Palestinian recognition possible without wiping out Hamas: Burke
Australia over the weekend joined Britain, New Zealand, Germany and Italy to 'strongly reject' the Israeli government's decision to launch a gradual military takeover of the full Gaza Strip.
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Sydney Morning Herald
9 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese is ignoring Trump's demands – it will change our place in the world
When the world changes, it's folly not to change with it. Finding itself in an external environment that is in many respects full of shocks, the Albanese government is staking out a more independent – or at the very least, a less America-dependent – security and diplomatic stance for Australia. As is its way, rather than galloping in this direction, the government is crab walking. Anthony Albanese goes out of his way not to make a big deal of it and never wants to look like he's undermining Donald Trump. He continues to send the hefty cheques to America to keep AUKUS alive and has said several times this week that Trump is an enduring 'advocate for peace in the Middle East', which is what the US president likes to hear. But the signs of the shift are mounting. The AUKUS agreement was conceived chiefly to thwart China's territorial and defence ambitions in our larger region. Knowing that the future of AUKUS is being reconsidered by the Trump administration and that Trump is capricious and often punitive in the way he applies tariffs against those who don't dance to his tune, Australia under Albanese is nevertheless steadfastly building on a more accommodating approach towards China. The prime minister's reasoning is simple: China underpins our economy and it pays not to overtly antagonise it. Meanwhile, America remains fixated on viewing China as its great economic competitor and geopolitical rival. Albanese's point-blank rejection of a series of direct and indirect demands from Trump's Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and US government factotums to almost double its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP is perhaps the boldest stance he has taken as PM. Albanese's continued dismissals are truly getting up the US administration's nose; various underlings are now regularly briefing reporters against Australia. And this week Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong foreshadowed the recognition of a Palestinian state, comprehensively at odds with the stance of the US, which is the Netanyahu government's chief military supplier and diplomatic enabler. These positions are not without risk, given how deeply enmeshed Australia has become in its alliance with America, and how long Australia has regarded Israel as a friend. But given the twin shocks of Trump's rapid transformation of the US government and Benjamin Netanyahu's military strategy in response to Hamas' diabolical attacks in 2023, which has failed to return all of the hostages, laid waste to Gaza, killed tens of thousands of civilians and led to widespread starvation, it's difficult to see how a prudent government could not have taken this course. Loading The adjustments taking place in our relationships are in line with broader public sentiment in Australia. Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio has dismissed Palestinian recognition by countries including Australia as meaningless and driven by domestic politics. In a sense, he is right. Recognition is a mostly symbolic tactic designed to impose diplomatic pressure on Israel. It might not work and probably won't while America continues to physically support Netanyahu's every action. But is Trump's foreign America First policy not also driven by his domestic political intentions? This week his vice president JD Vance said the US government would no longer send arms to Ukraine because Americans were 'sick' of their government doing so. Instead, the US will sell arms to European countries who can give them to Ukraine. Australia's strategic positions should not chop and change, but they should develop over time and reflect the general sympathies and inclinations of the bulk of its people. Because of our geographical isolation and colonial past, with a nation-state built on immigration, Australia is an outward-looking country. Most Australians see Trump for what he is: a great disruptor. Trump bases all his decisions on his own self-interest. And because he is the president and is dedicated to accruing as much personal power as possible, to the extent that he is now ignoring his own courts and militarising policing in cities that don't vote for him, those decisions and actions are expressed ultimately as being in America's own best interests.
The Age
9 minutes ago
- The Age
Albanese is ignoring Trump's demands – it will change our place in the world
When the world changes, it's folly not to change with it. Finding itself in an external environment that is in many respects full of shocks, the Albanese government is staking out a more independent – or at the very least, a less America-dependent – security and diplomatic stance for Australia. As is its way, rather than galloping in this direction, the government is crab walking. Anthony Albanese goes out of his way not to make a big deal of it and never wants to look like he's undermining Donald Trump. He continues to send the hefty cheques to America to keep AUKUS alive and has said several times this week that Trump is an enduring 'advocate for peace in the Middle East', which is what the US president likes to hear. But the signs of the shift are mounting. The AUKUS agreement was conceived chiefly to thwart China's territorial and defence ambitions in our larger region. Knowing that the future of AUKUS is being reconsidered by the Trump administration and that Trump is capricious and often punitive in the way he applies tariffs against those who don't dance to his tune, Australia under Albanese is nevertheless steadfastly building on a more accommodating approach towards China. The prime minister's reasoning is simple: China underpins our economy and it pays not to overtly antagonise it. Meanwhile, America remains fixated on viewing China as its great economic competitor and geopolitical rival. Albanese's point-blank rejection of a series of direct and indirect demands from Trump's Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and US government factotums to almost double its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP is perhaps the boldest stance he has taken as PM. Albanese's continued dismissals are truly getting up the US administration's nose; various underlings are now regularly briefing reporters against Australia. And this week Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong foreshadowed the recognition of a Palestinian state, comprehensively at odds with the stance of the US, which is the Netanyahu government's chief military supplier and diplomatic enabler. These positions are not without risk, given how deeply enmeshed Australia has become in its alliance with America, and how long Australia has regarded Israel as a friend. But given the twin shocks of Trump's rapid transformation of the US government and Benjamin Netanyahu's military strategy in response to Hamas' diabolical attacks in 2023, which has failed to return all of the hostages, laid waste to Gaza, killed tens of thousands of civilians and led to widespread starvation, it's difficult to see how a prudent government could not have taken this course. Loading The adjustments taking place in our relationships are in line with broader public sentiment in Australia. Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio has dismissed Palestinian recognition by countries including Australia as meaningless and driven by domestic politics. In a sense, he is right. Recognition is a mostly symbolic tactic designed to impose diplomatic pressure on Israel. It might not work and probably won't while America continues to physically support Netanyahu's every action. But is Trump's foreign America First policy not also driven by his domestic political intentions? This week his vice president JD Vance said the US government would no longer send arms to Ukraine because Americans were 'sick' of their government doing so. Instead, the US will sell arms to European countries who can give them to Ukraine. Australia's strategic positions should not chop and change, but they should develop over time and reflect the general sympathies and inclinations of the bulk of its people. Because of our geographical isolation and colonial past, with a nation-state built on immigration, Australia is an outward-looking country. Most Australians see Trump for what he is: a great disruptor. Trump bases all his decisions on his own self-interest. And because he is the president and is dedicated to accruing as much personal power as possible, to the extent that he is now ignoring his own courts and militarising policing in cities that don't vote for him, those decisions and actions are expressed ultimately as being in America's own best interests.
Sky News AU
9 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
‘Embarrassing': Albanese's 'peace partner' Mahmoud Abbas' vile thesis denying the Holocaust and defending Hitler exposed
Sky News host Andrew Bolt has admonished Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for 'banking everything' on 'crazy Jew hater' Mahmoud Abbas, after exposing the Palestinian Authority President's "sick" PhD thesis. Mr Albanese announced Australia would recognise Palestine at the United Nations next month, an act which was later praised by Hamas as one of 'political courage'. The Sky News host lashed Mr Albanese for putting his faith in Abbas, who has a long history of antisemitic rhetoric. Bolt said Abbas had 'promised' Mr Albanese he would stop Hamas from playing any role in any future Palestinian state. 'It won't have a role even though the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Social Research has said that Hamas is actually the most popular party by far in Palestine and it's Abbas who should go - 81 per cent of Palestinians want him to resign because he is so corrupt,' Bolt said. 'Yet Albanese actually believed Abbas, an 89-year-old who hasn't held elections for 19 years .' Bolt said the 'biggest sick joke' in Mr Albanese's choice of Abbas as a partner in peace was the PA President's defence of Adolf Hitler. 'Two years ago (Abbas) defended Hitler, claiming the Nazi leader didn't kill six million Jews just because they were Jews, but in fact because of their social role,' Bolt said. 'Even madder is that Abbas… wrote a PhD when he was studying in the Soviet Union called The Connection Between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement, from 1933 to 1945, and this thesis is as sick as it sounds.' Bolt said Abbas had put forward in his thesis that Jewish leaders had conspired with Hitler in conducting the Jewish genocide before and during World War II. "He wrote: 'Zionist emissaries were given free access to the concentration camps in order to find suitable people and abandon other unsuitable people who were not supposed to leave the concentration camps alive'," Bolt said. "Abbas also claimed that Zionists... sunk the Struma, which was a ship taking 600 Jews to Palestine, Jews that, according to Abbas, were improper in the eyes of Zionists who had them killed, every one of them in 1942. "Abass even claimed in his thesis that during World War II the Zionists did not take an active part in the struggle against fascism, confirming a Jewish conspiracy they really were for Hitler. In fact of course, 30,000 Jews from Eretz, Israel, this is in Palestine at the time, enlisted in the British military and more than half a million Jews joined the US Army." Bolt said Abbas had convinced the Prime Minister he would 'clean up corruption in the Palestinian Authority', by stopping the 'pensions to relatives of Jew haters'. 'Albanese actually believed him and now he can't say how he can actually make Abbas follow through or stop Hamas from taking over again today. How can he stop Hamas taking over? More embarrassing blather,' Bolt said. At a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Albanese dodged Sky News questioning on the demilitarisation of Hamas and failed to explain whether it was possible - despite it being a clear condition he placed for recognition. Mr Abbas, who has led the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 2004, has not faced a democratic election since 2005. He abolished the Palestinian parliament in 2007 following a violent split with Hamas and has ruled by decree ever since. In a 2023 speech to his Fatah party, Abbas claimed the Holocaust was 'not about antisemitism', instead blaming Jews' 'social role', such as involvement in finance. In the same speech, he claimed European Jews had no historical connection to the Middle East - a discredited antisemitic theory. He has also compared Israel to the Nazis, accusing it of lying 'like Goebbels', and has previously told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Israel has committed '50 Holocausts' against Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority has also been marred by corruption, with polls suggesting its citizens are unsure about it taking control of a Palestinian state.
