ALP leaders reflect on Israel

SHADOW foreign minister and Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek reiterated Australia’s support for Israel in its desire to achieve a two-state peace outcome with the Palestinians, in recent remarks to the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

Plibersek – who visited Israel in January – saw her views echoed at meetings in Sydney and Melbourne by members of a federal Labor parliamentary delegation who took part in AIJAC’s Israel Rambam study visit program last month.

Group members – led by Senator Penny Wong and including Senator Deborah O’Neill, Gai Brodtmann MP, Stephen Jones MP, Dr Jim Chalmers MP and Tim Watts MP – expressed appreciation for having the opportunity to explore realities firsthand, and meet a variety of Israelis and Palestinians in such locales as Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tel Aviv and Sderot.

Wong cited Yad Vashem as a very moving highlight of her visit.

She also said that, at Sderot, she was struck by the resilience and persistence of ordinary Israelis and the challenges of Israel’s leaders having to juggle the work of government with managing a constant existential threat.

Brodtmann expressed concern about the challenges hindering the Palestinian Authority’s ability to realise the two-state solution – in particular the destabilising influence of Hamas. Meanwhile, Watts said he was impressed by the objectivity of the Rambam program, which he said exposed him to a diverse range of views and the space to develop his own views on Israel without intrusion or interference.

O’Neill told a rapt audience that she believed that “Israel is ready for peace.”

She also spoke eloquently about how she was moved by the “depth of understanding of a shared humanity” from watching Arab and Jewish Israeli doctors and nurses working together at Tzfat’s Ziv Hospital to treat Syrians injured in that country’s devastating civil war.

AJN STAFF

Senator Penny Wong with AIJAC national chairman Mark Leibler.

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