Last night two simultaneous events captured precisely the Australia-Gaza-Israel-US knot of relationships. As US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the ABC’s 7.30 of the Trump administration’s “disgust” with Australia for recognising a Palestinian state, a far-right member of the Israeli government announced plans to prevent a Palestinian state from happening.
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich chose yesterday (Israel time) to revive the idea of the controversial E1 development on the occupied West Bank, a major expansion of settlements long opposed by the international community. He styled it as one in the eye for those countries, including Australia. He issued a statement headlined “Burying the idea of a Palestinian state”. A spokesperson said he had approved the plan to build 3,401 houses for Israeli settlers between an existing settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Smotrich said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had agreed to the revival of E1. (As The Guardian reports, E1 was mooted in the 1990s but has barely advanced due to international opposition. Any movement towards building it would be likely to have further severe diplomatic ramifications for Israel.)
Sorry state of affairs
Does Huckabee express any disgust about Israeli plans to control the West Bank, for example, by annexation? Not on your life. He said if Israel was moving that way the fault lay with countries such as Australia (and the UK, France and Canada) for recognising a Palestinian state, thereby pushing Israel towards doing “exactly what [those countries] are afraid of”.
Huckabee has made himself a central player in the joined-up fates of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. From his office in Jerusalem — a stone’s throw from the settlement where Smotrich made his incendiary announcement — he seeks to influence the world. It’s he who speaks to US President Donald Trump and the State Department. He agreed last night that is was he who used the word “disgust” in conversations with the folks in Washington.
A diplomat he ain’t
He’s called an ambassador but in reality he’s a religious extremist and activist for Greater Israel. He’s happy to castigate whole nations and yet will baulk when it comes to the Netanyahu government. Asked if the US would use its funding to influence unfolding events in Gaza, Huckabee disputed that America had any business telling Israel “how to prosecute a war”:
“I guess if we wanted to tell them what to do we would, but they’re our partner. We respect the fact that they were attacked on October 7. They’re not the attacking country. They were [the] attacked country and there were 1,200 people [killed].”
Confronted with criticism of Israel’s behaviour, he had a one-word answer: “Hamas.”
7.30 host Sarah Ferguson: “So why doesn’t the US have anything to say about the huge extent of civilian casualties in Gaza?”
Huckabee: “We do. We have a lot to say about it. The first thing that we say is that Hamas should have surrendered on October the 8th. That would have ended the war and there wouldn’t have been civilian casualties. The second thing that we say is that Hamas shouldn’t do what it does routinely, which is put its civilians in front of targets that the Israelis announce in advance they’re going to hit.”
Ley it on thick
On the ongoing scandal of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose food distribution points have been a killing ground for starving Palestinians, Huckabee’s tune was the same:
“I just wish people would recognise that the real reason for any deprivation in Gaza and starvation that may be happening is because Hamas has taken control of the food. This morning, I got the reports that of the UN food that goes in, as of this week, 91.5% of food was stolen or looted.”
It’s worth noting that the Boston Consulting Group has backed away from the GHF after it was revealed that two of its senior consultants had advised on the logistical set-up of the organisation which is headquartered in the US tax haven of Delaware. You know things are bad when even international consulting houses have moral qualms about a project — or at least say they do when caught out.
The Israel-Palestine conflict has always been a place for extremists. Huckabee proves it to be the case. The Sussan Ley opposition, newly powered up over the issue of Palestinian statehood, should take whatever he says with a very large grain of salt.
Lookiing at supposedterrorist groups from the stern gag onwards you can see that all of them have since moved into the mainstream after evicting the colonial powers, The UK, France Belgium etc have al left their colonies for better or worse. Some”terrorists “ have even become the leaders of their countries.
Israel is an occupying power in What was Palestine and is behaving exactly as Britain , France’s behaved before they gave up their colonies. Perhaps Netanyahu is sowing the seeds of Israel’s ultimate destruction sometime in the future
I’ve been wondering whether Israel is burying Palestine or digging its own grave.
Shamir as a former member of the Lachie ( stern gang ) as PM used to remove his members out of the Knesset when Kahana spoke.
Maybe David Marks can get some education on the Israeli political movements before showing up his lack of
The question of who is a terrorist is a knotty one – Mandela was labeled a terrorist for 10 years. Before the establishment of Israel, there was a terrorist group in the area called the Irgun, (other names too) who were Zionists fighting against the British, who had mandated control until the UN resolution establishing the State of Israel. Many of its members became prominent in the new Israeli Government. They were not completely happy with the UN resolution as it required the new state of Israel to protect the Palestinians within their borders, which they were determined not to do. Right from the beginning they insisted that Israel should be all the land from “the border to the sea”. and various governments since then have controlled much of Palestinian territory, expanding with settlements , or controlling since 2005 the Gaza strip, so it could not develop. The UN has tried to control this but the USA has always vetoed any vote to sanction Israel, while supporting them with arms.
I saw the interview. Sarah as always did a great job challenging Huckabee’s outrageous statements. Of course right wing media is already trumpeting the US “disgust”. As for the Coalition – just when you think they can sink no lower they do! Their stance on this issue, like so many other issues, is seriously out of step. I despair.
If the Coalition were dinkum about representing the mainstream of Australian public opinion, they would first of all challenge the govt for being too slow in establishing and delivering renewable, non-fossil, energy. They would propose policies that recalibrated the balance between investors and owner-occupier buyers at auctions. They would propose cutting, or not further increasing, funding to private schools and invest more in public schools. They would cut all interest payments on HECS to zero, so graduates only have to repay the actual cost, and not a financialised cost, for tertiary education.
There’s plenty more too. But just those would put real pressure on this centre-right govt.
Just got to get the party room and the Country Party on board. Simples.
I forgot to add – the LNP could also propose a ban all gambling advertisements and gambling on-line.
I’m probably wrong but I wonder if Albanese’s rebuttals to Washington along the lines of “we’re a sovereign country and we make decisions in our best interests” is part of a long game of softening us up for cancelling AUKUS. I wonder if he’s preparing the ground for a tipping point if/when the White House and Pentagon tell us they’re going to cost more and we can’t have them unless we are prepared to use them alongside the US Navy in a war with China.
Of course the Opposition and most of the media will go nuts but as we saw at the last election, they no longer represent public opinion.
Doug! You’re talking about the actual, verified, unambiguous will of the people of Australia!
What’s that ever had to do with representative “democracy”?
I’m in furious agreement with you Doug!
That sounds like latte licking, lefty looney socialism Doug.
The Murdoch flunkies at Sky no News won’t be advocating any of it and by default neither will the Tories
They are pretty irrelevant these days.
Israel has lied itself into a very deep hole, and the desperation is showing.As for our Susssssan,like all the others in a pointless political party,only opens her flannel mouth to change feet.Come on down,Gus.
Your respondents appear to forget that every time since Israel was created, that a division of the territory has been proposed,it was the Palestinian side which has rejected it. Even after Yasar Arafat agreed, they reneged. A separate state is not what Palestinians want. Two states is a facile non solution to a complicated problem caused by failed British decolonisation
Careful, your semitism is showing.
When will everyone realise that Palestinians are also Semitic. The concern should be with what is more accurately referred to as Judaophobia which again is not the same as being anti Israel.
Perhaps if the Zionist colonisers put the illegal settlements on the bargaining block a genuine agreement would be attainable
The reality is that neither the Israeli Government nor Hamas want a two State solution.
They both want a one State solution with them in charge.
Hamas has openly stated it will accept a two state solution under 1967 borders. Google it. But the media want tell you that.
Factually incorrect
The immigrant European Zionists since 1919 have always wanted the whole of Palestine. The Palestinian incumbent residents didn’t want them to have any of it. Same now but the 2025 Zionist – transformed into Israelis – have the upper hand, solely on the basis that might is right. The Palestinians have the moral upper hand, on the basis that they have been dudded by Israel and the “West” (USA and the Sussans), all along. What next? Israel to grab it all and become a nasty little nuclear armed fascist rogue state for a while, then implode, leaving the Sussans mightily confused. That’s a way off yet but the scene is set.
I hear that an Israeli Government official regards the Sydney Harbour Bridge protesters as useful idiots for Hamas.
It is a dad point of history theatre there were not more useful idiots in Europe as the Holocaust got under way.
Equally, more useful idiots were needed last century when foreign powers stole Palestinian lands in order to give them to a new Israeli state.
God, please send this poor world a lot more useful idiots. Fast.
Ah, for the economics of rage!
Some food for thought maybe…..written in 2018 a year post the first emergence of that useful idiot in The White House.
https://ethicalintelligence.com.au/the-allegorical-life-blog/a-world-of-perpetual-anger-and-rage/