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Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry president Daniel Aghion KC said:

“The Foreign Minister’s speech is not the way to treat a friend and ally of Australia, such as Israel.

“All reas­on­able people want to end the cycle of violence and see Israelis and Palestini­ans living side by side in peace. However, our Gov­ern­ment must be clear-eyed about why peace has remained elusive all these years and the steps necessary to finally achieving it.

“Israel has uni­lat­er­ally withdrawn from territory and advanced proposals for two-state solutions since 1937. All Israel’s offers have been rejected. Israel is not the obstacle to peace.

“The state of war exists because of the Iranian-backed jihadists that rule the Palestini­ans in Gaza and the ineptitude, cor­rup­tion and gen­er­a­tion­al glor­i­fic­a­tion of violence in the West Bank. The reason the current Israeli gov­ern­ment is less than enthu­si­ast­ic about a two-state solution is because they have never believed the Palestini­ans are serious about living in peace and coex­ist­ence. October 7 proved they were right.”