Former Home Affairs boss says Albanese's recognition of Palestine may backfire as Hamas remains entrenched

Sky News AU

2 days ago

Former Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo has raised serious concerns over Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state, suggesting the move could backfire by undermining the hopes for a two-state solution.
Speaking to Sky News, Pezzullo said that far from bringing peace closer, the push for international recognition may in fact strengthen the hand of Israeli factions seeking to permanently sever the West Bank.
'In the aftermath of the events of 7 October, it struck me that we're further away from a two-state solution and I don't think anything that we've seen in the last little while has changed that assessment,' he said.
'As we come up to the two-year anniversary of that dreadful Hamas attack, you'd have to think that the prospects of a two-state solution are receding even more into the distance.'
Pezzullo pointed to recent developments such as the announcement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich regarding the controversial E1 settlement, which critics say would divide the West Bank and make a contiguous Palestinian state virtually impossible.
'People said that that is likely to happen. It's going to embolden those in the Israeli government who want to kill off the idea of a two-state solution, and I fear that is indeed what's occurring,' he said.
Despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's push to support Palestinian statehood as a way to advance peace and pressure Hamas, Pezzullo cast doubt on the effectiveness of such a strategy without concrete shifts in reality on the ground.
'Notwithstanding the laudable goal of trying to keep the two-state solution idea alive, Marco Rubio is correct. It's got to be circumstances on the ground that are going to drive that,' he said.
And if the two parties, the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government, can't come to terms on the two-state solution, it's just simply not going to happen.'
Pezzullo did acknowledge a new dynamic emerging in the region with the Arab League playing a more assertive role, particularly in distancing itself from Hamas following the October 7 attacks.
'I think in the aftermath of the shock of 7 October, the Arab nations started to come together to say, 'Look, if we don't get involved, there's no prospect of this getting settled'. So I think that has been a significant change,' he said.
However, he warned that the problem remains fundamentally unresolved, especially with Hamas still active in Gaza and no coordinated international plan to remove them from power.
'Everyone wants Hamas out of the equation, but no one's got a plan to achieve it,' he said.
'At least if you give the Israeli government the benefit of some doubt, they're now down to the most dug-in, the most hard-to-get-to elements of Hamas. Regrettably, sometimes with a really well-dug-in enemy, aerial strikes and other forms of military activity just simply don't cut it.'
Pezzullo also warned that even a total military defeat of Hamas would not necessarily end the underlying extremism driving the conflict.
'Even if in formal terms you get to say the last headquarters cell, you defeat them in the last trench and victory is declared . . . A new group emerges with a different name, a splinter group that then becomes the main group.'
He proposed that only a long-term, international governance arrangement, possibly involving the Arab League, Europe, Israel and a new generation of Palestinian leadership, could create the conditions for peace.
'Perhaps some kind of supervised administration that might have to be there for decades . . . actually rebuilds all the schools, clears out the sanitation issues, rebuilds the health system and basically educates a whole new generation of people to live in peace,' he said.
'I can't see any of that happening anytime soon. It's going to be a multi-decade effort.'