The war in Gaza is politically complex in that it requires moral clarity — a clarity our politicians, by nature, do not possess.
The past two weeks have seen Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong side decidedly with Israel, using couched language and neutered proclamations to afford themselves enough wiggle room for condemnation if or when it comes to that.
Despite passing a national platform to recognise Palestine in 2021, the ALP has spent the better part of its time in office softening and obfuscating its approach to the matter, with Albanese, Wong and co delaying Palestinian recognition as recently as August. It is a somewhat cynical move from Albanese, who co-founded the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine back in the day — a move as calculated and nakedly ultra-cautious as just about every other one made by this prime minister, and this government, which hinges on walking away when the going gets rough.
And it’s got rough. Wheeling the “Israel’s right to defend itself” line out of the gate has left it holding the bloodied bag as the conflict has tipped further and further into outright genocide, with Israel responding to Hamas’ inexcusable attack against innocent Israeli civilians by taking the bait and then some. As Israel bombs mosques, refugee camps, and the very roads it told Palestinian civilians to evacuate on, Labor is left shackled to a state now both autocratic and vengeful in the extreme.
As protests, outrage and horror ripple through the world and Australia, one is left wondering whether Albanese’s mask of performative centrism is worth maintaining. Since taking government, his and Wong’s key conviction has been that they have no convictions. Australia is not America, and in a country where the average punter is largely uninterested in the Israel/Palestine culture war rhetoric, there is little to gain electorally from siding with a state whose public image is steadily going the way of Idi Amin’s.
It is, horribly but honestly, a simple matter of diplomacy, public image and, perhaps most importantly, arms contracts. The idea of not being able to spend trillions on defunct US submarines and fighter jets is a nightmarish thought for any Australian government, which loves taking part in this grift and, seemingly, playing the part of the room.
Like the mining lobby, these are forces that have as much regard for the ALP as the party has for itself, and the dark irony underrunning the diffusive and obfuscated comments from the government is that its service will rarely be remembered, if even remarked upon.
If ever there was an easy win for the pro-Palestinian wing of the ALP, a time to push for the change it’s been supposedly fighting for, it’s now, when Israel’s “right” to retaliate has tipped over into unmitigated murder. But if there’s anything to know about the modern ALP it’s that it hates an opportunity for progress, preferring to shackle itself to leaky lifeboats (oil and gas, America, Israel, etc) as a shifting rip-tide prepares to drag it out to sea, onwards to irrelevance.
In 10 years or more, when the annihilation of the Palestinians is pontificated upon as one of those great avoidable tragedies, Albanese and Wong will be mere footnotes in the global remembrances and reckonings of this tragedy. Back home, they appear like parochial toadies, content to play walk-on parts for an imperial war machine that gives them about as much consideration as it does international law. What is the ultimate reward for tacitly condoning obvious genocide? One has to wonder.
The benefit of being the rich kid’s weird second cousin at the backyard piss-up that is international relations is that your weirdness goes easily unnoticed, and is easily forgotten. That might work in the global community (at least the one fostered by our American allies), but it will be hard to get the stink off here in Australia where the ALP’s base is slipping through its fingers.
In the end, progressives — that is real progressives, not rusted-ons — must ask themselves what they expect from a party that dodges progress. If beliefs such as the recognition of Palestine are only held in opposition, what good are those supposed beliefs to the people you ask to vote for you?
As with climate change, the housing crisis, and Centrelink, the Albanese government has again had its previously pronounced values tested and has answered with not just rejection, but revulsion.
It’s a complex issue, as they love to say — and few know how to respond with anything other than a nod or a shrug. But is it though? For those of us who know the answer, the government’s response is not only confusing but shameful, if, sadly, unsurprising.
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