The Wong Person for the Job

Wow, you guys over the ditch thought you had landed a dud when Nanaia Mahuta finagled the Foreign Minister’s job? BFD readers, I give you Penny Wong.

Wong’s plain uselessness at her job is only heightened by the fact that she is supposed to be the brains trust of the Labor party — something I’m sure no-one ever said about Mahuta the Looter.

Which raises the question: if Wong isn’t so shit at her job because she’s too dumb to do it, then is she making such a hash of it on purpose? I’m not sure which possibility is worse.

Because it’s undeniable that Wong is rooting her portfolio harder than Barnaby Joyce drooping a roofie in the secretary’s prosecco. Especially when it comes to possibly the greatest crisis in global politics since the Cuban Missile Crisis, Hamas’ bloody provocation of all-out war in Gaza. A crisis which is prompting increasingly open and violent anti-Semitism in Australia.

Wong is proving so inept at handling the crisis that even her own boss is refusing to have her back.

Anthony Albanese has refused to back Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s call for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas, or her suggestion that the Netanyahu government could be breaking international law by attacking hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

The Australian

As well he should. Any ceasefire by Israel would only amount to a surrender in the face of Hamas’ butchery, and give the savages of Gaza an undeserved break to regroup and rebuild their weapons stockpiles in hospitals and schools. It would also endorse the vicious demonisation of Israel by the ferally anti-Semitic left and Muslim communities.

But, as always, this is just another case of “Each-Way Albo” trying to hedge his bets — to the detriment of us all. But most of all, Jewish Australians living under a pall of fear that they should never have to in Australia.

Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and senior Labor ministers have to get their positions on the international security threat arising from the Hamas attacks on Israel and rising domestic threats from anti-Semitism straight and clear. What’s more, they have to do it immediately.

Each day of doubt and confusion exponentially increases the fear within the Australian Jewish community, emboldens the racists and amplifies the hate speech.

Anyone who denies that the “pro-Palestinian” movement is openly, viciously anti-Semitic is deluding themselves. How many attacks on Jews and on synagogues and Jewish community centres must there be? The left, who’ve wrung their hands about an imaginary “Islamophobic backlash” every time a Muslim runs bloodily amok, are not just denying the all-out assault on Jewish Australians — they’re joining in, boots and all.

It is not anti-Semitic to criticise the Israeli government but it is anti-Semitic to attack Jews.

Oh, you better believe it’s anti-Semitic to criticise the Israeli government, when the only government you criticise in a sea of brutal, kleptocratic dictatorships is the sole liberal democracy — which also happens to be the sole Jewish state.

Yet, like so many foreign policy issues where there should be prepared, confident and clear responses to obvious questions – whether on China, the Pacific or Israel – the Albanese government seems unprepared, hesitant and contradictory.

Five weeks after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel that killed 1400 people and captured 240 hostages and four weeks after the Israeli retaliatory invasion of Gaza to eradicate the terrorists has killed thousands, the Albanese government is still sending mixed messages […]

Wong’s appeal was to “all communities” not to promote hatred although it is only the Jewish community being subjected to vile and violent demonstrations, boycotts, death threats and a tsunami of social media attacks.

The Australian

Wong is also letting down the people of Israel.

Amost alone among Israel’s friends, Australia’s Foreign Minister has not visited Israel since the October 7 terrorist attacks. In fact, in 18 months in office, Penny Wong has not once visited the Middle East.

The Australian

Why is Wong so deaf to anti-Jewish hate in Australia, and such a poor friend to Israel?

Pure, gutless politics.

Labor’s equivocation on the Middle East violence and Israel has developed over decades as demographic shifts now have the ALP holding 10 of the top 12 electorates with people of Middle Eastern ancestry and including the top three held by ministers Jason Clare, Tony Burke and Chris Bowen, according to census data.

Of the top 10 seats with the highest Jewish ancestry, five are in Victoria including Macnamara held by Labor’s Josh Burns which tops the list. Macnamara has more than twice as many people of Jewish ancestry as those with a Middle Eastern background, while Higgins, narrowly won by Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah last year, has roughly equal numbers. So, by the numbers, there is a greater threat to Labor from a backlash from voters of Middle Eastern background than from Jewish voters.

The Australian

Anthony Albanese, elected on just 32% of the vote, and falling further by the day in the polls, is desperate. Principle and basic human decency have been thrown over in favour of base politics of the worst kind.

In 2023, an Australian government is pandering to open anti-Semitism, just to win a few votes.

Try going back in time and explaining that to the men of 1945 who’d just sacrificed so much to defeat Nazism.