Former Australian PM calls for expulsion of Israeli diplomats

The former prime minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser has urged the current Labor government of Kevin Rudd to expel Israeli diplomats over the forging Australian passports that were allegedly used in the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January, which is widely blamed on Israel’s Mossad. "I believe that is totally and absolutely unforgivable, and Australia's disapproval should be registered by an action not less than that which the British took," Fraser, whose center-right Liberal government held power from 1975 until 1983, told ‘ABC News’. "I think there has been a long history, if you like, of double standards. People will not do, in relation to Israel, what they would do if the same action was conducted by some other country."

Fraser's comments were in contrast to those of the current Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott, who cautioned Prime Minister Rudd not to follow Britain's precedent in dismissing an Israeli representative. “We can never forget that Israel is a country under existential threat in a way Australians find difficult to understand," Abbott told the ‘Weekend Australian’ on Saturday. "It is also the only pluralist democracy in the Middle East. “We have to understand that Israel sometimes has to do something which mercifully other countries are spared the necessity of doing. It strikes me that it would be an overreaction to expel an Israeli diplomat.”

Rudd said Australia would await the conclusions of a report by a police task force that was dispatched to Israel to investigate how four Australian passports belonging to dual Australian-Israeli nationals could be forged.

Fraser was largely supportive of Israel while he was in power, but has become increasingly critical in the past few years and has advocated negotiating with Hamas, much to the consternation of Jewish community leaders. "In recent times I believe Israel has taken the peace process in the Middle East so far backwards that countries ought to show their disapproval and ought to show their approval for the American administration which is trying to get the peace process moved forward," he said.