One of the enduring myths of Australian foreign policy is that Australia is reluctantly required to support the United States and Israel out of strategic necessity and cultural solidarity, or that we are somehow pressured into doing so when we would prefer to be more independent and self-reliant. The opposite is true. Australia is an enthusiastic participant in the Western club which has produced AUKUS, condemned Russia and Iran for their provocations and aggression, and covered up for Israel’s crimes. In Clinton Fernandes’ phrase, we are more than happy to be Washington’s “sub-imperial power” in the Southwest Pacific. Canberra is literally incapable of either speaking or acting unilaterally, as if we have no unique national interests. Australian foreign policy is now willingly vicarious. Every comment on Israel-Palestine, for example, is now issued with our “international partners” such as New Zealand, the UK and Canada - putting us at odds with almost all of our regional neighbours in Southeast Asia. In the face of the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Gaza, the most Tel Aviv can expect from Australia is a “deeply concerned” tweet from Foreign Minister Wong. Unlike Iran, don’t expect the Israeli Ambassador to be dragged into DFAT to be dressed down over Finance Minister Smotrich’s claim that it is ok to starve Gazans to death or sodomise and torture them in prison camps. Israel’s “right to self-defence”, relentlessly parroted by both Wong and Albanese for over 300 days, has helped to disguise horrendous crimes: the annihilation of Palestinians and the theft of their land are now clear for all to see. The bombing of schools, mosques, hospitals, universities, refugee camps and “safe zones” is now so routine, it barely elicits news coverage. Iran, on the other hand, has no right to self-defence against Israel’s murderous attacks on its military officers in Syria, or its allies and scientists in Tehran. Regardless of repeated provocations including Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader and lead ceasefire negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, it is told by Secretary of State Blinken not to escalate tensions in the region: apparently all said with a straight face. Criticise Israel’s crimes against humanity and defiance of international law and expect to be called antisemitic, a shield which has protected the country from critical scrutiny for almost 80 years. This is not a result of pressure from the Israel lobby or Murdoch’s Zionist cheerleaders in The Australian. None is required. These are the actual preferences of Australia’s foreign policy elite, regardless of widespread popular revulsion. International law and the international courts have become weapons to be turned on official enemies in Moscow or military thugs in Africa but do not apply to Netanyahu’s apartheid government (the conclusion reached by all the major human rights groups in the world, including in Israel, but which Albanese still refutes). This is an exemption that has totally discredited Washington’s “rules-based international order” which Canberra loves to invoke. We have become little more than an echo chamber of Washington on Russia-Ukraine and maritime security in East Asia, despite having very different interests at stake with China. And now, following the foolhardy commitments of AUKUS, we seek a security agreement with Indonesia at the cost of speaking out about Jakarta’s ongoing crimes in West Papua. There is just so much to be proud of.

Instead of blaming @Greens has @AlboMP or @ASIOGovAu considered that the radicalisation of young people in Australia has something to do with 300+ days of diplomatic and PR support the government has given to a rogue state committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza?