August 23, 2006
According to the ABC's 7.30 Report Ross Burns, who has served as high commissioner to South Africa and ambassador to Syria before serving in Israel from 2001 to 2003, criticised the Australian Govt's Middle East policy in a recent speech on foreign policy in Perth. He said that Australia had been outed for its lack of a Middle East policy during the Lebanon crisis, that the Australian Government was happy to be a mere "stalking horse" for Israeli ambitions, and that the foreign affairs presence in the region had been allowed to run down so much that the department was no longer the Government's eyes and ears in the region.
Well, its about time someone pointed out the obvious. Burns has made this criticism before---on the ABC's Perspective progam. There he said the:
Australian Government chants the mantra of 'Israel's right to defend itself'. Everyone has a right to defend themselves - Israel's right doesn't cancel out anyone else's. Moreover the real issue is - defence through what means? Defensive action has to be proportional and consistent with stated objectives. Massive disruption of infrastructure and endangering civilian life recklessly is against all reasonable codes of war.
Alas for Australia the ALP Opposition has a policy of me too-ism on the Middle East --it also sees the Israel-Palestinian situation purely through "an Israeli optic". Labor's silence on the Lebanon conflict was "thunderous", and in Burn's judgement, Labor doesn't seek to establish any different policy towards Israel from the Coalition. It has a high comfort level with the "peace through strength" vision of spreading pax Americana and an Israel-centric Middle East foreign-policy agenda promoted by the Washington neo-conservative camp.
The implication is that the Middle East policy debate within Australia is pretty thin and is conducted with the horizons of a sparse, simplistic policy on the Middle East---of uncritical defence of Israel and the Bush administrations' grand strategy to create a "new Middle East" through regime change in Syria and Iran. Any questioning of this uncritical defence of Israel ----is seen as appeasement by those who support the neo-conservative-militarist Washington consensus on Israel-Arab/Iran policy. Isn't there room for the ALP to question the drumbeat for a tactical US-Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities given the fighting in south Lebanon, sectarian clashes in Iraq and a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.
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