Australia moved its diplomatic headquarters to Jerusalem in 2018, which followed the same bold move by President Donald Trump, but the move back to Tel Aviv was announced this week.
Australia’s foreign minister said the 2018 decision “put Australia out of step with the majority of the international community.”
The decision over the embassy is being blamed on Australia’s left-wing government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who leads the Labor Party. He took power in May after parliamentary elections wrestled control from the country’s more conservative leadership.
Jan Markell, who leads Olive Tree Ministries, tells AFN she suspects Australia is following other Western nations that are caving to secularism.
“And anytime a government does that,” she says, “they're certainly going to drift away from biblical standards and from any kind of a biblical worldview.”
Reacting to Australia’s announcement, Israel’s prime minister Yair Lapid slammed the Albanese-led government. He declared Jerusalem is the “eternal and united capital of Israel, and nothing will ever change that.”
The Jew-hating Palestinian government predictably welcomed the news. Mohammed Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, called it a “wise and bold decision.”
