Mark Riley: Peter Dutton is out for blood as he paints Anthony Albanese as weak on Israel

It is the secret moment that has introduced a new definition of the term “political football” into the Australian lexicon.

And it is one that should ensure that neither Peter Dutton nor Anthony Albanese criticises the other for charging taxpayers for flights and accommodation to go to the AFL grand final last Saturday.

We now know that each did more in Melbourne than simply watch a game of footy.

As 7NEWS revealed on Wednesday night, Albanese used the opportunity to give Dutton a private briefing on the latest information on the Middle East from our intelligence agencies and their Five Eyes partners.

Rather surprisingly, Dutton revealed at a news conference on Wednesday that the Government had also sent him “a piece of intelligence in relation to…” wisely stopping himself before divulging its contents.

Labor officials say Albanese’s decision to allow the alternative prime minister inside the intelligence tent was a generous act of bipartisanship.

But if it was designed in any way to dissuade Dutton from politicising the Government’s response to the then-imminent Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon, it failed. Miserably.

Even by Dutton’s confrontational standards, his attacks on Albanese this week have been merciless and excoriating.

He has taken every opportunity to label the Prime Minister “weak”, a term obviously coming through from Liberal focus groups.

More than that, Dutton has essentially accused the Prime Minister of being a coward.

He claims Albanese has “run up the white flag” on Israel, as The Australian put it in its front page splash on Wednesday.

The basis for that is Dutton’s claim that Albanese has refused to back US President Joe Biden in supporting Israel’s right to launch land incursions into Lebanon.

He’s accusing Albanese of “walking away” from the US in “the most reckless foreign affairs decision in our generation”.

The problem is that Biden has done no such thing.

Although he, like Albanese, has supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and Iran’s other proxies, the US President has not explicitly endorsed Israel’s claimed right to advance onto Lebanon’s sovereign territory.

Biden did say this week that the US was “fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel”. But he, again like Albanese, also called for a de-escalation and a 21-day ceasefire, making clear yesterday that the US would not support an Israeli retaliatory assault on Iran’s nuclear sites.

And Dutton is in essence demanding Albanese do something he himself has refused to do.

Asked directly whether Israel’s right to self-defence extended to sending troops into Lebanon, he replied: “Well, that’s an issue for Israel.”

The other justification for Dutton’s searing assault on Albanese’s “weak leadership” is that the Prime Minister has failed to condemn Iran’s missile attack.

That is demonstrably untrue.

Speaking on Melbourne radio on Wednesday in his first interview after the Iranian missile attack, Albanese said: “We condemn Iran’s actions in lobbing missiles into Israel.”

At a subsequent doorstop interview in Bill Shorten’s electorate of Maribyrnong, he said: “We, of course, condemn Iran’s actions” and “we’re very concerned about Iran’s actions, which is why we condemn them”.

Dutton claims that Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have taken a weak-kneed approach so as not to upset Arab and Muslim voters in Labor-held metropolitan seats.

Here he is on more solid ground.

Labor is navigating a fine line between supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and the mounting Arab civilian death toll the expression of that right is exacting in Gaza and Lebanon.

Defining that distinction is fraught with danger. Albanese is feeling that. So is Biden.

Meanwhile, Dutton is dispensing with any subtlety or nuance. He is going for the political jugular. It is what he does. And it works for him.

He is being urged on by his former boss Tony Abbott, who perfected the art of the bare-knuckled approach to opposition.

Abbott told The Australian this week that Israel needed to respond “to unjust force with even greater force”.

“The last thing Israel needs now is calls for de-escalation and ceasefires from its friends,” Abbott was quoted as saying. “The only language fanatics understand is strength.”

And strength is also Dutton’s language. His idea of political football is to drop the hip and shoulder on every play.