Prime Minister Scott Morrison is considering recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a historic change of policy that would align Australia with Donald Trump’s controversial shift but jar with much of the Western world and risk angering Arab and Muslim nations.
Mr Morrison will announce on Tuesday that he will also initiate a review of Australia’s support for the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, and have Australia vote against Palestine’s leadership of a large United Nations voting bloc of developing nations – also both key Trump policies and top priorities of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Jerusalem announcement is likely to reverberate around the world as Australia would become only the second major country after the US to shift its position on the contentious issue that goes to the heart of the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Mr Morrison has credited Liberal Wentworth byelection candidate Dave Sharma – a former Australian ambassador to Israel – as a significant influence on his thinking on the Jerusalem question. That and the timing of the announcement, given Wentworth has a significant Jewish community, mean Mr Morrison will likely face accusations of making foreign policy that is driven by the politics of this weekend’s byelection, the loss of which would rob him of his one-seat majority in Parliament.
Read the article by David Wroe in The Sydney Morning Herald.