WikiLeaks 4: Let's ask Rotem, he'll know

For the Australian corporate media, the latest WikiLeaks' release to Melbourne's Age is all about former Australian FM/PM Kevin Rudd's style:

"Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is an abrasive, impulsive 'control freak' who presided over a series of foreign policy blunders during his time as prime minister, according to secret United States diplomatic cables. The scathing assessment - detailed in messages sent by the US embassy in Canberra to Secretaries of State Condoleeza Rice and Hilary Clinton over several years - are among hundreds of US State Department cables relating to Australia obtained by WikiLeaks and made available exclusively to The Age." (Scathing attacks on Rudd revealed in US diplomatic cables, Philip Dorling, The Age, 8/12/10)

The foreign policy blunders, incidentally, refer in the main to an alleged failure to consult with the US and its allies.

OK, Rudd was/is a one man band. So what else is new?

Well, the frequency of references to a certain rogue state with Mediterranean views and a history of striking out at the neighbours:

In November 2009, US embassy Charge d'Affaires Dan Clune is reported to have written, "The Israeli ambassador [Yuval Rotem] told us that senior DFAT officials are frank in asking him what PM Rudd is up to and admit that they are out of the loop." (ibid)

Get that? DFAT officials consult the Israeli ambassador when they want to know the direction of Australian foreign policy.

"The US embassy further recounted that after Israel initiated its military offensive in Gaza in December 2008, Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem contacted Mr Smith at his home in Perth to ask for Australia's public support. Despite the obvious diplomatic and political sensitivity of the issue, 'Rotem told [the embassy] that Smith's response was that he was on vacation, and that the ambassador needed to contact deputy prime minister Gillard, who was acting prime minister and foreign minister at the time'." (ibid)

Get that? When Israel has one of its turns, its ambassador in Australia just rings the Australian foreign minister of the day, even in his own home, and demands support. And if the response is less than forthcoming, as in Jeez, mate I'm on hols. But you could try ringin' Julia. She should be able to help ya*, he has a good whinge about it to Mr Clune.

Apart from the US, Israel is the only other foreign whinger mentioned in the above report. Can you imagine if the whinger were China?

[*And didn't acting PM Julia come good - with lines redolent of an Israeli Foreign Ministry press release? (Strange that!): "Israel's air strikes were a response to an 'act of aggression' by Hamas which had broken the ceasefire. 'We are saying to Hamas that they should cease any further action'." (A time for fighting, Jason Koutsoukis, SMH, 29/12/08) Now how about a WikiLeaks cable reporting Rotem describing her as prime ministerial material?]