Go to the media bankThe Australian flag at the Foreign Office building. File photoMOSCOW, Oct 27Australia's refusal to recognize West Jerusalem as Israel's capital undermines Western unity against Russia, writes National Interest columnist Michael Rubin. According to him, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, those who canceled the recognition played into the hands of Mahmoud Abbas, who, during a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Astana, spoke of the inability of the United States to mediate in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
"This could have been left up to the Australians had the decision not been taken less than a week after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas strongly endorsed Russian President Vladimir Putin. Albanese and Wong are too sophisticated not to realize the importance of timing,» Rubin said.
He believes that in this way Canberra signals its readiness to continue revisiting policy on this issue and may even recognize Palestinian statehood. This, as the author emphasized, would confirm the logic of Moscow's recognition of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, the DPR and the LPR.
"Albanese and Wong squander decades of diplomatic capital, throw away moral clarity and inadvertently undermine the international coalition of democracies against Russia" Canberra recognizes West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, effectively overturning a 2018 decision by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that was not supported by the Labor Party. As Wong explained, Australia's position is that the question of the city's final status should be settled in peace talks between Israel and Palestine. The status of Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel considers it its «one and indivisible» capital, including the eastern regions and the historical center, recaptured from Jordan during the Six Day War. The world does not recognize the annexation and believes that this problem should be solved on the basis of an agreement with the Palestinians. Because of this, all foreign embassies are located in Tel Aviv.