As Bob Dylan would say: “The times, they are a-changin’.”
I have been around Labor politics for what seems like an eternity and certainly long enough to remember Bob Carr being the founder of the Labor Friends of Israel in the 1970s.
I can even recall a young pre-prime ministerial Bob Hawke declaring his wish that the West would “nuke Cairo”.
Israel had no greater champions than Carr or Hawke. Hearing them now call for Australia to recognise the Palestinian state demonstrates how the passage of time, and the deeds done during that time, can change both perceptions and loyalties.
In the Labor Party, there is tremendous dislike and mistrust of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His cabinet does not support the two-state solution that has been the heart and soul of any hope for peace in the region as far as every Western nation has been concerned.
Labor, not to mention most of Europe, cannot accept that Israel, on Netanyahu’s watch, continues not only to build more settlements on the West Bank but to give approval to more and more of them.
Read the full article by Graham Richardson at The Australian (subscription required).