He was deliberately provocative in his press conference on Sunday, and it is unlikely to win him the friends Israel needs right now.
Netanyahu’s criticism of Australia will seem fully justified to his supporters. Albanese is clearly canvassing the idea of recognising a Palestinian state, following other leaders. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on July 31 that it was a matter of “when, not if” Australia did so – though he added that he was not putting a timeframe on it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Credit: AP
Netanyahu made no attempt to be diplomatic in urging Australia to take a different path. Instead, he delivered a slap-down.
It is important to put the Israeli leader’s remarks in context because he made a serious argument against recognising a Palestinian state. He said this after taking a question from ABC correspondent Matt Doran about calls from Western leaders to recognise a Palestinian state.
“I think we’re actually applying force judiciously, and they know it,” he said of the world leaders who are critical of his conduct of the war. He mentioned the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians in October 2023 and drew a parallel with Australia.
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“They know what they would do if, right next to Melbourne or right next to Sydney, you had this horrific attack. I think you would do at least what we’re doing – probably maybe not as efficiently and as precisely as we’re doing it.”
Netanyahu’s critics will debate just how “efficiently” the Israel Defence Forces are killing and wounding civilians in pursuit of Hamas. The point here is that he framed his words with Australia in mind.
“Today, most of the Jewish public is against the Palestinian state for the simple reason that they know it won’t bring peace, it will bring war,” he said.
“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that – fall right into it – and buy this canard, is disappointing. And I think it’s actually shameful,” he said.
“But it’s not going to take, it’s not going to change our position. We will not commit national suicide to get a good op-ed for two minutes. We won’t do that.”
Unanswered questions
There are serious arguments against recognising a Palestinian state at this point. What would this state look like? The borders are contested and overrun by war at present. The leadership is unknown. The dominant fighting force in a large part of the territory, Hamas, is a terrorist group.
The key condition for the existence of this state, at least in Western diplomacy, is that it accepts Israel’s right to exist and does not threaten Israel’s security. This means European leaders are choosing to recognise Palestine before they can be sure it meets this condition.
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The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is on record wanting “peace, stability and security” between Palestine and Israel as separate states. There were reports at the weekend that he would declare a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly when it meets in September.
Western leaders assume Abbas could lead a Palestinian state. Several have spoken to him in recent days – including Albanese last Wednesday. The debate on recognising a Palestinian state depends heavily on Abbas sending a strong message about coexistence with Israel.
The obvious challenge is that Abbas has authority over the West Bank, as chairman of Fatah, the largest group within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, but he cannot speak for others. Hamas won 44.45 per cent of the vote in the 2006 election that led it to take control of Gaza. And it is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
Peaceful coexistence may seem a bitter joke to the people of Gaza after more than 60,000 civilian deaths in less than two years. Witnesses to the war have told this masthead about the indiscriminate casualties, the starvation, the flattening of homes and the restrictions on medical aid.
Nations such as Britain, France and Canada have avoided recognising a Palestinian state at other times, but the war is so horrific that this symbolic recognition is presented as urgent and necessary.
It is being used to put pressure on Netanyahu over the scale of the war and the terrible suffering of civilians. As a road map to peace, however, it is only a sketch.
Netanyahu has been losing support in Western nations for months because of the sheer ferocity of his war policy. There was nothing in his remarks on Sunday that will prevent him losing Australia as well.
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