Photo: Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon greets Australian foreign minister Penny Wong at a memorial event in Canberra. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)
Monday didn’t start out easy for Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese. He and his entourage were heckled and picketed before they managed to enter the venue in Melbourne where an October 7 anniversary commemoration was being held.
One woman outside called him “fuckwit” and told him to go away. Others held pre-printed signs also instructing him to leave. At the vigil Australian Jews also expressed shock Albanese was attending, along with former Victoria premiers Jacinta Allen and Dan Andrews. The event was organized by Zionism Victoria and president of the organization Yossi Goldfarb delivered a scathing message to Albanese himself, sitting in the front row, saying the Labor government’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel and its handling of pro-Hamas protests domestically had led to an unprecedented surge in anti-Semitism in Australia.
Former Israeli ambassador to Lithuania and now to Australia Amir Maimon also spoke at an October 7 event held at dusk at the Israeli embassy in Canberra, saying:
“Remembering the horror, reliving the anguish and imagining the terror is painful, yet today we must confront those memories. This was not just a terrorist attack. It was an attempt to erase us. Over 1,200 innocent souls were ripped from our world that day. We did not start this war, but we are determined to win this war, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the free world. This isn’t just another conflict. This is a battle between good and evil, between life and the forces of destruction.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton received numerous standing ovations at an October 7 commemoration in Sydney.
Things didn’t improve much for Albo (aka Yell-bo aka the Trot aka Labor’s Albotross) the next day in Australia’s lower house of parliament the House of Representatives. Despite attempts over the preceding week by Liberal (means Conservative in Australia) opposition leader Peter Dutton to work out a bi-partisan motion for a resolution on the October 7 attack, Albo’s Labor rode roughshod over previous drafts and submitted their own resolution without prior consultation. Dutton said that motion was unacceptable because it wandered wildly from the topic of the October 7 massacre and included all sorts of instructions to Israel about the need for a ceasefire and accusations about the loss of life in Gaza and Lebanon. Dutton argued Israel hadn’t even invaded Gaza until days after October 7 and that the Labor version failed to focus on that event. Albo’s text went on to talk about a “cycle of violence” and the need for a two-state solution. Opposition critics said “cycle of violence” was Labor code for Israeli atrocities against Palestinians dating back to 1947 and earlier, an excuse for Hamas’s brutal mass murder of Israeli civilians.
Albanese argued his call for deescalation were part and parcel of the US and G7 positions, and he submitted statements by both parties to that effect to be entered into the parliamentary record. Dutton countered that it was a sad day for Australia because all earlier Labor and Liberal factions in parliament had been able to agree on a pro-Israel policy in the past, dating back decades and to the founding of the State of Israel.
Dutton declined Liberal support for Labor statement on the October 7. It was passed with votes from the anti-Semitic Australian Greens in the House. Meanwhile in the Australian Senate at least 9 members of the Green faction there held up protest signs calling for a military boycott of Israel.
Back in the House, PM Albo became flustered by the whole conflict and while recognized as speaking yelled at an opposition MP asking if he had Tourette’s syndrome for speaking up while Albo was talking.
The day before, on October 7, pro-Iran protestors stormed the streets of Melbourne and Sydney to celebrate Hamas’s massacre, waving Hezbollah and Hamas flags. Some carried portraits of former Hezbollah leader Nasrallah as they chanted slogans in Arabic.
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