Israel’s new ambassador to Australia: a man with a tough job

It’s been a demanding week for Israel’s new ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman. Barely three months into the job, he’s been called in by Foreign Minister Penny Wong to give account of the “disgraceful” (his word) taunting of Gaza flotilla activists by Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

He also has to deal with Australia’s decision to join a multilateral statement condemning the expansion of settlements and settler violence in the West Bank, violence describes this week as "brutal" by Israel's president.

But such crises are not going to ruffle a professional diplomat. “Just about every week seems to be a demanding week,” he says calmly, when I open our conversation referring to recent challenges.

“It was more than usual because of the flotilla and the event with Ben-Gvir. Everything explodes beyond its proportion in context with Israel. Ben-Gvir behaved in a way that he shouldn't, and he humiliated the flotilla, but when they landed in Spain, they were beaten with batons and undressed forcefully, because they caused unrest in the airport, and you should see what they did to them there, and no one talks about that.”

And we’re off. The time stamp stands at 30 seconds and already Ambassador Newman has smoothly segued into a well-worn diplomatic talking point: the double standards faced by Israel.

“I can understand the reaction of Australia,” he adds, “because even Israel reacted. The foreign minister of Israel, the prime minister, the president, so there's no real gap on that issue of disgraceful behaviour of Ben-Gvir. But Ben-Gvir is just one politician, and he was condemned … by the government of Israel.”