If we are going to blow the whistle on undeclared overseas junkets by our MPs, then we need to take a deep breath before we exhale. To be fair and ethical, this issue extends far beyond Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and his subsidised trips to China.
As a former Australian ambassador to Israel, Ross Burns, recently declared, a ''disproportionate number of visits'' to Israel have been part-funded by ''Israeli lobby groups''. After China, Israel was the most frequent subsidised destination for our politicians, even ahead of the United States, according to a recent media survey. Since the last federal election 13 MPs have visited Israel.
From the perspective of Australia's national interest, this is indeed ''disproportionate''. Neighbouring countries such as Lebanon and Egypt constitute far greater sources of immigration than does Israel. Surely it would make more sense for our politicians to deepen their understanding of the previous homelands of so many fellow Australians. They would understand the demography, geography, poverty and opportunity.
In 2003, the Australia / Israel & Jewish Affairs Council initiated the Rambam Israel Fellowship program, and it has already sent more than 100 ''fellows'' to Israel. They include Kevin Rudd, Alexander Downer, Bill Shorten and Andrew Robb, as well as senior journalists, political advisers, senior public servants, clergy and other ''opinion-makers''. Their six-day program is engineered by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which arranges meetings with senior Israeli politicians and includes ''Palestinian opinion when we can''.
Despite all the euphemisms, we know that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and we generally do not bite the hand that feeds us.
Despite the predictable rhetoric that ''we let them make up their own minds'' and allow them to ''see for themselves'', this initiative appears to be yielding a high return for the investors.
When Alexander Downer was presented with the Jerusalem Prize by the State Zionist Council of Victoria in 2004, he said that ''being called pro-Israeli [is not] a badge of shame. I've been to Israel on several occasions''. After the Israeli-Hezbollah war in July 2006, he trumpeted that ''Australia had been more supportive of the Israelis than 99 per cent of the world''.
During that war, Downer parroted verbatim the Israeli version of cause and effect. When I wrote to him, challenging him to navigate through the cluster-bombed terrain in southern Lebanon, and place a wreath next to the graves of so many children who perished there just as he honoured the Australian Israeli soldier Assaf Namer who perished there I received a proforma response that suggested lack of interest and lack of openness to any perspective critical of Israel.
Kevin Rudd was also challenged about his motion to honour Israel's 60 years of statehood in March 2008. How could our prime minister move a motion to restore the dignity of Australia's indigenous people through his historic ''sorry speech'' one month before, then blatantly undermine the dignity of another indigenous population by omitting and thereby denying the naqba and plight of the Palestinians.
We are unlikely to see our prime minister move a parliamentary motion for any other country's national day. Nor are we likely to see Rudd follow British parliamentarians who are campaigning for a non-violent solution to Israeli human rights violations through a ''boycott, divestments and sanctions movement''. Nor are we likely to see him temper the ties with the new Israeli Government because of the extremist views propagated by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
No MP would have clocked up more frequent-flyer points to the Middle East than National Party veteran Tim Fischer. Yet he repeatedly reminded Australians to remain friendly with all countries in the region, to build rather than burn bridges. As he aptly put it, we should ''call a spade a spade'' and stop trying to bleach the facts with fancy cocktails and red carpet.
The Rambam project has flawed foundations because Israel was never losing the ''propaganda war'', with its incomparably superior resources, full-time professionals and mobilised media monitors. It was just that many non-Arab visitors to the Middle East could indeed ''see for themselves'' and felt morally moved to speak out. And there are now many mini Oskar Schindlers emerging from within Israel who dare to cross the fence and reach out to rescue their ''fellow'' human beings.
Joe Wakim is the founder of the Australian Arabic Council, and a former multicultural affairs commissioner.
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