When Scott Morrison recognised West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2018 to sandbag Wentworth ahead of the 2018 by-election he was slammed for politicising foreign relations and making policy on the run.
While the Albanese government’s decision to return to the status quo ante by recognising Tel Aviv rather than a part of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital is much more defensible, the way in which the news was broken has also left a lot to be desired.
It is arguably the first time since her appointment that the Foreign Minister Penny Wong has visibly dropped the ball. In doing so she and the Albanese government have provoked a diplomatic incident with a friendly power while doing nothing to advance the fraught peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel, now only two weeks out from an election, was blindsided. And they weren’t the only ones. The Australian media, which had picked up on the deletion of references to the earlier LNP decision to recognise Jerusalem and the possibility of relocating the Australian embassy, started asking questions several days ago.
The initial response was nothing had changed. A spokesperson for Ms Wong said on Monday night: “The former government made the decision to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. No decision to change that has been made by the government”.
Read the article in The Canberra Times.