Scott Morrison caused a furore when he rewrote Australian foreign policy in October by raising the idea of moving Australia’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The decision infuriated Palestinians, offended Muslim countries and raised questions about whether the Prime Minister had taken a huge risk on a global policy to gain favour with voters in the Wentworth byelection.
Now his enthusiasm for the idea is waning. He did not raise the issue in his meeting with Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit even though the US President has a strong view in favour of moving embassies to Jerusalem. Morrison did not seem to want to talk about it.
This is another sign Morrison will want to bury this issue by Christmas. Given the relocation could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, the practical outcome will be to reject the move or put it off to a notional date that will never arrive.
Morrison had a successful start to the G20 gathering with formal talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and a meeting with Trump that went for about 25 minutes.
His other meetings this weekend are with British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, senior leaders from the European Union and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Morrison made this event more difficult for himself. He told reporters on October 16 that he would discuss the Israel embassy move at this summit, setting a test for himself that he did not need.
“I will obviously take the opportunity during the upcoming summit season to confer with other leaders around the world and gauge their perception about this,” he said of his embassy policy on October 16.
Read the article by David Crowe in The Sydney Morning Herald.