FEDERAL POLITICS:

Is Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles set to challenge Anthony Albanese for the nation’s top job?

That’s the scenario now being touted by the political commentariat across Australia’s mainstream media following a statement late yesterday by Marles praising Israel’s Prime Ministerial Benjamin Netanyahu for “his statesmanlike and logical final solution to Israel’s right to exist in peace”.

It is now clear the Israel government plans to drive the three-million Palestinians it hasn’t killed yet out of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, a move Marles’s statement described as “sensible and long overdue”.

“It’s a refreshingly open and honest statement of facts, the likes of which we should see more from world’s leaders,” Marles wrote.

In his statement, Netanyahu rejected the view of the United States and many other countries that only a two-state solution was the answer under international law to decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Australia’s media has clearly seen Marles’s powerfully put support for Israel as a challenge to Albanese “to agree with me or I’m coming after you, sunny boy!” as Piers Morgan put it on a special edition of Sky News After Dark last night.

“The challenge is definitely on,” Morgan declared, a statement Careb Bond immediately backed on last night’s program.

“The challenge is definitely on,” agreed Paul Murray when it came to his turn for a two-minute spiel.

Peta Credlin voiced much the same thing when it came to her turn: “The challenge is definitely on.”

“The challenge is definitely on,” concurred Rowan Dean.

Peter Gleeson via video link from Brisbane added his own thoughts: “The challenge is definitely on.”

In his overnight statement, Marles said: “Since the first day of Israel’s incursions into the Gaza strip after demanding all Palestinian residents in the north half of Gaza move south while they raze the area to minimise Israel Defence Force casualties, I have applauded Mr Netanyahu for abiding by the rules of war.

“I have continued to admire Israel’s commitment to international law as it repeats the process in the bottom half of the strip, urging Palestinian widows and their remaining children to leave Israel for safety’s sake.

“I remain exceptionally proud of that little bit of bomb-bay gadgetry that Australia provides to the IDF that allows its jets to safely drop bombs on Gaza as it strives to convince Palestinians of the urgent need to leave Israel completely and move to tent cities in Jordan and Egypt as they begin their search for their own traditional and spiritual homelands, just as sacred to them as Jerusalem and Bethlehem are to the Israeli people.”

Sky News After Dark production staff were forced to push their cameras back as far as possible and fit wide-angled lenses as extra chairs were added either side of the show’s normal panel format to allow the likes of Janet Albrechtsen, Sharri Markson and Rita Panahi also to add their views that “The challenge is definitely on”.

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