April 12, 2024
Rubenstein said despite Wong's words about Hamas having no future role in Gaza, "there is no doubt that many Palestinians would see any such recognition in the near future as a major national achievement made possible by Hamas's wave of barbaric mass violence." He also described recognition as "a huge disincentive for the Palestinian Authority to undertake the root and branch reforms Senator Wong acknowledges it needs before it could also take over Gaza's governance".
Noting Australia's recognition would be out of step with allies, the US, Canada and the UK, Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory stated, "It is morally corrupt to react to the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust by rewarding the murderers who carried out the atrocity." Coalition frontbenchers condemned the government's latest twist. Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham said, "It is downright dangerous to reward such barbaric conduct with a fast track to recognition of statehood.
To give the greatest chance for a sustainable ceasefire that leads to prospects of stability and security, Labor should instead be applying maximum pressure on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all hostages and surrender all terrorist capabilities." Victorian Liberal Senator James Paterson noted, "The Albanese government is proposing to walk away from decades of bipartisan policy on Israel by unilaterally recognising a Palestinian state before any peace process and while Hamas still holds Israelis hostage and controls parts of Gaza. In their wildest dreams Hamas could not have imagined their slaughter of Jews on October 7 would be rewarded this handsomely by a Western democracy." "A win for the terrorists" is how Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume, speaking on Seven's Sunrise yesterday, described it. "Hamas is still harbouring terrorists, it's still hiding hostages in among civilian infrastructure and civilians themselves, using them as human shields.
The idea that we reward this kind of behaviour by prematurely offering them statehood I think is a significant blow to Jewish Australians." Casting the Foreign Minister as "a parochial and doctrinaire member of the Socialist left", former Labor MP for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby said, "She knows because of teals holding a dozen Liberal seats there will be no change of government at the next Australian election so her policy extremism will have no [electoral] effect."
