RON WEISER

RETURNING from Israel, it is interesting to note just how different the situation looks from over there.

US President Barack Obama has succeeded in doing something that Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu was not able to do alone — unite the Jewish people.

But not quite the way Obama had intended.

There seems to be wall-to-wall support in Israel in favour of “natural growth of the settlements” especially within the established blocks, notwithstanding whatever legal gymnastics or linguistic devices may be found to eventually resolve this issue with the US on a temporary basis.

There is no serious feeling anywhere in Israel against Jews having the right to continue to live in and develop and grow the consensus settlements. The only disagreement is on how to achieve this tactically.

In Israel there is a growing belief that while Obama may have the best of intentions, he is rather naïve.

At the same time there is also the belief that he is setting out on a rebalancing of affinities, if not loyalties, between Israel and the Arab or Muslim world, to a greater or lesser extent.

Another clear trend is that the blame — and it is looked upon in Israel as blame — is not being sheeted home solely to Obama himself as much as to sections of American Jewry as typified by J Street and the very high profile Jewish advisers that surround Obama.

Settlements and settlement policy, which for more than 40 years have created fault lines within Israel, have now come under a consensus policy crystalised very openly and clearly around support for the major settlement blocks and with a recognition that Netanyahu could quite easily be the one to cede further large chunks of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank, outside of these blocks, under the right circumstances and pressure.

In fact I could not find a single prominent settlement leader who was confident that Bibi would not — in their terms — “sell them out”, if it suited his political interests.

Which only confirmed for me the silliness of the ideological slogans so beloved by some people.

Ironically it is the so-called Jewish “left” both here and in Israel that should really have been welcoming the premiership of Bibi Netanyahu with eager anticipation (probably the least ideological prime minister from the “right” in Israel’s history in actual practice), especially after witnessing his first performance as prime minister from 1996-99.

There is a simple truism about Israel — only the “right” can make consensus concessions on territory — and only the “left” can make consensus war.

With Iran as the looming threat it was always obvious therefore that Bibi, despite the naysayers, would do everything possible to bring Ehud Barak into his government, whether Labour did poorly or not at the last election.

Today it is clear that the three most important people vis a vis the external situation are Bibi, Barak and Shimon Peres.

Peres is in reality the de facto foreign minister to the world at large with Barak dealing with Israel’s single most important diplomatic address, the US administration.

And what may seem remarkable to some is that there is clearly a very good level of co-ordination between the three of them, with a developing public warmth being noted between Barak and Bibi — the old commander and his soldier — that was not apparent before.

At the same time as there has been a reversal in their relative positions of authority.

I was privileged to be at the King David Hotel dinner — part of the very good initiative of Albert Dadon’s AICE organisation — to listen to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard give her address.

As acting prime minister she had been excellent during the Gaza campaign and she came to Israel even after the pressure exerted on her here, to not make this trip.

I was proud to hear her words in the Jewish capital.

Peter Costello, also part of the delegation, and someone who has been a longstanding friend of Israel, spoke as well and gave a speech any Australian Jewish leader would have been proud to deliver themselves.

Gillard and Costello demonstrated the huge difference between what is going on in the United Stated today and in Australia.

Here there is bilateral recognition of where the obstacles are to progressing peace and of just who has made and is willing to make further deep concessions, generally recognised to be at the peril of Israel’s security.

That is not to say that Obama’s leadership will have no impact on Australian policy, resulting in some changes that we may well be unhappy about.

However as long as there is a continuing consensus in the leadership of Australia Jewry and within the main body of Australian Jewry itself, without significant or influential Jews breaking that consensus, we can remain reasonably confident about the direction of Australian government policy.

With the recent public announcements by Saudi Arabia and Jordan — public rejection of the Obama way forward — and with the goings on at the Fatah Conference in Bethlehem, perhaps, just perhaps, Obama will start to wonder at the wisdom of and confidence in some of the moves his Jewish advisers have convinced him of.

The minute we import J Street type ideology and make it “kosher” here, we sow the seeds of the destruction of the current policy situation in Australia.

It behoves our leadership to be on the alert for just such a move and to meet it head on when it happens.