Support for moving Australia’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem remains strong among Liberal MPs, but independent candidate for Wentworth Kerryn Phelps says she will seek high-level security briefings about the foreign policy implications of the move should she be elected.
Scott Morrison last week declared he was “open to” the idea of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to the Israeli capital, Jerusalem, citing the support of Wentworth Liberal candidate Dave Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel.
The Prime Minister’s comments — which follow a similar announcement earlier this year from US President Donald Trump — prompted criticism from Labor, and a threat from Indonesia to put its free-trade deal with Australia on ice in protest.
Deputy Liberal leader Josh Frydenberg yesterday denied Mr Morrison’s comments were a political tactic aimed at appeasing Jewish voters in Wentworth.
“The reality is, as Scott Morrison has explained, there was a major vote at the UN that Australia had to make a decision on, and it was therefore timely to announce our position,” the Treasurer told Sky News.
“The same people who would criticise us for making this announcement about Australia-Israel relations a week before Wentworth would have been the same ones who criticised us for making the same announcement a week after Wentworth.”
Asked whether he would like to see the embassy move, Mr Frydenberg said: “That is a decision for government into the future, but now we have a process under way.”
Read the article by Rachel Baxendale and Greg Brown in The Australian.