In a letter sent to Netanyahu on Thursday, Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said the Israeli prime minister\u2019s comments about Albanese \u201cwere inflammatory and provocative, and demonstrated a woeful lack of understanding of social and political conditions in Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese comments have played straight into the hands of opponents of Israel and antisemites, to the
detriment of the Australian Jewish community,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad we been consulted, we would have warned against such a clumsy intervention into Australia\u2019s domestic politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe charge of antisemitism, whether made directly or indirectly, is a serious one and never to be made lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate letter to Albanese, Aghion said the prime minister had been \u201cexcessive and gratuitously insulting\u201d to Netanyahu last week by saying he was in denial about the suffering of Palestinian civillians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unseemly for an Australian prime minister to depart from diplomatic norms concerning the leader of a country with which Australia has had friendly relations for many decades,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could simply have said that you vehemently disagreed with the Israeli prime minister, without descending into a personal attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arguing that both leaders were at fault for the deteriorating relationship, Aghion urged the two prime ministers to use \u201cmeasured and seemly language befitting national leaders\u201d to get bilateral links back on track.<\/p>\n
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler described Netanyahu\u2019s comments as \u201centirely unhelpful and unproductive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the use of personal or inflammatory language is appropriate or helpful,\u201d he told this masthead.<\/p>\n
Leibler praised Albanese for acting as a \u201cstatesman\u201d by declining to fire back at Netanyahu, saying that it was wrong to describe the government\u2019s decision to deny Rothman a visa as antisemitic even though he disagrees with the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relationship is clearly under strain,\u201d Leibler said. \u201cBoth nations should return to what brings them together and respectful discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of handing Albanese a political \u201cgift\u201d by attacking him. \u201cThe thing that most strengthens a leader in the democratic world today is a confrontation with Netanyahu, the most politically toxic leader in the Western world,\u201d he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, Burke hit back at Netanyahu for attacking Albanese.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry,\u201d Burke, who is one of the prime minister\u2019s closest political allies, told ABC radio.<\/p>\n
Instead, he said, Albanese had shown strength by calling Netanyahu before Australia moved to recognise Palestine.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu, who spoke to Albanese a fortnight ago, said on his official X account on Tuesday night: \u201cHistory will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia\u2019s Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the Netanyahu government\u2019s decision to cancel visas for Australian diplomats working in the West Bank, Burke said: \u201cWhat we are seeing with some of the actions they\u2019re taking is a form of a continued isolation of Israel from the world, and that is not in their interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sky News reported that Netanyahu had sent a letter to world leaders, including Albanese, who had moved to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September as part of a push to restart momentum for a two-state solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cIt is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas\u2019s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ophir Falk, a foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, doubled down on his boss\u2019s comments on Wednesday afternoon, accusing Albanese of handing Hamas a political prize by agreeing to recognise a Palestinian state after the October 7, 2023, attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact of the matter is that the Australian government is morally bankrupt,\u201d he told the ABC. \u201cI call upon [Albanese] to come to his senses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke said he had blocked Rothman\u2019s visa application and that of former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked last year because they had described Palestinian children as enemies and snakes.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNow, if anyone wanted to come on a public speaking tour and they had those views publicly expressed about Israeli children, I would block the visa, and I am going to not have a lower bar for the protection of views that are bigoted views against the Palestinian people,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n
He has also cancelled visa applications from American political provocateur Candace Owens<\/a> and rapper Kanye West<\/a> because of comments they made that offended the Jewish community.<\/p>\n The Home Affairs assessment of grounds for cancellation says: \u201cthe visa holder\u2019s social media and public statements … mirror the policies of his Religious Zionist Party, including the elimination of Hamas and the expansion and sovereignty of the Israeli state and denial of any wrongdoing by Israel against Palestinians and Gaza during the current conflict. These statements have been received by members of the Australian community as inflammatory and concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with Britain\u2019s Channel 4 News earlier this year, Rothman said, \u201cthey are our enemies\u201d, when asked about Palestinian children in Gaza and denied they were dying of hunger.<\/p>\n Opposition home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie said the Albanese government failed to recognise what this cancellation would mean. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t just any old visa,\u201d he told ABC Radio National. \u201cI\u2019m sure [Rothman] said a whole range of things that I probably wouldn\u2019t agree with, but nonetheless, he\u2019s a member of the Knesset.\u201d<\/p>\n Full text of Netanyahu\u2019s letter to Albanese<\/p>\n Dear Prime Minister,<\/p>\n I am concerned with the alarming rise of antisemitism in Australia and the lack of decisive action by your government to confront it.<\/p>\n Throughout the past year, antisemitism has scarred Australian cities. Since your public statements signaling recognition of a Palestinian state, it has intensified.<\/p>\n Following Hamas\u2019s savage attack on the people of Israel on October 7, 2023, pro-Hamas extremists and left-wing radicals began a campaign of intimidation, vandalism and violence against Jews across the free world. In Australia, that campaign has intensified under your watch. In June, vandals defaced a historic Melbourne synagogue with graffiti praising Iran and calling to \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d In July, arsonists targeted the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation during Shabbat dinner, forcing twenty worshippers to flee for their lives. That same night, masked rioters stormed an Israeli-owned restaurant in central Melbourne, destroying property, hurling furniture and shouting \u201cDeath to the IDF.\u201d These are not isolated incidents. This is an epidemic.<\/p>\n Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on this antisemitic fire. It is not diplomacy, it is appeasement. It rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas\u2019s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.<\/p>\n As President Trump has shown, antisemitism can and must be confronted. The President is protecting the civil rights of American Jews, enforcing the law, prosecuting public order and prosecuting antisemitic crimes. He has also deported Hamas sympathizers and revoked the visas of foreign students who incite violence against Jews.<\/p>\n Prime Minister, antisemitism is a cancer. It spreads when leaders stay silent. It retreats when leaders act. I call upon you to replace weakness with action, appeasement with resolve, and to do so by a clear date: the Jewish New Year, September 23, 2025.<\/p>\n History will not forgive hesitation. It will honor action.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n [Signature of Benjamin Netanyahu]<\/p>\n Benjamin Netanyahu<\/p>\n