Bob Carr diaries: foreign policy was subcontracted to Jewish donors

Ex-foreign minister casts light on support for Israel – and his obsession with diet and the indignities of businesss class travel

Former foreign minister Bob Carr has suggested Julia Gillard’s dogged insistence on supporting Israel in a controversial United Nations vote was because Australian foreign policy had been “subcontracted” to Jewish donors.

In a new biography about his 18 months as foreign minister, Carr reveals deep tensions within Labor over foreign policy and intimate details of his conversations with foreign leaders – including an April 2012 meeting with David Miliband who was “pessimistic about British Labour being led by ‘brother’ Ed”.

In more unusual territory for a political memoir, he reveals a near-obsessive preoccupation with his diet and exercise regime, and complains about being “reduced” to business class travel.

Bob Carr: Diary of a Foreign Minister includes a detailed account of a period in October and November 2012 when Carr campaigned against Gillard’s insistence that Australia should support Israel and vote against Palestinian observer status in the United Nations.

The bitter fight became entwined in the leadership tensions that were reaching a crescendo at the time.

Read more, Guardian Australia, here

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