by Isi Leibler
 |
For the sake of full disclosure, prior to my aliya, I was head of
the Australian Jewish community for three terms. My brother, Mark
Leibler, presides over the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council
(AIJAC), which is the Australian equivalent of AIPAC. Currently he is
indisputably considered the most influential Jewish personality in the
country.
Carr accuses former Prime
Minister Julia Gillard of being controlled by the Jewish lobby and
“subcontracting our foreign policy to party donors”, denouncing the
alleged power of pro-Israel lobbyists as “unhealthy”. He also condemns
Jewish leaders for promoting “an extreme right-wing rather than a
tolerant liberal Israeli view” and seeking to “win on everything”.
He singles out AIJAC Chairman
Mark Leibler, accusing him of employing a “how dare you” tone in
relation to Australian votes at the UN. “Why can’t he and the lobby
understand that their ‘take no prisoners approach’ creates immense
harm?” asks Carr.
He also refers to the two former
Gillard government Jewish ministers, Mark Dreyfus, who served SS
Attorney General and Michael Danby, chairman of the Parliamentary Joint
Committee on Foreign Affairs, as representatives of the pro-Israel
“falafel faction”.
To its credit, the Jewish
leadership displayed a united front and Leibler, its principal
spokesman, issued a powerful but dignified response to this bigoted
outburst.
He dismissed as a “figment of
the imagination”, Carr’s allegations that the Jewish lobby had
intimidated or ever communicated to him or other politicians in anything
other than a respectful manner. Leibler pointed out that in his various
meetings with the Foreign Minister, despite legitimate differences,
Carr (in the presence of witnesses) had actually complimented him on the
manner in which he presented his viewpoint.
Leibler was outraged with Carr’s
“disingenuous” allegation that the Jewish lobby represented an extreme
right wing viewpoint on Israel. He pointed out that, as in Israel, there
are differences of opinion in the Jewish community on issues such as
ongoing construction in areas outside Jerusalem and the major settlement
blocs. But beyond insisting that the settlement issue was not the core
of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, AIJAC consistently avoided adopting a
position on these matters. It was strongly supportive of a negotiated
two state solution which hardly warranted being defined as “extreme
right wing”.
When Leibler was challenged by
the media as to whether the pro-Israeli lobby exerted undue influence on
political leaders, he expressed pride that those promoting the case for
Israel had done so in an able and persuasive manner. He stated that it
reflected the good standing of the community that, with a few notable
exceptions, the Jewish leadership was granted ready access for
consultations with the heads of successive governments on matters of
Jewish concern including Israel.
However, he stressed that senior
politicians, including Prime Ministers with whom he and other Jewish
leaders had canvassed, had minds of their own and it was outrageous to
suggest that they were bribed or improperly influenced by the Jewish
lobby. He also noted that the right to lobby or promote independent
views was a major component of any democracy and many other lobbies
canvass support for what they consider to be important.
Carr insists that he was not
anti-Israeli, pointing out that “for years, I was president of Labor
Friends of Israel. I wrote a book “My Reading Life” in which I recommend
the book on an Auschwitz survivor [Primo Levi] as the most important of
the last hundred years.”
Indeed, Carr was once considered
a close friend of the Jewish community. Yet as an Australian media
commentator noted this week, he became “the leader of pro-Palestinian
opinion in Labor” reflecting “the surging Moslem population in Western
Sydney…Carr’s factional home is now pro-Palestinian because electoral
arithmetic demands it”.
This already surfaced in 2003
when, as Premier of the state of New South Wales he dismayed the Jewish
community by presenting the Sydney peace prize to Palestinian political
activist, Hannah Ashrawi, notorious for her rabid demonization of
Israel.
He visited Israel last August
and I hosted a dinner party in his honor, inviting a number of senior
politicians and journalists. There was frank exchange on many issues and
Carr sought to impress us that he was fervently pro-Israel. At his
request, he returned to my home the following day because he wished to
discuss a number of books in my library concerning the Holocaust and
Primo Levi. On that occasion he expressed highly complementary remarks
about my brother’s role in promoting the case for Israel.
Yet, immediately on his return
home, he dispatched a delegation to Iran to solicit votes for
Australia’s UN Security Council candidature and gave undertakings to
Arab and Third World countries that he would alter Australia’s long
standing support of Israel in return for their votes at the UN.
Subsequently, he engineered
Cabinet support to overrule the instructions of Prime Minister Julia
Gillard and Australia abstained in lieu of voting against the resolution
recognizing the Palestinians as an observer state. He bluntly stated,
“I don’t apologize for the fact that Australia has interests in the Arab
world. If we had voted no, that would have been a body blow to our
interests in over 20 countries. The truth is they all see this as a
bedrock issue”.
Carr also demonstratively hauled
over the coals Yuval Rotem, then Israel’s ambassador to Australia (whom
he refers to in his book as “the cunning Yuval”) for the Israeli
government decision to continue building homes in the Jewish suburbs of
east Jerusalem and adjacent areas.
There is little doubt that
whilst Carr’s hoary accusations of a Jewish cabal controlling the
government will please and possibly embolden anti-Israeli elements and
anti-Semites, it will have marginal impact on the Jewish community.
Indeed, the current Prime
Minister Tony Abbott and his Liberal government are shaping up to being
as friendly to Israel as Stephen Harper and his Canadian government. And
despite the former Foreign Minister’s hostility, the new Labor Leader
of the Opposition Bill Shorten, in a recent address to the Australian
Zionist Federation, vigorously sought to mend relations with the Jewish
community. In addition, the former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard
last week again visited Israel. In fact the long standing bi-partisan
friendship towards Israel which has, with few exceptions, prevailed
since the creation of the Jewish state, has now largely been restored.
That a dominant proportion of
the Jewish community (currently estimated at approximately 120,000) are
the offspring of Holocaust survivors has intensified the community’s
passionate Zionist orientation.
This in turn, has led to the
emergence of leaders who have no hesitation in taking up assertive but
responsible positions on matters of Jewish concern and on behalf of
Israel, as and when appropriate. Their dedication undoubtedly
contributed towards persuading successive governments to appreciate the
case for Israel. Indeed, Australia could serve as a role model for
leaders in other Diaspora Jewish communities.
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
Some of my recent articles:
Blaming Israel for the Collapse of the Peace Negotiations (April 6, 2014)
The Disastrous Outcome of the “Peace Negotiations” (April 1, 2014)
The Radicalization of the Haredi World (March 26, 2014)
Putin, Ukraine and the Jews (March 17, 2014)
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Isi Leibler may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com. His website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com.
Source: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=5059
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