The Group of Seven world leaders will descend on Kananaskis, Alberta, on June 15. It will be more contentious than previous meetings given disputes over Ukraine, NATO, the Middle East, and trade. Many G7 leaders also discuss how to handle President Donald Trump. Two attendees—Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the summit’s host, and Australian Premier Anthony Albanese—likely owe their electoral success to their home countries’ revulsion toward Trump.
Peace ... cannot come at the altar of appeasement, antisemitism, or virtue signaling.
Trump may not fit the mold of effete statesman, but he is sincere in his desire for peace, perhaps to a fault. He has an aversion to war and believes—perhaps naïvely—that business can overcome animosity. He has perhaps put his neck further out to embrace peace at any price than any major administration official since Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg, who famously won the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize for concluding an agreement—naïve in hindsight—to outlaw war.
Peace, however, cannot come at the altar of appeasement, antisemitism, or virtue signaling. Trump must make this clear when he travels to Alberta early next week. He must shun Albanese, whose indulgence of Australia’s fringe left increasingly makes Australia a liability for the United States, rather than an asset.
On June 11, Australia joined New Zealand, Norway, Canada, and the United Kingdom to sanction Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. While Australia’s partners have long singled out the Jewish state, Australia’s participation is relatively new. Trump must signal that it will not come absent consequence. Simply put, Australia cannot expect U.S. support against terror and foreign encroachment if it throws other Western democracies under the bus when they face existential threats from terror groups and the Islamic Republic of Iran. That Australia, unlike Israel, is a country built entirely on British imperialism with a people who have no historical attachment to the land they govern just adds to the irony.
The Australian government now gaslights Israel and Jews by suggesting that Australia and Israel are still friends; Albanese’s government and Foreign Minister Penny Wong tell the local Jewish community—already besieged by growing antisemitism and violence—that Australia’s action is not about Australian Jews but, rather, just about the Israeli government.
The Albanese government has sought to appease the Greens and members of his own party who form Australia’s equivalent of “the squad.”
This is nonsense. Since first assuming office in 2022, Albanese and Wong consistently have sought to upend Australia’s traditional moderation. The Albanese government has sought to appease the Greens and members of his own party who form Australia’s equivalent of “the squad.” They have done so at the expense of Western solidarity and have actively undermined peace by disincentivizing Palestinian diplomacy. Albanese and Wong’s flirtation with unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state has also undermined the Western coalition against Russia (of which Australia considers itself a part) by creating a precedent to justify Russia’s demands for Donetsk and Luhansk independence.
Canberra cannot have it both ways. Australia cannot be treated as a trusted ally and undermine Western interests around the world for the sake of tilting at political windmills. Indeed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made this clear with a harsh rebuke of Australia after Albanese’s move. “These sanctions do not advance U.S.-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war,” Rubio stated. “We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace. We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is.” Rubio concluded by urging a quick reversal.
That is not enough. Albanese has not yet confirmed whether he will meet with Trump at the G7 meeting. Absent a quick and public Australian reversal, Trump should make clear there will be no meeting, and that the reason for the snub is Australia’s moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel. Australians must know their leaders’ perverse grandstanding will have consequence.
