‘Wrong in principle': Albanese government slammed for Palestine recognition
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has committed to recognising a state of Palestine.
Mr Paterson told Sky News Australia that Palestine should never be recognised whilst being governed by a listed terrorist organisation.
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The Age
7 minutes ago
- The Age
Anthony Albanese walks a tricky geopolitical tightrope
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. MIDDLE EAST There is no doubt that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is walking a geopolitical tightrope as he tries to negotiate the competing narratives of this awful conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people (' Former Israeli prime minister rejects Palestinian recognition ', 12/8). On one side is the almost continuous insistence by the Israelis that they have a right to defend themselves (as they do) against the terrorist organisation Hamas. The Israelis also have a right to request, or try to retrieve, the hostages taken in the attack on October 7. On the other side are the rights of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the collateral in this conflict. Had the Israelis stuck to a more surgical operation to dislodge Hamas from Gaza and retrieve the hostages without the need to reduce the Strip to rubble or starve the population, then collective countries might have stuck with them in this aim. However, the ongoing devastation has caused various countries, including Australia, to start the path to recognise a Palestinian State under the prospective leadership of the Palestinian Authority – it is important to note that numerous world leaders have said a precondition is that Hamas is excluded from staying in power. In staring down the criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Trump administration, Albanese has joined a group of countries that have taken a more moral and practical path. Words, however, are not actions. And Australia must now apply more pressure on the Israeli government to come to the table and work towards achieving lasting peace. Jeremy de Korte, Newington Hitched to the wrong leader It's interesting that Sussan Ley believes that Australia is out of step with the US, our major ally, when it comes to recommending the recognition of Palestine statehood. The Dutton Coalition lost the last election in part because it hitched its wagon to Trump. Yet Ley continues to fail to read the room by offering a policy out of step with the rest of the world. Kurt Elder, Port Melbourne Fluid borders Michaelia Cash states that because Palestine does not have defined borders it cannot be recognised. You could argue that Israel's borders are ill-defined because they keep taking more and more land from Palestine. The same could be said of other countries such as Russia or Ukraine. Trump wants his borders to grow as well – Greenland anyone? Are we meant to block them all? Alan Inchley, Frankston A way to peace Palestine Action Group organiser Amal Naser is critical of the Australian government for offering us 'recognition ... as though that is what we have been demanding' (' Recognising Palestine is a distraction ... ' 12/8). Instead of a Palestinian state, she advocates punishing Israel. This points to the problem underlying the conflict. Since 1948, the Palestinian leadership has repeatedly put the destruction of Israel ahead of the wellbeing of its people. Since 1948, they have launched multiple attacks on Israel and rejected a number of proposals for a Palestinian state, most notably in 2000 when Israel PM Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat more than ever, including control of East Jerusalem and a corridor connecting the West Bank and Gaza. The suffering in Gaza would have ended years ago, if numerous Israeli peace and statehood offerings had been accepted. Former Israeli PM Golda Meir was right in the 1970s when she said 'peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us'. Henry Kalus, Southbank Path to peace Congratulations to the Labor government on its decision to recognise the state of Palestine; however, it should have been recognised at the same time as Israel. Now, Israel must withdraw from Palestinian and Syrian territory and then the Arab nations need to acknowledge the state of Israel. Only then will peace occur in the Middle East. Geoff McDonald, Newtown Further recognition Recognition of statehood for Palestine in the absence of a viable and representative government? Well, the Gazan people certainly have been suffering recently, but what about the Kurds, the Tibetans and the West Papuans? Is their suffering and denial of nationhood/sovereignty still to remain 'unrecognisable'? Is the key lesson that you really need to make the neighbours suffer a lot before your own national suffering can be recognised with statehood? Compared to Gaza, Taiwan seems to be pretty much a nationality and a country, decently organised and run by a representative government, so if the powers of the world can tolerate a two-state solution in the Middle East, then why can't we have another one in North Asia, with two Chinas or one China and one Taiwan? Garry Dalrymple, Earlwood, NSW
Sydney Morning Herald
37 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Mahmoud Abbas: Palestine's future president – or yesterday's man?
But whether Abbas, who is almost 90 years old, can match that rhetoric with action and re-establish himself as a credible figure seems very uncertain. Loading Abbas has long been dogged by accusations that he is beholden to the interests of others – including Israel – rather than the Palestinian people. His credibility was dealt a major blow in 2009 when he backtracked after admitting he had agreed to delay a UN vote on a report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes after pressure from Israel and the United States. He has also repeatedly expressed antisemitic sentiments, most recently in 2023 when he said in a speech that Adolf Hitler ordered the mass murder of Jews because of their 'social role' as moneylenders, rather than out of animosity to Judaism. He has previously been denounced by Jewish groups as a Holocaust denier for his doctoral thesis on the Nazis and Zionism. Out of Arafat's shadow Before becoming Palestinian president in 2004, Abbas was something of an understudy to Yasser Arafat, long the uncontested head of the Palestinian cause, but he has never enjoyed the same status. Born in Safad in Galilee in 1935, Abbas was the first generation of Palestinian exiles who saw colonial powers redraw the Middle East's borders. As a young teenager, he witnessed the 1948 Arab-Israeli War when half the 1.4 million Palestinian Arabs – including Abbas himself – fled or were driven from their land. He is one of the few surviving founder members of Fatah, which emerged as the main political grouping within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) after the 1967 Six-Day War. After Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war, Arafat's Fatah seized control of the PLO. The PLO's guerrilla campaign against Israel saw it forced out of Jordan and then Lebanon before ending up in Tunisia. Loading While the PLO achieved international notoriety with a string of hijackings and attacks – including the 1972 Olympic massacre in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by militants linked to the organisation – Abbas himself often presented a more moderate face. In 1977, he was among the first members of Fatah to call for talks with moderate Israelis, recalling to Time magazine in 2012: 'Because we took up arms, we were in a position to put them down with credibility'. In 2016, The New York Times reported newly discovered Russian documents suggesting Abbas may have been recruited as a KGB agent – an accusation rejected by Palestinian officials. The high point of Abbas' career came at the 1993 White House ceremony at which he and Israel's then-foreign minister Shimon Peres signed the Oslo Accords in the presence of US president Bill Clinton and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. With hopes rising for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, under the accords, the PLO renounced violence and recognised Israel's right to exist. The creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) appeared to be another step towards statehood, many Palestinians believed. When the Palestinian leadership returned from exile to Gaza after Oslo, Abbas was upbeat, promising: 'I will live in Palestine.' Most advocates of the two-state solution envisage a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank linked by a corridor through Israel. Later negotiations centred on the recognition of Jerusalem's Jewish neighbourhoods as the Israeli capital and recognition of its Arab neighbourhoods as the Palestinian capital. But the peace talks faltered amid opposition from hardliners on both sides. The cycle of violence resumed and Abbas' cordial relations with Washington soured. The 1995 assassination of Rabin, who had overseen Oslo, by a religious Zionist, and the hair's-breadth election victory in 1996 of Benjamin Netanyahu, who had opposed the proposals, were further setbacks. When Arafat died in 2004, Abbas won a presidential election the following year, but Fatah was then defeated in the 2006 parliamentary elections. A short-lived unity government collapsed, and civil war broke out in Gaza in July 2007, with Hamas routing Fatah, leaving Abbas controlling only the Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank. There have been no Palestinian elections since. Hamas and Israel have fought repeated wars, culminating in the attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that ignited the current Gaza conflict. Seeking to regain the initiative, Abbas has made unilateral moves to seek Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. In 2012, Palestine won 'non-member statehood' at the UN General Assembly, but Abbas has held little sway with successive American presidents, whose role is vital in Middle East diplomacy. Under Abbas' leadership, US and European money flowed into the West Bank to build up security forces, which he has used to crack down on militant activity and dissent. But Abbas has previously accused Western governments of undermining him by failing to recognise a Palestinian state and failing to hold Israel to account. He has cut an isolated figure as regional allies the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco have signed diplomatic deals with Israel. 'Having contributed to achievements that place our people at the forefront of history,' he warned as far back as 1994, 'I remain deeply concerned that we could get swept away by history, lose control, and suffer an unrecoverable setback.' Abbas has been seen less and less in recent years, with repeated hospital visits adding to concerns about his ability to lead the Palestinian government through political turbulence. And despite being back in the spotlight, as one of the world's oldest leaders, he appears to recognise that time is not on his side. In April this year, Abbas officially named Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the PLO's executive committee, as vice president, making him his likely successor as leader. Whether al-Sheikh could ever succeed in the role – and finally deliver Palestinian statehood – is another matter.
The Age
37 minutes ago
- The Age
Mahmoud Abbas: Palestine's future president – or yesterday's man?
But whether Abbas, who is almost 90 years old, can match that rhetoric with action and re-establish himself as a credible figure seems very uncertain. Loading Abbas has long been dogged by accusations that he is beholden to the interests of others – including Israel – rather than the Palestinian people. His credibility was dealt a major blow in 2009 when he backtracked after admitting he had agreed to delay a UN vote on a report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes after pressure from Israel and the United States. He has also repeatedly expressed antisemitic sentiments, most recently in 2023 when he said in a speech that Adolf Hitler ordered the mass murder of Jews because of their 'social role' as moneylenders, rather than out of animosity to Judaism. He has previously been denounced by Jewish groups as a Holocaust denier for his doctoral thesis on the Nazis and Zionism. Out of Arafat's shadow Before becoming Palestinian president in 2004, Abbas was something of an understudy to Yasser Arafat, long the uncontested head of the Palestinian cause, but he has never enjoyed the same status. Born in Safad in Galilee in 1935, Abbas was the first generation of Palestinian exiles who saw colonial powers redraw the Middle East's borders. As a young teenager, he witnessed the 1948 Arab-Israeli War when half the 1.4 million Palestinian Arabs – including Abbas himself – fled or were driven from their land. He is one of the few surviving founder members of Fatah, which emerged as the main political grouping within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) after the 1967 Six-Day War. After Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war, Arafat's Fatah seized control of the PLO. The PLO's guerrilla campaign against Israel saw it forced out of Jordan and then Lebanon before ending up in Tunisia. Loading While the PLO achieved international notoriety with a string of hijackings and attacks – including the 1972 Olympic massacre in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by militants linked to the organisation – Abbas himself often presented a more moderate face. In 1977, he was among the first members of Fatah to call for talks with moderate Israelis, recalling to Time magazine in 2012: 'Because we took up arms, we were in a position to put them down with credibility'. In 2016, The New York Times reported newly discovered Russian documents suggesting Abbas may have been recruited as a KGB agent – an accusation rejected by Palestinian officials. The high point of Abbas' career came at the 1993 White House ceremony at which he and Israel's then-foreign minister Shimon Peres signed the Oslo Accords in the presence of US president Bill Clinton and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. With hopes rising for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, under the accords, the PLO renounced violence and recognised Israel's right to exist. The creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) appeared to be another step towards statehood, many Palestinians believed. When the Palestinian leadership returned from exile to Gaza after Oslo, Abbas was upbeat, promising: 'I will live in Palestine.' Most advocates of the two-state solution envisage a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank linked by a corridor through Israel. Later negotiations centred on the recognition of Jerusalem's Jewish neighbourhoods as the Israeli capital and recognition of its Arab neighbourhoods as the Palestinian capital. But the peace talks faltered amid opposition from hardliners on both sides. The cycle of violence resumed and Abbas' cordial relations with Washington soured. The 1995 assassination of Rabin, who had overseen Oslo, by a religious Zionist, and the hair's-breadth election victory in 1996 of Benjamin Netanyahu, who had opposed the proposals, were further setbacks. When Arafat died in 2004, Abbas won a presidential election the following year, but Fatah was then defeated in the 2006 parliamentary elections. A short-lived unity government collapsed, and civil war broke out in Gaza in July 2007, with Hamas routing Fatah, leaving Abbas controlling only the Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank. There have been no Palestinian elections since. Hamas and Israel have fought repeated wars, culminating in the attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that ignited the current Gaza conflict. Seeking to regain the initiative, Abbas has made unilateral moves to seek Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. In 2012, Palestine won 'non-member statehood' at the UN General Assembly, but Abbas has held little sway with successive American presidents, whose role is vital in Middle East diplomacy. Under Abbas' leadership, US and European money flowed into the West Bank to build up security forces, which he has used to crack down on militant activity and dissent. But Abbas has previously accused Western governments of undermining him by failing to recognise a Palestinian state and failing to hold Israel to account. He has cut an isolated figure as regional allies the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco have signed diplomatic deals with Israel. 'Having contributed to achievements that place our people at the forefront of history,' he warned as far back as 1994, 'I remain deeply concerned that we could get swept away by history, lose control, and suffer an unrecoverable setback.' Abbas has been seen less and less in recent years, with repeated hospital visits adding to concerns about his ability to lead the Palestinian government through political turbulence. And despite being back in the spotlight, as one of the world's oldest leaders, he appears to recognise that time is not on his side. In April this year, Abbas officially named Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the PLO's executive committee, as vice president, making him his likely successor as leader. Whether al-Sheikh could ever succeed in the role – and finally deliver Palestinian statehood – is another matter.
