At the Prime Minister’s Press Club address, Albanese stated curtly, repeatedly that ‘Australia is not selling weapons to Israel’.

This is unequivocally not true in any way that actually matters.

Not only have US airstrikes been coordinated and launched from Australian bases, not only has Australia’s political and media class endlessly covered for Israel’s war crimes, but Australia’s ‘defence’ industry has profited from the sale of deadly devices to Israel. The list of exports to Israel after October 7, acquired under FOI by Declassified Australia, is 90 fucking pages long. New armaments contracts have even been signed deep into what Amnesty International last week described as a ‘livestreamed genocide’ – again, seemingly without anyone in the Australian press noticing.

Like a lawyer looking for weasel-y loopholes, Albanese is basing the ‘truthiness’ of his claim on the difference between selling weapons and selling weapons components. This is like claiming IKEA doesn’t sell furniture, only furniture components. The hairs he is splitting are on the heads of murdered Palestinians.