An escalating diplomatic rift between Australia and Israel threatens to ruin a friendship that has endured since Australia supported the creation of Israel in 1947. Since Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese assumed office in 2022, the land “down under” has adopted a more reserved, even cold, stance. In a cycle of recrimination, the two countries are now barring each other’s government officials from their territory, in an exchange exposing the folly of Australia’s new policy.

The latest escalation began Monday, when Australia banned Knesset Member (MK) Simcha Rothman from visiting the country, hours before scheduled speaking appearances at a number of synagogues. Due to his canceled visa, Rothman is automatically barred from traveling to Australia for three years.

What made the right-wing Rothman so offensive to Australia was his strong support for an Israeli victory in its war against jihadi terrorists — a mainstream position in Israel and one which in any other country would be indistinguishable from basic patriotism.

“If you are coming to Australia to spread a message of hate and division, we don’t want you here,” announced Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. “Australia will be a country where everyone can be safe and feel safe.” Except for the Jews, of course.

Australia’s own Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade testifies that the nations “share” — or shared — “a close relationship with significant people-to-people links and broad commercial engagement.” The department praised Israel’s “robust parliamentary democracy” and “technologically advanced market economy,” adding that “Australia is strongly opposed to unfair targeting of Israel in the United Nations and other multilateral institutions.” In summary, “Australia has a warm and close relationship with Israel, which is supported strongly by Australia’s active Jewish community,” which numbers approximately 100,000.

That was then. Shortly after assuming office in 2022, Prime Minister Albanese de-recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had recognized in 2018. This symbolic move shocked Israel and tickled both domestic and global anti-Semitic audiences. Since the October 7 terror attack that sparked the current war, Albanese has paid lip service to Israel’s right to defend itself, while in practice disapproving of the steps Israel has taken to defeat its genocidal enemy.

Albanese’s passive aggressive animosity towards Israel has emboldened Australian anti-Semites, who have staged an anti-Israel march in Sydney every Sunday since October 7, 2023. On August 3, the march shut down the Sydney Harbor Bridge and drew 90,000 demonstrators who chanted “Shame shame Israel, shame shame USA.” On July 4, a Melbourne synagogue was set on fire while Jews observed Shabbat dinner inside, the second arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue since December. Shortly after October 7, in November 2023, pro-Hamas agitators attempted to storm the Sydney Opera House with calls for an intifada.

Unsurprisingly, these troubling events have not created an environment in which Australia’s Jewish population “can be safe and feel safe.” And the Australian government’s decision to ban an MK from coming to speak in Australian synagogues only made the Jews feel further isolated and unwanted.

The Albanese government’s coldness toward Israel added a hard edge earlier this month, when on August 11, Albanese announced his intention to follow Canada, France, and the U.K. in recognizing Palestinian statehood at the U.N. General Assembly in September.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering, and starvation in Gaza,” endorsed Albanese. “The situation in Gaza has gone beyond the world’s worst fears,” he added. “The Israeli government continues to defy international law and deny sufficient aid, food, and water to desperate people, including children.”

Clearly, Albanese’s critical view of Israel is informed by an uncritical acceptance of the propaganda issuing from Israel’s enemies.

At first, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with an aptly hurt tone. “To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole [of recognizing Palestinian statehood] … this canard is disappointing, and I think it’s actually shameful,” he said. But he quickly grew much harsher after Australia banned MK Rothman. “History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews,” Netanyahu wrote on Tuesday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar then retaliated against Australia’s “unjustified refusal to grant visas to a number of Israeli figures,” including Rothman. “While antisemitism is raging in Australia, including manifestations of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, the Australian government is choosing to fuel it by false accusations, as if the visit of Israeli figures will disrupt public order and harm Australia’s Muslim population. It is shameful and unacceptable!” he complained.

Sa’ar instructed the Israeli embassy “to carefully examine any official Australian visa application for entry to Israel.” He also revoked the residency visas of two Australian diplomats who represent Canberra to the Palestinian Authority (PA), effectively closing Australia’s diplomatic mission to the non-state entity.

This latter move highlights the surprising fact that Australia’s representatives to the PA do not even live within the territory it controls. They have lived in Israel and commute regularly to Ramallah, the administrative seat of the PA. An obvious reason for this is that Ramallah and the other enclaves that Israel allows the PA to administer are hotbeds of terrorism that would be dangerous to any Westerner. Another is that the isolated, impoverished districts — which have remained so because the PA is too busy paying pensions to the families of dead terrorists — are not places Westerners would want to live.

This fact, in turn, underscores the absurdity of recognizing a Palestinian state, because it’s difficult to imagine such a situation happening with respect to any other nation. The U.S. could not expel the visas for Australian representatives to Canada, for example, because Canada is a sovereign nation, and Australian diplomats reside within her territory. Likewise, Israel could not dismiss Australian diplomats in Jordan or Egypt because those are real countries.

By definition, a “state” is a government that exercises sovereignty over people living within a defined territory. If Western nations wish to recognize the PA as a state, it’s fair to demand that they answer: what is its territory? What sovereignty does it exercise? What sort of government does it have? It would be more accurate to describe the Palestinian enclaves in Judea and Samaria as autonomous or semi-autonomous zones within Israel, which are only loosely administered by the PA.

Of course, the world’s anti-Semitic governments would never state the truth so plainly. Yet, in its zeal against Israel, at the very moment it prepares to recognize Palestinian statehood, Australia’s Albanese administration has accidentally demonstrated that Palestine possesses no state in any meaningful sense of the word.