I want to share a writer’s journey – of living and writing through the Genocide. Because my country provides support to Israel and the US, I feel compelled to support Palestine by doing the one thing I know best: writing.
Radio New Zealand’s decision to conduct a review of its Israel-Palestine coverage post-7 October 2023 is commendable. We believe the presented report does not meet a credible standard in terms of breadth, methodology and analysis.
Gallipoli was then. Gaza is now. Gallipoli was a disaster, driven by arrogance and incompetence. Gaza is an atrocity, driven by unconscionable evil.
ANZAC Day.
Never Again.
Ted Cruz has criticised New Zealand for requiring all Israelis to detail their military experience before coming to New Zealand. But there is a problem with this. He is wrong.
U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump makes more things possible in the Middle East than the Biden administration.
The West, “will stand by the Israeli regime until they exterminate the last Palestinian”, says Mohammad Seyed Marandi, an American-Iranian academic. Despite being appalled at my government, I winced as a New Zealander to hear my country described as part of the Axis of Genocide.
Israel’s failure to solve its own problems, its weakening democratic institutions, fraying civil patience, massive wastage of global patience and U.S. aid, and inability to plan for civic success following military conflict, point to a country in very serious trouble with no apparent way out.
Western leaders like to talk about values, shared values, common values. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says the US and Israel have a partnership based on shared values. I believe them.
Israel should not have bombed the Iranian consulate buildings in Damascus. Iran should not have fired 300 missiles at Israel in response. Neither of these actions should have happened, but they now have. The world now watches to see if there is further retaliation and escalation of violence, or if calmer and wiser heads prevail.
In the past week it has been disclosed that Israel’s Artificial Intelligence driven security system was responsible for the killing of seven international aid workers. And there are reports that Israel directed a missile attack on the Iraqi embassy in Syria.
Yesterday in Parliament Christopher Luxon showed that he is struggling on the job.
Western Nations including New Zealand have suspended urgently needed aid for Palestine after revelations that a tiny minority of UNRHA workers may have been involved in Hamas raids and despite the UNHRA taking immediate action to address issues arising.
CNN reports that the US has named the ongoing operation against Houthi in Yemen “Operation Poseidon Archer, suggesting a more organized and potentially long-term approach.” New Zealand has joined it – cue the slippery slope.
An expanding Middle East war that puts the Red Sea and Suez tanker route at risk is a major risk to us because it could hit the global price of oil.
South Africa has taken a case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice. A group of prominent New Zealand lawyers have asked the New Zealand Government to join South Africa in support of their application. I think we should.
Can Israel lose a moral battle in Gaza and yet still win?
In the United Kingdom Keir Starmer’s refusal to call for a cease fire in Gaza and his claim that holding back food and water for Gaza was justified has put him increasingly at odds with Labour members and MPs. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s expulsion as a Labour MP is puzzling, particularly given that his stance on Palestine is increasingly justified.
Hamas is deploying a set of tough ethical calculations as it planned its attack on Israeli civilians to kill, rape, and kidnap as it did.
Earlier this week the New Zealand Labour Party made a statement on Palestine and it was a good one.
Certainly much better than the positions adopted by its sister Labour parties overseas.
RNZ’s flagship Morning Report was particularly bad today, especially in this 8-minute item, titled on its website “UN expert on Palestinian rights cries for children killed.”
56 UK Labour MPs including 8 front-benchers defied the Leader and the Whip and voted for a SNP amendment to the King’s speech calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
We are further away from peace in parts of the world than a decade ago. But pessimism about peace isn’t a foregone conclusion.
There is a growing recognition that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute war crimes.
“Jewish people exterminating men, women and children in a concentration camp is _______.”
How do you finish a sentence like that?
Unlike the other four Eyes, New Zealand voted for a UNGA resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. The US had previously vetoed a ceasefire resolution. Finally on RNZ, Ben Strang asked whether Israel’s response to HAMAS is also a “war crime?’
The new government is leaving it to the old government to carry the ball on Gaza. Both governments have dropped it. The 5Eyes formula of “Israel’s right to defend itself” does not extend any right to the indiscriminate bombing, and refusal to allow any water, food or fuel to innocents in Gaza.
Nanaia Mahuta’s carefully crafted responses to the Palestinian crisis underlines that the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks by targeting civilians is disproportionate and completely unjustified.
I don’t want to talk about Saudi Arabia but it’s time.
In his …and forgive them their debts, my favourite economist and Jubilee advocate Michael Hudson states that Jesus driving the money-changers from the Temple was “the act that inspired the city leaders to plot his death.”
The spotlight is again on Israel after the senseless shooting of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh allegedly by an Israeli army sniper and on the subsequent disruption of her funeral by Israeli defence forces.
With the last flights coming out of Kabul, it’s time to review whether this US attitude to the world is a good idea.
The state of Israel has committed a war crime by deliberately targeting and blowing up a Gaza tower that housed civilian residents and the Aljazeera Middle East office.
Following her speech to the NZ China Council, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta wanted to be very clear that in speaking out about issues with other countries, New Zealand would not be doing it in concert with Five Eyes partners. She expressed a view that New Zealand did not agree with Five Eyes remit encroaching beyond intelligence, and that this had been communicated to Five Eyes partners. Good.
Following a report into anti-semitism in the UK Labour party, Corbyn said it exists in the Party but it is over-stated and the campaign against it is politically-motivated by opponents inside and outside the Party. He was instantly suspended from the party and had the whip removed by leader Sir Keir Starmer, which seems excessive and will cause further discord. Corbyn is not an anti-Semite.
Just two months before election day, Donald Trump appears to have won a diplomatic coup in the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have normalised relations with the state of Israel.
