Tom Wilson writing in Commentary tells us:
This is terrific news and Australia is proving itself to be a true friend and partner to both the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel. Of course, the Obama administration and the European Union remain supportive of Hamas while complaining about the fact that Jews build housing for ourselves on historically Jewish land.Australia has announced that it will no longer refer to East Jerusalem as “occupied territory.” Tony Abbott’s government has put out an uncompromising statement of intent, informing the world that, “The description of East Jerusalem as ‘occupied’ East Jerusalem is a term freighted with pejorative implications which is neither appropriate nor useful. It should not and will not be the practice of the Australian government to describe areas of negotiation in such judgmental language.” This announcement is made all the more significant on account of the fact that back in January Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop publicly disputed the notion that Israel’s settlements should be considered illegal either.
Wilson writes:
In recent days both the United States and the European Union have mounted vocal protest against Israeli plans to build new homes in existing Jewish neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem. This is an astounding response that exposes the full extent of the hostility toward the Jewish state that emanates from both the EU and the Obama administration. For while the newly formed Hamas-backed Palestinian government has received endorsement from both the White House and the Europeans, building homes for Jews in the ancient Jewish holy city of Jerusalem has provoked a degree of condemnation out of all proportion with reality.The Obama administration continues to make the very same mistakes over and over and over again. Their opposition to Jews who build housing for themselves even as they embrace the genocidal organization, Hamas, as a "peace partner" clearly demonstrates the general tone of anti-Jewish / anti-Israel hostility emanating from the European capitals with Obama leading the charge from behind.
Of course, neither the EU, nor the Obama administration, could have gotten away with the ridiculous notion that Jews building housing for themselves on Jewish land is some crime against humanity, were it not for progressive-left diaspora Jews who assured them that they were correct to focus their ire on those other Jews over there, the bad ones who live where neither Barack Obama, nor Mahmoud Abbas, want them to live.
If western-left diaspora Jews blame their fellow Jews for the attacks against those Jews, then how could we possibly expect anything less from non-Jewish western leaders? If we will not stand up for ourselves, why in this world would we expect them to stand up for us?
The fact of the matter is that diaspora Jewry made a highly consequential error when it agreed with Mahmoud Abbas that Jews should not be allowed to build housing for themselves in Judea. Obama and the Europeans could not make a stink about Jews building homes were it not for the fact that western Jews went along with it. Certainly it would have been far more difficult for someone like Obama to object to Jews who build housing for themselves if his Jewish friends and advisers had not gone along and if the diaspora Jewish community had not done so.
We have no one to blame but ourselves, but in the meanwhile we still have some friends in the world.
Thank you, Australia.