The Israeli question is a chronicle of our global general health. Not some politically correct cliché
A warrant for genocide against Israel forms part of Hamas declared political platform. Hamas, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Rage against Israel continues in social media. Remember the young Kiwi entertainer who dropped Tel Aviv from her 2018 world tour. Why? Pressure from a prominent international movement calling for the disestablishment of Israel. The perpetuation of repetitious anti-Jewish rants has produced in Europe, America, and En Zed- predictable anti-Israeli campaigns. ‘Kill the Jews,’ rings out in downtown NYC. Or as one New Zealand MP stated last week, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’
Hamas has been lionized. Anti-Israel activists have created a scapegoat culture fixed on Israel. The Middle East in conflict for centuries, during which time the Jews had almost nothing to do with it. ‘From the river to the sea Palestine will be free,’ is raw nonsense. Predictable and dangerous.
Today here in En Zed, ‘blame the Jews’ is a cliche in some parliamentary parlance.
Last week MPs were photographed wearing keffiyehs in the parliamentary chamber-
ostensibly sympathizing with Gaza- but the realpolitik is demonstrating solidarity with Hamas. Passion and lack of knowledge replaces reason.
Those who for decades benefited from the predominant ignorance of the majority of
the world’s public must now face this regional conflict as a fundamentalist religious one. The Palestinian-Israeli issue is so twisted that the victimizer is portrayed as the victim.
The Palestinian refugee crisis could have been solved in 1948. However the Palestinians were mistreated by Arab countries refusing to integrate them, keeping them in refugee camps. The only refugees to be kept in camps for three generations. Derogatorily referred to as ‘Belgians,’ the Arab countries wanted global attention focused on the ‘Jewish entity,’ a way to delegitimize Israel. Their surrounding states became a haven for terrorists.
Today Hamas has close ties with Syria and Teheran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Each engaged in shedding the blood of its own civilians. Hamas maintains working relations with both Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. Hamas and other Iranian backed proxies have demonstrated that nothing, but the destruction of Israel will satisfy them.
To understand the current situation between Israelis and Palestinians is to deliberate on a war of Islamism. Not about media-based, doctrinally created language. Not about apartheid.
Israel is a secular state, but its Jewish character enflames not just the Islamist world. Witness Mali, Somalia, the sub-Sahel. ISIS- Daesh- has not gone away. Nor will it. Israel next to the US is the Great Satan. Hamas a theocratic regime achieving control, that is the real Islamist terror campaign.
‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ means Israel’s destruction. Setting indefensible borders with Hamas, who has sworn to destroy her. No other country on earth has been, or is being forced to do this. Iran, Iraq, and Turkey will not grant the Kurds autonomy despite the ongoing Syrian war. The Kashmiris, in a militant struggle with India – but no one suggests dividing the country. The Uyghurs native to Xinjiang in a struggle with Beijing can’t even illicit a real critical comment from our government. Nobody in New Zealand is suggesting ceding the North Island to a Māori sovereignty. Only Israel is singled out. ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ means Israel’s destruction.
Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic! However harrying Israel disproportionately out of all balance to any other party in the Middle East- that is anti-Semitism. Not saying so is hypocrisy. The nation of the Jews is rapidly becoming the Jew of the nations, as said by an Israeli commentator.
The Palestinians after 70 years could take a lesson from the post- World War II
Japanese and Germans. The defeated combatants could not continue to view America as an enemy if they wanted to move forward. The Jewish state, the only truly democratic and scientific state in the region has achieved astonishing accomplishments related to hunger and lack of water, problems endemical to Arab states.
This short war is currently in ceasefire. Now multi-cultural New Zealand faced with economic rebuild, an expansionist China and an obstreperous Australia may address the Israelis either with subjectivity or a sense of balance.
Realpolitik has been defined as diplomacy based on circumstantial factors rather than fashionista idealism. Perhaps the Beehive might reflect a more impartial foreign policy toward Israel. If for no other than pragmatic reasons: trade, research and development, and the technological hub. That at least is worthy of consideration.
- Hugh Allan, rejected by Stuff and the NZ Herald, 23 May 2021
