Australia/Israel Review

An interview with AJC head Ted Deutch

Ted Deutch served over 12 years in the US House of Representatives for Florida before taking up the leadership of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) three years ago. The American Jewish Committee, for its part, is one of the most important and venerable civil rights and Jewish advocacy organisations in the US, and even globally, and was once described by the New York Times, as “widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish organizations.” It has also been AIJAC’s partner in the US for more than three decades. 

Deutch recently visited Australia as a guest of AIJAC, and what follows is excerpted from an interview he did with AIJAC’s Joel Burnie in early September in which he canvassed both the state of the Jewish world today, and what can be done to advance peace between Israel and its neighbours in the wake of the current Gaza war. 

Joel Burnie: We all know and we’re all aware that the issues that we’re experiencing with antisemitism in Australia is a global problem. Recognising that AJC has such a huge reach globally, offices in Latin America, Israel, Europe, obviously Northern America as well, and with us here in Australia, you hear the stories, you see how antisemitism is more globalised than ever. So, leveraging off both your Congressional experience as you set up the bipartisan task force for combating antisemitism while you were in Congress and now leading an organisation with such a global reach like AJC, what tools are proving effective and where are we falling short?

Ted Deutch: First, it’s really, it is vitally important to always emphasise the importance of truth, the ability to speak with clarity, with moral clarity about what’s actually happening – everything else flows from that… I mean, for anyone who’s been to Israel since October 7th and if you’ve had the opportunity to go to the crossings to see the trucks going into Gaza… look, the situation in Gaza is challenging, the fact that virtually no stories anymore even mention the fact that all of this continues because Hamas still holds 48 hostages because of what happened on October 7th, it’s as if they’re no longer an actor in what’s happening there… suddenly Israel just decided that it was in its interest to send troops in and have 900 IDF soldiers killed in action on its own. 

So, reminding people exactly what happened is critically important, speaking with clarity about that but then also looking at what we’re seeing and pointing out the dangers of the kinds of things that are being said and done. We’ve been saying since… October 8th, those first protests, which we all remember right after October 7th, the ones that we saw in the United States and around the world… they weren’t protesting anything that Israel had done because the IDF hadn’t sent a single soldier into Gaza yet to defend the people of Israel and the Jewish people. They were out there supporting Hamas, and right from the start, we knew that if people allowed that to become the narrative then it was ultimately going to impact the Jewish community negatively and severely.

Nobody wants to be right about this, but we said right at the beginning that as long as people are allowed to say freely, allowed to scream about genocide and make claims about genocide and call Israelis baby killers and Zionists baby killers, by calling Zionists baby killers you’re calling Jews baby killers. When you allow anti-Zionism to become a socially acceptable form of antisemitism and when you talk about globalising the intifada, it’s only a matter of time until that leads to real violence.

In the United States and AJC, we saw this firsthand. We had an event in Washington DC back in May and two young people were murdered outside of an AJC event at the Jewish Museum by someone who was coming to kill Zionists… Thereafter in Colorado where someone set fire to Jews killing one and injuring more than a dozen others, again wanting to end Zionists. 

This is the most important thing that we stress to policy makers that they have to speak with clarity, they have to call out antisemitism and… finally, they have to be willing to acknowledge it wherever it comes from. So, if you are in the United States, if you’re a Democrat you have to be able to call out antisemitism within the Democratic Party; it is not enough to point to extremists on the right. Likewise, Republicans have to acknowledge the same thing. And we see that here [in Australia]… Sunday [Aug. 31] at the protest, when you had neo-Nazis on the right and you had these pro-Hamas marchers on the left… I saw an interview the next day where they were trying to explain ‘well, one type of these protesters were really dangerous and the other… was really just mostly families’ and then the other side was saying ‘well one side was really just opposing immigration and the other side hates Jews.’ Policymakers have to understand… that… if you’re not seeing antisemitism wherever it comes from then you’re not seeing it at all – and you can’t … win unless you do.

JB: So that moral clarity is essential in government… In the United States… President Trump signed an executive order to combat… global antisemitism, so executive branches of the US Government are empowered by that executive order… to look at issues that are facing not just Jews in the United States in terms of antisemitism but globally, including in Australia. So how important do you think that executive order is and do you think that institutions of the executive branch of the US government can actually have a positive impact in assisting global Jewish communities like here in Australia?

TD: Well, I absolutely do. In the last administration, the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, was somebody that we worked closely with on a whole host of areas. She travelled extensively making sure that people understood that the fight against antisemitism matters to the US. Now with President Trump you also have this executive order, and you have a president who’s made clear that this is a priority and we know the impact that it’s already having. 

[When we were told] that the [Australian] Deputy Prime Minister was going to be meeting with [US Secretary of State Marco] Rubio in [late August]… I reached out to the designated Special Envoy [to Combat Antisemitism] Yehuda Kaplan – who has not yet… been confirmed by the Senate (his family has roots in Australia by the way)… just to make sure that they’re aware. And I know that in the meeting that the Secretary of State had with your Deputy Prime Minister that the issue of antisemitism and the recognition of a Palestinian state… were on the agenda… When a visiting dignitary hears from the executive branch that fighting antisemitism is not just in the best interest of the Jewish community and in the best interest of your country but also matters to the United States, and when it’s a relationship like the US-Australian relationship, which also is critically important, then that’s going to make sure that the issue is elevated and gets the attention that it deserves. 

JB: Let’s take that a little bit further – so we’ve spoken about that executive order to combat global antisemitism but obviously and Colin and myself and other AIJAC colleagues have been talking about the impact that the Australian Government’s positions are having on the bilateral relationship with the United States. So just a comment or two on certain policy directions that this Government or our Government in Australia will make vis-a-vis Israel. How are they being perceived within this Administration. On something like [Palestine] recognition coming up in the next couple weeks in the General Assembly, we’ve seen moves by Secretary Rubio to block Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation from coming. Do you see any other moves by the Trump Administration to countries like Australia, Canada, the UK and France, in terms of the pursuit of unilateral recognition?

TD: Well… the President is, shall we say, never unwilling to speak out, I think is the way we can put it… Look, President Trump is going to say what’s on his mind and in this case, that the President has centred the fight against antisemitism in a way that matters in the United States and the battle against antisemitism especially on college campuses but also matters in this context… I know the steps that were taken by the Administration with respect to France when France first announced that they were going to do this program at the UN with the Saudis and then that got shelved because of the war with Iran, and Macron announced he’s going to [recognise] a Palestinian state without really any conditions. Then you have Starmer and Carney and Albanese now chiming in with announcements of recognition subject to conditions… Each of them has different conditions, all of them know these conditions aren’t going to be satisfied before the UN General Assembly. And all of them understand that, diplomatically, you can’t achieve the outcome they say that they want by simply declaring it, as if negotiations don’t have to take place in order to achieve them. 

The Administration has made that point and I think is going to continue to make that point leading up to the UN General Assembly and I suspect not just leading up to [and] during the UN General Assembly week. This is [a] point that US diplomats will be making on an ongoing basis… because … if the goal is to achieve peace in the region and that can’t happen until Hamas lays down its weapons… until it’s clear that Hamas can play no role in the future of Gaza – something that was I guess one of the Prime Minister’s conditions – none of that happens if world leaders just declare that there’s going to be a Palestinian state…

I’ll add that none of that happens without the assistance of the United States. So, both on ending the war and ultimately if there is a global coalition in recognising and pursuing a legitimate and secure two-state solution, maybe not now but in the future there has to be a realisation by leaders, including here in Australia, that this cannot be done without the assistance or the cooperation of the United States. 

And it requires, I think, an even broader perspective. At AJC, we have offices in Jerusalem and in Abu Dhabi, which we opened… right after the Abraham Accords… [the] first full-time office by a Jewish organisation in the Arab world. We spend a lot of time thinking about what’s going to come next; that’s what our Center for New Middle East focuses on… So, a key part of that is Israel and Saudi Arabia normalising relations… 

The Saudis aren’t going to normalise relations until there are certain assurances that they’re getting – Israel has to be involved, obviously, but the United States has to be involved there… To think that the prime ministers of Australia and Canada and the UK can somehow, with whatever conditions they try to impose, circumvent the important role that the US has to play, it’s just not a serious way to get to the outcome that they claim they want to achieve.

JB: So, that’s a great segue because on my list of questions [is] the Abraham Accords… So, just quick three quick question: The first is, where do you see the accords expanding? We’ve obviously seen huge economic booms, tourism booms and great bilateral relationships, so where’s the untapped area of those accords? Finally, what do you perceive the effect of the war in Gaza has on the expansion of those accords?

TD: Okay, in terms of expansion we could talk about different countries and how they approach Israel, but Saudi Arabia is the key. If Saudi Arabia, which is the most important country in the Muslim world and the most important country in the Arab world, the most important country in the Gulf, if Saudi Arabia normalises relations with Israel then, suddenly, if you have the most important Muslim country then Indonesia – a country where… Shira Lowenberg, who is the head of our Asia Pacific Institute does such great work, the other Gulf countries might join. If Saudi joins, then the broader Arab world suddenly there sees that it’s possible to do that… That’s the key in terms of the opportunities… 

There are still so many economic opportunities that exist… Right now, the relationship between the UAE and Israel has, I mean it’s been strong throughout, even since October 7th but there are enormous opportunities to do more there and then… Bahrain is a country where so much more can be done. And, obviously, those economic opportunities when more countries join will be significant. 

As was explained to us when we were in Saudi Arabia, the opportunity to view the region, not as a series of bilateral relationships between different countries and Israel or any other country, but as one unified region that’s where the huge opportunity is… What was the third question?

JB: The impact of the war…

TD: Ultimately, there has to be a focus on the day after in Gaza. Everyone’s focused on that, including AJC, but we also have to be thinking about longer term. 

In the near term, the Gulf countries, the Emiratis in particular… made clear… the Arab League made clear that there can’t be Hamas in Gaza. And when it’s clear that Hamas won’t be in Gaza then the rest of the region is prepared to start investing in rebuilding Gaza and when that starts to happen then it becomes easier to envision the future and we didn’t even… talk about the rest of the world… 

We’ve spent a lot of time working on the India-Middle East economic corridor and what it would mean for India to be able to connect through the entire region through Saudi Arabia and Israel and then into Europe and what it would mean for the European countries that could be on the receiving end of that… I mean it will be a transformative event, but we need to actually get through this moment first.