Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up his country’s bitter diplomatic tussle with Australia, asserting that his “weakness” toward Hamas has permanently damaged Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s legacy.
Netanyahu claimed in an interview with Sky News Australia that his decision to recognize a Palestinian state would “forever be tarnished” Albanese’s record.
When these people congratulate the Australian Prime Minister, you know something is wrong,” Netanyahu said in the interview, which was transcribed into online by Sky News prior to the broadcast.
Netanyahu’s accusation made reference to a dispute over a statement that was quoted as praising Albanese for his “political courage” last week in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Hamas publicly denied that Yousef had made any statements following the report. Yousef has been imprisoned by Israel for almost two years without having any means of communication with outside the world, according to the Palestinian armed group that controls Gaza.
Netanyahu’s broadside against Albanese follows an extraordinary missive earlier this week, in which he claimed the Australian leader would be remembered as a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
The Israeli leader was attacked by Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, who claimed strength was “not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry.” Albanese tried to calm the situation down by saying he did not take it personally.
Since Canberra’s decision to recognize Palestine, relations between Australia and Israel, who have traditionally been close allies, have experienced the lowest ebb.
In response to concerns that a far-right member of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition’s planned speaking tour in the nation was intended to “spread division,” Australia announced on Monday that it had cancelled Simcha Rothman’s visa.
Gideon Saar, the Israeli minister of foreign affairs, announced shortly after that statement that he had suspended Australian diplomats’ visas for the Palestinian Authority.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which expressed shock over the tensions, wrote to both prime ministers on Wednesday to request that they be “in the usual way through diplomacy rather than public posturing.”
In its letter to Albanese, the peak body for Jewish Australians wrote, “The total of human wisdom would not have been diminished in the slightest if none of these public comments had been made.”
The outcome of a conflict between two leaders who are entertaining their respective domestic audiences will not be left up to the Australian Jewish community.
Israel has been the target of growing international pressure, including from some of its closest allies, given the magnitude of the suffering Israel’s conflict in Gaza has caused.
Israel has killed more than 62, 000 Palestinians since starting a war against Gaza in response to Hamas’ attacks on October 7, 2023, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply