IQUOTE FROM BELOW!!!!
'' Ministers believed Wolpe was providing "inordinate access" to the hardline pro-Israeli elements of the Melbourne Jewish community who were having an undue influence on Gillard.''
THE ABOVE - FROM THE NETHER WORDS BELOW - BEST INDICATES WHY ANTI SEMITISM COMES FROM THE B
LEFT!
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SEE MY MAIN BLOG SOCIALIST DYSTOPIA!!
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Fears Julia Gillard isolated by adviser on UN Palestinian vote
It was no small matter for Gillard to defy advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the strongly held view of Foreign Minister Bob Carr, previous policy positions, lobbying from Bob Hawke and his foreign minister Gareth Evans, most of her backbench colleagues and the "demographically challenged" NSW Right, including her staunchest cabinet supporter from that faction, Water Minister Tony Burke.
As one cabinet source told The Weekend Australian last night: "The Prime Minister turned this into a leadership issue herself by demanding cabinet follow her and a failure of process and consultation beforehand".
The opposition to Gillard cut across factional boundaries and went beyond supporters of former prime minister Kevin Rudd. The success of the party in rolling the Prime Minister will have reverberations into the election year and has diminished her authority.
While it should have been apparent for months - indeed it was a year since Rudd, then foreign minister, wrote suggesting an abstention on the Palestine issue, that Labor now overwhelmingly favoured a less dogmatic approach to Israel - Gillard insisted Australia oppose the move for Palestinian observer status, which was carried at the UN yesterday.
On Monday evening, cabinet convened for what was to become an exceptional meeting and an eventual decision that may set various benchmarks in Australian political history. It changed a basic tenet of Australian foreign policy, it broke longstanding bipartisanship on Israel, it ditched a tradition as old as "Doc" Evatt, disappointed the US, Israel and the local Jewish community and may yet prove to be a more potent leadership issue for Gillard than the Australian Workers Union affair.
Before Monday's meeting DFAT and Prime Minister and Cabinet prepared an options paper - not a cabinet submission - which set out the pros and cons of the three UN vote choices for Australia; a vote against with the US, Israel and half a dozen small states, abstain on the basis of a principled position to get Israel to negotiate, or vote for Palestinian state observer status.
Carr's position, spelt out to the Prime Minister, was to abstain at least, as was the majority position in cabinet, the outer ministry and the Labor backbench.
Carr committed to Gillard before the meeting that he would not speak because it would be obvious the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister were at odds. After the cabinet meeting began and Gillard made it clear she intended to go for the minority position all hell broke loose in the windowless room opposite her office suite in parliament.
Minister after minister lined up to tell her - some forcibly - her position was wrong on policy and political grounds. The opposition included Burke and fellow NSW Right minister Chris Bowen, with Burke's contribution particularly significant as the last of the NSW faction's cabinet ministers supporting Gillard's leadership. Even Trade Minister Craig Emerson, derided for his public loyalty to Gillard, was opposed.
Only Victorian Right Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, later backed by fellow Victorian right winger Bill Shorten, spoke up for Gillard's position. Carr couldn't contain himself after 10 ministers had spoken in his portfolio area and made it clear he was at odds with his leader.
Carr's opposition was significant not only because he was Foreign Minister but also because he had been hand-picked by the NSW Right to replace Rudd in the ministry and will always be seen as a safe fallback as leader should Gillard fail. What's more, Carr, who founded the NSW Labor Friends of Israel, has assiduously worked with Palestinian groups for 17 years and is aware of the plight of Christian groups throughout the Middle East who want peace.
After Gillard insisted the cabinet had to agree to her minority position and demanded "cabinet solidarity", there was a bemused and sullen response, with Carr ringing backbenchers to foment rebellion and government whip Joel Fitzgibbon defying the Prime Minister's request to lock in the Right behind her.
Fitzgibbon yesterday said that if Australia had adopted the Prime Minister's initial position it would have looked like Australia was acting as a puppet of the US.
Carr informed Gillard minutes before Tuesday's Labor caucus meeting that she needed to change her position or face a humiliating defeat that would undermine her authority. Gillard conceded and backed a compromise of abstention.
In the face of Gillard's initial demand for support, cabinet ministers began to complain there was no real explanation for the position, arguing the US was not overly exercised, many Labor seats were affected by Middle Eastern populations, Christian and Muslim, and there was a policy argument for sending Israel a message "as a friend".
Ministers believed Wolpe was providing "inordinate access" to the hardline pro-Israeli elements of the Melbourne Jewish community who were having an undue influence on Gillard.
As a hard left-winger in her younger days, Gillard was not seen as a natural supporter of Israel or the US, but has worked hard at links with both and her partner, Tim Mathieson, worked for Jewish Melbourne developer and Labor benefactor Albert Dadon.
As deputy prime minister, Gillard visited Israel and was feted by the Israeli leadership.
In Perth last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had indicated to Gillard that the US would prefer a vote against the Palestinian UN motion.
It is understood Gillard's decision was determined from her own views and that Wolpe hadn't arranged a prime ministerial meeting with the Melbourne Jewish community for some time.
Labor MP Michael Danby, who in Melbourne Ports represents the biggest Jewish community in Australia, said yesterday: "I hope I am wrong and the UN resolution turns out to give the Palestinian Authority the confidence to begin direct talks with their neighbours, the best outcome that might result."
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