You gotta hand it to them. Unlike the Coalition, the leaders of the Labor party have no problem whatsoever prosecuting the ‘culture wars’ whenever they possibly can. At every opportunity since they won power they’ve made sure they notch up some little victory or other, whether it’s a seismic shift – like ‘pledging’ a 30 per cent cut to methane emissions – or merely a symbolic one. Starved of power for nine long years, the Left in office are wasting no time transforming this nation into something more to their liking.

This week came the announcement in the Australian newspaper, after a bungle on the DFAT website was exposed, that ‘Foreign Minister Penny Wong has reversed the former government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel instead of Tel Aviv, as she attacked Scott Morrison over a “cynical play” to win the seat of Wentworth.’

Wow! Where does one begin to break down such a snide, mean-spirited and ignorant announcement, one that oozes with patronising contempt for Israel, for Jewish history and for Israel’s place within the global community?

Antisemitism has plagued the modern Left for the last few decades. Part of the reason Jew-hatred is so entrenched within various Labour (and Greens) parties is that their fundamental leftist ideological beliefs blind them to the reality of their own ingrained prejudices, many of which were imbibed in the neo-Marxist halls of universities and in the sweaty basements of undergraduate political clubs.

In the modern socialist view of the world, one is either a dark-skinned indigenous victim of imperialist occupation or an illegitimate pale-skinned coloniser of land that doesn’t belong to you. The ultimate irony is that Jews – persecuted and murdered for over a thousand years by fair-skinned European anti-semites for their dark, swarthy looks and semitic features – have somehow washed up in the ‘white’ column in the modern era. Whereas any other ‘tribe’ with such a long and proud connection to and reverence for their own lands would be regarded as the rightful ‘indigenous First Nation’ of the Holy Lands, the perversity of the modern Left is to deny Jews their own heritage whilst promulgating the idea that another ‘tribe’ actually owns their land. And so it came to pass that Israel and the Jews are now viewed by the Left as illegitimate occupiers of their own birthright; a glorious birthright that extends back over three thousand years and is one of the cornerstones of Western civilisation.

Thus, ‘West Jerusalem’, never before disputed, is now declared by Labor’s mandarins to not be Jewish at all – or words to that effect – but instead the plaything of globalist outfits like the United Nations and the EU. Tel Aviv, a thriving, fun town for sure, but a modern one with no deep historical roots of note to the ancient Jewish kingdom, will suffice for the embassy gig as far as Wong and co. are concerned.

The reaction from around the world has been swift. The Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted, ‘We can only hope that the Australian government manages other matters more seriously and professionally,’ before adding, ‘Jerusalem is the eternal and united capital of Israel and nothing will ever change that.’

Perhaps Ms Wong, born in Malaysia, was confusing that nation’s overt antipathy to Israel with Australian priorities. Who knows? Whatever the case, the sheer arrogance of Labor’s Foreign Minister in presuming that she can unilaterally determine another nation’s capital city against their own wishes is breath-taking. Imagine the Chinese telling us that they didn’t recognise Canberra and were instead moving their embassy to Uluru.

This magazine and its editor have long warned Australian Jewry to beware of the fake hand of friendship offered by the Labor party. By accusing Mr Morrison of recognising Jerusalem (the insertion of ‘West’ was a typically cowardly piece of political nonsense from the Liberal party bedwetters) solely for the purpose of currying favour in electorates with a high Jewish vote shows again not only the arrogance but the condescension of Labor to Israelis and Jews, believing them to be a collective that can so easily be bought off. It is also worth pointing out that all those seats in fact went to the Teals, who themselves have a fairly questionable history when it comes to anti-semitic comments, so not exactly a credible analysis.

It was also Penny Wong who recently and disgracefully reversed the $10 million of Aussie taxpayer cuts to UNRWA; funds believed by some to be financing Palestinian pay-for-slay programs. (A cause originally championed by this magazine and successfully pursued by Dr David Adler and others in the Australian parliament.)

It was former prime minister Tony Abbott and then President Donald Trump, and most recently British PM Liz Truss, who showed their support for Israel by recognising Jerusalem as the eternal capital. Mr Trump is also responsible for bringing peace to parts of the Middle East in the form of the Abraham Accords.

Meanwhile, it was the British Labour party that was forced to turf out former leader (and good friend of Anthony Albanese) Jeremy Corbyn over allegations concerning anti-semitism.

By their works shall ye know them.