An Australian with integrity stands up to Israel.. in 1973
On pro-Israeli influence in Australia ONCE given a dressing down 50 years before October 7th
Introduction
A revealing short video of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in a Press Conference at his book launch1 at the Australian National Press Club in 1985.
In it he is asked directly who in Australia tried to blackmail his Government to give Israel a favourable position in the UN Security Council deliberations on the Yom Kippur War.
And he answered back directly - calling out the pro-Israeli lobby influence in Australia - 50 years ago.
Sound familiar? Without the calling out and holding to account today. In fact the opposite.
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‼️Note: This article is regularly updated: see Version History for changes
First published: Jan 10th 2024
Last Update: Wednesday 26th February 2025
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Contents
On true social cohesion and equality: for not just one group
The entitled view of the bias Australia should have shown in 1973 exists even to this day
Appendix C: “It did not happen in a vacuum” - at the UN 11 years prior to October 7th
Introduction
Recently I rediscovered a short video of Prime Minster Gough Whitlam at the launch of his book “The Whitlam Government 1972-1975” at the Australian Press Club in 1985.2
In the video he is asked directly about who tried to blackmail him to influence Australia’s foreign policy on Israel and he specifically calls out the pro-Israeli lobby.
On some investigation - interesting background here tied with the Australian pro-Israeli lobby with parallels for today.
The Video Excerpt (1m 57s)
Background
This was during the Yom Kippur war of 1973 where Israel successfully repelled a surprise attack by Arab Nations. The UN Security Council was trying to determine a ceasefire and the Australian Ambassador happened to be the President of the UNSC that month.
Whitlam talks to how there was political pressure and blackmail by Australian pro-Israeli lobby to take a favourable position for them - and quite rightly puts them into perspective; as in someone having the balls to say - “who the f*ck are you to tell the Australian Government what to do?”
[Whitlam]: “The blackmail was exercised by some heroes in the Australian Jewish community on the other side of the world from the hostilities that we should support Israel in the dispute between Israel and its neighbours.
And of course my Government at least pursued the expressed policy of all Australian governments to be neutral in those disputes and to take all steps available to Australia in resolving those disputes.
It would have been an appalling thing for us to come down on the side of on one side at the time that an Australian was in the key position of President of the Security Council.”
It would have been completely inappropriate to take a position and guide the discussions of the Security Council as President regardless of being against Australia's official policy of neutrality.
The Yom Kippur Resolution - and by chance a pattern of behaviour in the resolution prior in UN records
The UNSC quite rightly independently determined and voted resolutions for a ceasefire and for Resolution 242 to be implemented "land for peace" for Israel to withdraw to 1967 borders rather than act inappropriately.3
A simple resolution - interesting to note by chance in the same document - the previous August resolution against the Israeli Air Force violating Lebanon’s sovereignty to hijack an Iraqi airliner.
Lebanon did not participate in the Yom Kippur war - and this action hijacking one of their airliners - took place two months before the conflict.
And this was in the days when the US was less corrupted by AIPAC and actually let the resolutions stand reflecting actual world view.
On true social cohesion and equality: for not just one group
After calling out the duplicity of the lobby and the inappropriateness of Australia coming down on Israel’s side - he returned to domestic matters.
“On the other side of the world” - how would that favouritism look to Australia’s domestic population?
[Whitlam] “Now if I may enlarge on this.
Since then people in Australia should realise that there are now as many Arabs as Jews in Australia, that there are as many Muslims as Jews.
We want everybody in Australia of whatever racial origin of whatever religious persuasion to live in harmony and fruitful cooperation in this country of their adoption or their birth”
And a fair point. The implication is the favouritism without spelling it out to avoid any fractures.
How completely different today. One complaint from the pro-Israeli lobby and the Government (and Opposition) leap to outdo each other in their sickening pandering as next year’s election approaches to a very influential group of pro-Israeli individuals.
🚫🇵🇸 At the expense of voices protesting for the Palestinians and against a genocide in an unconscionable silencing strategy in plain sight.
The entitled view of the bias Australia should have shown in 1973 exists in the pro-Israeli lobby even to this day
In 2014 the current co-head of ECAJ gave an interview noting that to this day they still held an expectation of bias for the 1973 vote in a Haaretz article:4
"Dr Colin Rubenstein, [then] executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, said: “[Whitlam] had what was at times a tumultuous, disappointing relationship with the Jewish community, with his somewhat cynical and indifferent ‘even-handed’ approach when the survival of Israel was at stake during the difficult period of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.” "
This was on the occasion of the death of Gough Whitlam - where the pro-Israeli lobby so gushing with obituaries boasting connections to senior Australian politicians - made virtually no comment.
Who might have been the 1973 Australian Pro-Israeli Lobby?
In 1973 a 30 year old pro-Israeli Lobbyist Mark Leibler was in his 4th year as a partner of his law office. He states Gough Whitlam was the first Australian Prime Minister he had met5 so it is not unreasonable to assume he was with pro-Israeli lobby negotiators over Yom Kippur (not that there is any evidence of his direct involvement in blackmail).
According to an autobiography of Leibler written by a close friend of his6- "The relationship between the Australian government and the Australian Jewish community has only been under significant stress when Gough Whitlam was prime minister in the early 1970s. This followed a meeting when the then prime minister referred to Jewish Australians as “you people”. For the most part, however, successive Australian governments have been broadly supportive of Israel for over seven decades."
Politicians with integrity
It sounds like Gough was and most probably still is the only PM to have stood up to Australia's generational pro-Israeli lobby.
Whitlam was dismissed from office by the Queen's Governor General on November 11 1975 in an unprecedented move.
Israel of course ignored the 1973 resolutions (3 of them) to withdraw from the Occupied Territories.
And in 2024 after the Gaza genocide Israel have just taken even more land beyond the Golan Heights in Syria and are most probably about to annex the West Bank in the coming weeks either before or shortly after Trump is inaugurated as President in Jan 2025.
A long history of lobbying. And only one explicit and honest direct answer on the conduct of the Australian pro-Israel lobby was 50 years before October 7th Gaza in a press conference in 1973 from a man with integrity.
Mandela would be proud of his consistency - unlike today’s lapdog politicians.
Mandela speaking on ABC TV 1990 on his first trip to the US after 27 years in jail. He was specifically asked about relations with Israel and called out the decades of hypocrisy.
Mandela’s comments were 33 years before October 7th in Gaza and another 17 years after Gough Whitlam’s comments.
A perspective on the history of oppression backed by overseas political influence.
The 1973 Resolution Passes. Meanwhile, in Portugal…
So despite the pro-Israeli blackmail attempt in Australia the UN Resolution was issued reiterating to Israel to withdraw back to 1967 borders. This was as the resolution 6 years previous. Continual ignorance and obfuscation by Israel from that 1973 resolution through various iterations to this day.
In April of the following year at least some good news for world democracy. The peaceful Carnation Revolution in Portugal toppled brutal dictator Caetano.
A new democratic Government was formed in 1975 and a 24 year old assistant professor who had been an activist during the revolution toppling Caetano took a role in the new Government as Head of Office of the Secretary of State of Industry.
50 years after Yom Kippur
Almost 50 years to the day of the Yom Kippur war, the same Portuguese man spoke at the United Nations on 24th October 2023 17 days after the October 7th attacks in the face of Israel’s bloody revenge and gave a grim warning from history knowing what was to come.
The man was António Gutteres Secretary-General of the United Nations and said with reference to Gaza
“It did not happen in a vacuum”7
The death rate in Gaza at that point was 7,028 people8 (including 2,913 children - independently verified9). In December 2024 is it 45,000.
If you lobby, obfuscate, silence, distract or even blackmail - you enable.
UN Secretary-General António Gutteres 24th October 2023:
"It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.
They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.
But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."
A warning on the US enabling Israel to act with impunity in the face of global opinion: 11 years before October 7th
In 1973 it seems that the UN actually passed some resolutions against Israel - even if there was clearly no follow-up.
Not the case today.
In 2012 Roger Waters was presenting to the UN evidence from a People’s Tribunal on Palestine and called out the elephant in the room even then - Israel’s “no matter what” protector.
Do we ever learn?
Transcript:
“Few of us understand that the Government of the United States of America particularly through its power of veto in the security Council protects Israel from the condemnation of the global Civil Society.
Even as bombs rain down on 1.6 million people in Gaza the President of the United States of America [Barack Obama] reasserted his position that Israel has the right to defend itself.
Please resist pressure from any powerful government to coerce you into defeating or delaying this issue. [Palestinian oberver-state status] Sadly there is a history of coercion in this hallowed place.
No government however rich or powerful should be allowed to use its financial or military muscle to set your policy by bullying other states on this or any other issue.”
Appendix A: Transcript of Whitlam’s 1985 Press Conference
Press Club Question:
[Journalist]: “On page 125 in your discussion of International Affairs you have a reference to Australia's role in the Security Council of the United Nations during the 1973 Middle East War.
You say there that Sir Lawrence McIntyre was President of the Security Council when the war broke out and you say that political pressure and even blackmail was brought to bear on you and your Government but despite that you gave him every support.
What was the blackmail how was it exercised and who was responsible for it?”
Prime Minster Whitlam’s Response:
[Whitlam]: “The blackmail was exercised by some heroes in the Australian Jewish community on the other side of the world from the hostilities that we should support Israel in the dispute between Israel and its neighbours.
And of course my Government at least pursued the expressed policy of all Australian governments to be neutral in those disputes and to take all steps available to Australia in resolving those disputes.
It would have been an appalling thing for us to come down on the side of on one side at the time that an Australian was in the key position of President of the Security Council.
Now if I may enlarge on this.
Since then people in Australia should realise that there are now as many Arabs as Jews in Australia, that there are as many Muslims as Jews.
We want everybody in Australia of whatever racial origin of whatever religious persuasion to live in harmony and fruitful cooperation in this country of their adoption or their birth”
[Applause]
Appendix B: Gough Whitlam - Funky bass, the CIA and MI6
Gough Whitlam was a reformist Prime Minister - in to sweep the broom and set up a fair welfare state in Australia we inherit today.
And he had the funkiest election song in history.
However - his reformist views and sheer integrity did him no favours and did not suit the US nor Israel.
In a move unprecedented in Commonwealth history never mind Australian history - on November 11th 1975 Whitlam was removed from office using a legacy UK law by the supposedly figurehead Governor-General Sir John Kerr.
There is evidence that due to his Government’s position on Vietnam, Israel and other inconvenient moves for US intelligence (Pine Gap under threat) that the CIA and MI6 colluded to have him removed. The CIA referred to Sir John Kerr as “our man Kerr”.10
A man of integrity not given the chance.
Appendix C: “It did not happen in a vacuum” - at the UN 11 years prior to October 7th
Between 2010 and 2012 there was a global People’s Tribunal on Palestine with a series of sessions at different parts of the globe discussing Apartheid, EU collusion, corporate collusion, UN and US collusion in Israel’s crimes.
Roger Waters presented the findings of the Russel Tribunal to the UN in 2012. This is part of his speech talking about the brutality of 2008 Operation Cast Lead on Gaza.
A haunting echo from the past of Guterres’s words “it did not happen in a vacuum” on Gaza 11 years later.
There is no learning from history, precedent or past behaviour when it comes to Israel.
Version History - Article Updates
First published: December 10th 2024
Last Update: Friday 28th February 2025
Sleekit Scotsman ☮️🏴 articles are updated periodically to add latest information on the subject of the article for relevance
Updates
13th December 2024: Added in details of where Whitlam spoke: his book launch 1985 at the Australian National Press Club
28th February 2025: Corrected date of 1974 Portuguese Carnation Revolution
Related Articles
Civil Society people’s tribunal on Israel 2010-2014:
The Australian Pro-Israeli Lobby: Modus Operandi: note comments from Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr on direct influence by the lobby.
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REFERENCES
Book (Amazon): “The Whitlam Years 1972-1975” by Gough Whitlam 1985 - https://www.amazon.com/Whitlam-Government-1972-1975-Gough/dp/0140084614
Australian Jewish News 15 Nov 1985 “Whitlam attacks Jewish Leaders“ - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/261564597
UN Resolution 338 (1973) 22 October 1973 - https://unsco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/s_res_3381973.pdf
Haaretz 27 Oct 2014: “Aussie Jews remember Whitlam“ - https://www.haaretz.com/2014-10-27/ty-article/.premium/aussie-jews-remember-whitlam/0000017f-df06-db5a-a57f-df6ee5090000
Australian Jewish News June 29 2009 - “Mastering the art of law“ - https://www.australianjewishnews.com/mastering-the-art-of-law
The Sydney Institute 2020 - “Power and influence the Leibler factor“ - https://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blog/power-and-influence-the-leibler-factor/
UN Website: 24 Oct Secretary-General's remarks to the Security Council - on the Middle East [as delivered] https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east-delivered
UNRWA Report 16 on the Situation in Gaza & the West Bank 27 October 2023 - https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-16-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-Jerusalem
The Lancet Dec 9 2023 “Excess mortality in Gaza: Oct 7–26, 2023“ - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02640-5/fulltext
The Guardian 23 Oct 2014 “The British-American coup that ended Australian independence“ - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/23/gough-whitlam-1975-coup-ended-australian-independence