't even support
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  Speaker 3: the Americans who say Israel certainly has a right to
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  Speaker 3: remove the has Billa infrastructure on its border. De escallation.
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  Speaker 3: In the way that Albanesi and Wong talk about it
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  Speaker 3: implies that military conflict is like a bad storm or something.
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  Speaker 3: It's a bad weather pattern that has come up and
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  Speaker 3: everyone of goodwill must just do their best to stop it.
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  Speaker 3: But on one side of this conflict proscribed barbaric terrorist
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  Speaker 3: groups like Hasbollah and Hamas and one of the most
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  Speaker 3: repressive states on Earth, Iran, which is also rightly described
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  Speaker 3: as the chief state sponsor of terrorism around the world.
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  Speaker 3: And on the other side is a long standing ally
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  Speaker 3: and friend of Australia. The Middle East only democracy Israel,
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  Speaker 3: and it's as if they make no moral distinction between
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  Speaker 3: those two sides. On other occasions they do clearly say
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  Speaker 3: that Israel is democracy and is a friend of Australia,
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  Speaker 3: but when they're talking about the conflict, they effectively make
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  Speaker 3: no distinction, and that's extremely disturbing and it means that
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  Speaker 3: they have really abandoned Israel as a government. The Opposition
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  Speaker 3: has continued the traditional Australian position of solidarity with.
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  Speaker 1: Israel since October seventh. Labor has been consistent on one thing,
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  Speaker 1: Israel's right to defend itself. The question is how.
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  Speaker 3: Stone foreign policy is extremely incoherent on this matter. Australia
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  Speaker 3: is signed up to a lot of resolutions demanding that
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  Speaker 3: Israel withdraw from the so called occupied territories, but there's
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  Speaker 3: no practical measure of what is supposed to happen. If
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  Speaker 3: they just withdrew, Hamas would run Gaza and probably Hammas
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  Speaker 3: would quite quickly run the West Bank as well. The
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  Speaker 3: Albanizi's demand of the Israeli government is completely unrealistic. It
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  Speaker 3: then furthermore criticizes every single thing that Israel does in
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  Speaker 3: its own self defense. And now the Alberanza government wants
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  Speaker 3: an immediate cease fire. But what is Israel supposed to do.
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  Speaker 3: Is it supposed to simply endure endless rocket attacks from Hezbollah?
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  Speaker 3: And is it supposed to allow Hesballa to build up
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  Speaker 3: forces on its border which it could use for October
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  Speaker 3: seven style massacres, which has by itself has declared it
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  Speaker 3: intends to do. And you don't get anything coherent out
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  Speaker 3: of the Albaneza government because what you're really getting from
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  Speaker 3: them is performative, symbolic local politics, which leads you to
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  Speaker 3: the final point really, which is that the world itself
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  Speaker 3: is in a kind of a crisis of recrudescent anti Semitism,
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  Speaker 3: and you would think a civilized social democratic party like
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  Speaker 3: the Labor Party would put at the very top of
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  Speaker 3: its rhetorical agenda fighting that anti semitism, instead of which,
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  Speaker 3: while the government obviously is not anti Semitic, it does
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  Speaker 3: almost nothing to fight anti Semitism.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, how Labour's moves on the world stage play
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  Speaker 1: back at home. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong addressed
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  Speaker 1: the United Nations General Assembly in.
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  Speaker 6: New York, more conflict than any time since World War II,
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  Speaker 6: Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sudan, me and ma Yemen, Gaza
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  Speaker 6: and now Lebanon brutal.
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  Speaker 1: In that speech, she called for a clear timeline for
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  Speaker 1: recognition of Palestinian statehood.
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  Speaker 6: Because a two state solution is the only hope of
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  Speaker 6: breaking the endless cycle of violence, the only hope to
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  Speaker 6: see a secure and prosperous future for both peoples.
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  Speaker 1: Wong's speech was another divergence from the US and our
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  Speaker 1: other Western allies on how this conflict might be resolved.
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  Speaker 1: The question now is how it plays for both sides
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  Speaker 1: in the run up to a federal election, which some
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  Speaker 1: suspect could happen in March.
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  Speaker 3: I think Albna government could well be miscalculating on the
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  Speaker 3: politics of all this. The character of this debate almost
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  Speaker 3: seems reminiscent to me of what happened with the Voice.
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  Speaker 3: The Labor Party is chasing a certain activist minority, scared
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  Speaker 3: that its competitors on the left will capture the support
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  Speaker 3: of this activist minority. But I think the majority of
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  Speaker 3: Australians can work out when there's terrorists on one side
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  Speaker 3: of an argument and a democracy on the other side,
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  Speaker 3: they're in favor of the democracy. The other thing is
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  Speaker 3: people can see the incoherence and they can see the
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  Speaker 3: political cowardice, and whatever your position is, you wouldn't be
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  Speaker 3: satisfied with the federal government because it doesn't have the
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  Speaker 3: courage or even really the intellectual capability of mounting a serious,
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  Speaker 3: coherent position about the Middle East. When you are afflicted
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  Speaker 3: with a complete lack of influence and no feel for
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  Speaker 3: a subject, the last thing you want to be doing
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  Speaker 3: is making dogmatic statements about it. But that's what the
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  Speaker 3: government has been doing. For the taudry political reasons that
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  Speaker 3: I outline, and its cynicism and its feebleness. I think
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  Speaker 3: are clear to people, and therefore it might even damage
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  Speaker 3: the government with the electorate, even among those parts of
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  Speaker 3: the electric which don't care much about the Middle East.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor. Our reporters are
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  Speaker 1: on the ground in Israel as this Middle Eastern conflict
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  Speaker 1: heats up. You can read all their updates right now
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au