Israel’s top diplomat prepares to depart after acrimonious posting

Israel’s top diplomat in Australia is preparing to leave the country after a posting dominated by the October 7 attacks, acrimony over the war in Gaza and bursts of outright hostility between the Netanyahu and Albanese governments.

Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon will end his tenure as scheduled in mid-January and return to Israel to retire after a long career in the diplomatic service.

Career Israeli diplomat Hillel Newman will become the new ambassador in late January following previous postings in the United States and Central Asia.

Jewish community leaders said Newman would have a challenging task to restore goodwill between the two nations after the biggest downturn in Israel-Australia relations since the founding of the Jewish state.

Newman, an expert in Jewish history, previously served as Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles and ambassador to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Sources said he was not aligned to any political party in Israel.

Maimon’s tenure saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally attack Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on social media and Australia take the historic decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Australia broke with the United States to vote against Israel in several United Nations resolutions and the Albanese government angered Israel by denying current and former Israeli politicians visas to travel to Australia.

The April 2024 death of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in an Israeli drone strike in Gaza caused relations to plummet and led Foreign Minister Penny Wong to spearhead an international push to enhance protections for aid workers in conflict zones.

Maimon was reportedly called in for a rebuke by then assistant foreign minister Tim Watts soon after and warned that Israel could not rely on Australia’s support in a war against militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

While relations between the two nations plunged during his time in Australia, Maimon maintained relatively civil relationships with senior Labor politicians such as Wong and his more measured tone at times noticeably differed from Netanyahu’s aggressive approach.

In December 2024, Maimon said he did not blame the government for a surge in attacks on Jewish sites in Australia, only to have Netanyahu accuse Albanese of fomenting antisemitism hours later.

Netanyahu then branded Albanese “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews” in an extraordinary August attack that drew a public rebuke from Australia’s peak Jewish body.

While he was not prolific in the media, Maimon was an active networker behind the scenes, regularly meeting with senior politicians, diplomats, editors and business figures.

The retired lieutenant colonel served for 14 years in the Israeli military’s paratrooper unit before entering the diplomatic service.

After arriving in Australia in early 2022, Maimon said he intended to refocus the Australia-Israel relationship on issues such as trade and technology but the October 7 attacks and subsequent war in Gaza made that impossible.

The war in Gaza led to 72,500 deaths according to the Hamas-run health ministry and saw Israel accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice.

“I feel a bit sorry and sad that the discussion about the conflict dominates the discussion,” Maimon said in a January interview with this masthead.

“I’m realistic, I’m an experienced diplomat and I understand that it will not always be possible to get 100 per cent of what I’m wishing for.

“Sometimes I will have to leave with the 80-85 per cent I know I can get.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said Australia’s Jewish community will remember Maimon “with great fondness as someone who represented Israel in its most harrowing times with integrity and strength”.

“Having met with Hillel Newman I know he is a fine man and an experienced and skilful diplomat and we look forward to welcoming him to our country,” he said.

“He will need to navigate a challenging diplomatic and political landscape to restore goodwill between the countries, but will be supported by a nation defined by a sense of fairness and decency.”

Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said Maimon had represented Israel in Canberra during a traumatic period for the Jewish people.

“Throughout a time of real strain in the Australia-Israel relationship, he conducted himself as a true professional, faithfully representing the state of Israel while maintaining warm and constructive ties with both the government and opposition,” he said.

Maimon’s deputy Amir Meron told reporters in an August briefing that Israel doesn’t “recognise any famine or any starvation in the Gaza Strip”, a claim Albanese said was “beyond comprehension” given the overwhelming evidence of starvation in Gaza.

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