Washington's warning to Australia over Palestine

I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven am. Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi is in New York for the UN General Assembly, where Australia has formally recognized the State of Palestine, a step that more than one hundred and fifty UN

Today. I'm pleased to be here with Minister Wong to announce her effective today Sunday the twenty first of September two thy and twenty five, the Comwealth of Australia recognizes the State of Palestine.

We of course knew that this was coming, but still, how significant is a moment.

Like this, Well, I've got to say it's highly significant on a number of fronts. The first point to be made, I believe, is that have to recognize who is doing this recognizing, and it's three of the Five Eyes Nations. Now these are the nations who have not only security

And this recognition being announced today in sinc with our international partners, the United Kingdom and Canada, means that three of the Five Eyes Nations are all making this decision today.

And furthermore, the only way that we can end this seventy seven year old cycle of violence is to finally do what the United Nations wanted in nineteen forty eight, and that is recognize a Palestinian state.

We recognize the legitimate, unlong held aspirations of the people of Palestine of a state of their own, and in doing so we reaffirm Australia's long standing position of two states.

Now the three five partners will be joined by other friends of the United States and by the way of Israel in the next two days. Of course, is a key nation. It's already put its hand up. It will be joining the formal recognition at the UN in the next twenty four hours. Two years ago, these nations, including Australia, were very wary of criticizing Israel, very aware that the atrocities of Hamas gave Israel initially, if you like, a

And all of these countries moving to recognize a Palestinian state, they say that this moment, this recognition, it has to be part of a peace process. But as it stands that doesn't exist, there is no peace process. So knowing that, can this really be any more than a symbolic.

Gesture, Well, it is certainly a symbolic gesture, but it has a weight to it and in a sense it also puts pressure on the people making this symbolic gesture to do more. And this is a point, for example, that the Australian Greens picked up on Monday, saying okay, you've done this. Now you've got to apply sanctions. Now, you've even got to stop supplying parts for the Israeli

And Israel is racing to make sure that there is as little as possible physically left on the map to actually form the basis of a state of power at Steyne, and Benjamin Nettniaho has said that there will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River at Mahnikido, and.

I have another message for you. It will not happen a Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River. For years, I have prevented the establishment of this terrorist state, despite tremendous pressure both domestically and internationally.

So does the idea of a two state solution reflects the reality of what's happening on the ground now.

It certainly doesn't reflect a reality of what's happening on the ground now with Nettin Yahoo, who, by the way, doesn't have it all his own way, even in Israel. As Anthony Albernizi has said on Monday in a number of interviews, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are against what their own government has done in the past two years, but more particularly.

What it is doing now.

So Nettin Yahoo, certainly, while he and his extremeist minister are still in power, will do everything they can to thwart the two state solution, and in fact have been doing so for over a decade. But I just remind you that what a state of Palestine should look like is not exactly a mystery. The idea could well be that we go back to the nineteen sixty seven borders.

Certainly we wouldn't go back.

To the borders and visited back in nineteen forty eight, and there is a precedent for this. Yeshtuk Rabin, who you might remember, in nineteen ninety three, signed the Oslo Accords on the south lawn of the White House. I was lucky enough to be there to witness it along with other Australian journalists. With the Palestinian leader Arafat. He agreed to trade what was called land for peace, in other words, to give back to the Palestinians the land that settlers at that stage had taken.

Today we bear wedness to an extraordinary act in one of history's defining dramas, a drama that began in the time of our ancestors, when the word went forth from a slaver of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

Now we have to make a note here that Rabin paid his life for doing that. An extreme Israeli shot him for making these sorts of concessions to the Palestinians.

And it's not just Israel against this. Of course, the US seem to attempt to scuttle the whole process before it began. It was denying the visas of eighty Palestinian officials, including the Palestinian President Mahmuda Bus. So tell me what happened.

Well, it's quite simply, as you outlined, the US State Department refused to let Macmuda Bus and his party into the United States.

As we know, the United.

Nations is on the East River in New York, and this move is very rarely done because part of the agreement of America hosting the United Nations is that it will allow people to carry out their duties at the United Nations, including by the way in the past Soviet leaders and in the present people like Putin.

It'll be interested to see if they do the same to him.

But there is no doubt this is to express the United States opposition to the Palestinian authority having any say in any settlement and to deny, as far as it can, any sort of peace process and recognition going forward.

Well, the United Nations.

And indeed the Palestinian authority got around this by the UN agreeing to allow a Bus to address the Assembly virtually on a big video screen, so that in itself sends a message that in this issue, at this point of time, Israel and the United States are paro nations internationally.

After the break, the Republicans trying to intimidate Australia to back down on Palestine. Paul, there had been signs that Anthony Aberzi would meet with Trump on this visit to the US, but it hasn't happened yet. Is it likely today?

Well, Anthony Auberanzi's pretty relaxed about it. He says there will be a meeting and Ruby. The word around Canberra was that Albanzi and Trump had agreed to a face to face meeting on Sunday, a US time, but the President of course had to cancel that to attend the funeral of the right wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

And so on that terrible day September tenth, twenty twenty five, our greatest evangelist.

For American liberty became immortal. He's a minyr now for American freedom.

The President is holding a reception in New York on Tuesday, American time. I believe there's almost two hundred world leaders there. So if Albertiz gets to meet him, he did say in one interview I heard on Monday that he'd be saying, get a nice to meet you personally. But he has made the point that even in the last ten days he's had a warm foam discussion with the President. He's not too worried about it. The Prime Minister says, it's a media obsession. It's one being pushed particularly by the

So this meeting would be nice.

But as Albanizi also points out that as of now, we've got the lowest tariff impositions of any country on Earth. So you know, meeting Trump doesn't seem to be a condition for getting on well enough with the United States.

And let's talk a little about the Republican's Paul because in the lead up to this General Assembly, there was this letter that was released by twenty five Republican members for Congress, and it was warning Australia and the French and the Canadians and the British of possible reprisals if they went ahead to recognize the Palestinian state. So how should we interpret that kind of threat?

Well, first of all is bluster and menace. And then we have to have a look at who's making this threat, And they're twenty five MAGA Republicans members of Congress, who by the way, aren't all that happy with Trump over his failure to release all the Epstein files. So they're the sort of people making these threats. Then you have to say, well, what are you going to do. You've already got tariffs on all your major trading partners, making goods and services dearer in America.

What are you going to.

Do to Australia. You need Australia more than we need you in terms of security alliances, Pine Gap and other arrangements like that. And furthermore, even though America already has got tariffs on our beef because the American cattle herd is down, they've been importing far more beef than they had for years and paying a higher price for it.

And returning to recognition of Palestinian statehood. If this move is about putting pressure on both the United States and Israel to stop the war in Gaza, to date, both countries have only dug in further, So, do you think that Israel and the US can continue to ignore this pressure?

Well, look, you'd have to say all the signs are that they will continue to ignore it. That then brings us back to what we were discussing earlier. What will Australia and the other major nations in Europe do to bring even more pressure on Israel to stop the catastrophic slaughter that's going on in Gaza.

Well, Paul, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Ruby bye.

Also in the news today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi will for the first time address the UN General Assembly this week in place of Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who's delivered

To have died.

Communications Minister Anika Wells says Optus will face significant consequences. I'm Ruby Jones, an I am see you tomorrow.