Keeping Israel-bashers in check

Just 10 weeks ago at the NSW Labor Conference, out of 45 foreign policy motions put forward for debate, a staggering 28 related to Israel, not one of them positive.

While none mentioned Palestinian violence, a number condemned violence carried out by Israelis. And while none mentioned intransigence or incitement on the Palestinian side, Israel was accused of sabotaging peace talks and enforcing “apartheid policies”.

Thankfully, a far more measured motion was eventually passed, with more moderate members of the party holding sway over, what one prominent Labor MP described as, “unjustifiably critical” resolutions put forward by “a number of Labor branches”.

However, we know only too well that anti-Israel activists within the ALP aren’t confined to the local branch level. Former foreign minister Bob Carr, alongside MPs Tony Burke and Melissa Parke, don’t usually miss an opportunity to lash out at the Jewish State, with Carr equally condemnatory of those who campaign for Israel on these shores.

And, lest we forget, when the federal Labor Party passed a resolution on Israel last year, aspects of it were described by communal leaders variously as “deeply disturbing”, “pernicious”, “unhelpful”, “problematic” and “blatantly one-sided”.

Then president of the Zionist Council of Victoria Sam Tatarka noted that the resolution was “indicative of the negative influence that the persistent views spread by Bob Carr, [former foreign minister] Gareth Evans and others within the party are having on the rank and file membership”.

On the other side of the world, the ALP’s British cousin is reeling this week from a succession of stories detailing anti-Semitic comments made by party members.

The revelations have prompted a series of suspensions, including those of senior party figures, as well the launch of an internal inquiry into anti-Semitism within the party.

The actions taken may be commendable, but what is regrettable is that they were taken reluctantly by a leader who to this day maintains the party doesn’t have a problem with anti-Semitism, despite the evidence and despite clear claims to the contrary by several of his colleagues in recent weeks, not to mention party grandees, party funders and party voters who are now – as a result of the revelations – questioning their loyalty to the party they once cherished.

Adding fuel to the fire, implacable anti-Semites on the Labour left now claim the current crisis is part of a Zionist plot designed to unseat a leader who is held in particularly low esteem by the Jewish community given his well-documented anti-Israel record.

Until last year, that leader – Jeremy Corbyn – and his fellow travellers on the anti-Israel bandwagon were largely confined to the Labour fringes. However, a dramatic election loss coupled with a swing to the left at the grassroots level helped place him centrestage, edging out far more moderate leadership contenders.

As they so often do, circumstances conspired to bring a radical outsider into the political foreground. The UK aside, we need only look to the success of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the US primaries to see further evidence of this phenomenon.

We can but pray that a similar set of circumstances to those in Britain last year don’t lead to a Corbyn counterpart in our own ALP taking the helm of the party over here. In the meantime, the party itself should take heed. There are those on the fringes and those in the spotlight who single out the Jewish State for condemnation and who use rhetoric they would never employ in attacking other countries.

One can, of course, justifiably criticise the policies and practices of the Israeli government, as well as the platforms of particular politicians within the Knesset. Heaven knows, The AJN does it often enough and receives flak from those on both the right and the left of the community who take umbrage at articles and editorials we publish.

Likewise politicians and political pundits are perfectly entitled to voice their views on these matters. We may not agree with them or like what they have to say, but that’s democracy. However, when the language and tone that they employ strays beyond the language and tone they’d use criticising other countries, or when they only aim criticism at Israel, ignoring all other countries embroiled in territorial disputes, we are forced to ask why, and what is at the root of their obsession.

We are grateful to those members of the ALP, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who look out for Israel’s and the community’s interests, reining in those elements within Labor’s ranks that Western Australia’s Senator Joe Bullock dubbed “obsessives and cranks” last year.

It’s just sad that there are those whose biased and blinkered views need restraining in the first place.