Ley blasts Albanese for placing Australia-US alliance in jeopardy over Israel ‘mismanagement’

Opposition leader Sussan Ley has accused Anthony Albanese of placing Australia’s close alliance with the United States in jeopardy over the “mismanagement” and “deterioration” of the nation’s relationship with Israel.

It comes after Benjamin Netanyahu overnight, called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a “weak politician” who “abandoned Australia’s Jews” after Israeli politician Simcha Rothman’s visa was revoked.

Mr Rothman — a National Religious Party member in Netanyahu’s coalition — had his visa revoked the day before he was due to fly to Australia on a speaking tour.

It prompted Israel’s foreign minister to cancel the visas of Australia’s representatives to the Palestinian Authority.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has also since accused the Israeli Prime Minister of starving children, “blowing up” civilians, and retaliating in anger to Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Ms Ley on Wednesday said the PM’s foreign policy “failures” with Israel were “becoming apparent” — adding “respect goes both ways”.

“The series of events that we’ve seen in the relationship between Israel and Australia are regrettable, and that relationship has been and is being mismanaged,” she said.

“It’s an enduring relationship. It dates back to 1947 when Australia was the first signatory for a UN resolution that created the State of Israel.

“Of course, along the way, there have been disagreements. There have been robust conversations. That’s normal. But what we are seeing now is something different.

“We are seeing a relationship that has deteriorated and the consequences of that are not good, and they are spilling over into our relationship with the US, our most important ally.”

The Opposition’s condemnation also comes after it was revealed Netanyahu had sent a damning letter to Mr Albanese over his recognition commitment at the UN General Assembly in New York next month.

A move Netanyahu claimed was “it is not diplomacy, it is appeasement”, according the letter obtained by Sky News and dated August 17.

While Mr Burke said he hadn’t seen the letter, he defended Australia’s handling of its relationship with Israel.

Speaking to RN Breakfast on Wednesday morning, he argued Mr Albanese had shown strength in standing up for Australia’s right to make sovereign decisions and claimed Israel was “lashing out”.

“Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up, or how many children you can leave hungry,” Mr Burke said.

“Strength is much better measured by exactly what prime minister Anthony Albanese has done, which is when there’s a decision that we know Israel won’t like; he goes straight to Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Ms Ley’s Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie repeated the opposition’s criticism of the visa cancellation and accused Mr Burke of being “inconsistent” with cancelling visas.

He labelled the saga a “now at an all-time low” of the relationship with Australia’s Middle East ally.

“The relationship with Israel now is at an all-time low, and that’s largely because of the Albanese foreign policy incompetence from this government. I think the government’s failed to recognise what this cancellation would mean,” he told ABC Radio National Breakfast.

“I’m sure (Mr Rothman) has said a whole range of things that I probably wouldn’t agree with, but nonetheless, he’s a member of the Knesset.

“And my point would be that Mr Burke, last year, allowed a number of people into this country who had expressed support for terrorism or terrorist organisation.”

Deputy Prime Minister refused to be drawn on Netanyahu’s criticism of Mr Albanese, he would not “get into tit for tat commentary” but said Australia still viewed the relationship as important.

“Let me be very clear. We seek to be friends with Israel. We have, throughout Israel’s existence,” Mr Marles said.

Mr Marles described a decision by Israel to strip the visas of Australia’s envoys to the Palestinian Authority as “unreasonable”.

“We regard (that) as being an unreasonable reaction and an unjustified reaction to the decision that Australia has made. But we continue to move forward on a principled basis,” Mr Marles said.