I protest against Gaza offensive

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, July 18th, 2014 - 200 comments
Categories: capitalism, International, us politics, war - Tags:

This is just too awful to let go without saying something.

The power is all with the Israel government.  They have superior weapons, wealth and superpower support, against, what is in effect, a captive population.  Non-combatants live in this small area, trying to go about their lives, and many of them are dying – children playing on a beach, families in their homes.

Gaza aggression

People have been warned to leave their homes as the Israeli command planned to invade.

Too much bloodshed.  And a step way too far.

Al Jazeera reports:

Israeli tanks entered Gaza on Thursday night after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a ground invasion, a major escalation in a ten-day offensive that has already killed more than 230 Palestinians.

Witnesses in Gaza reported heavy bombing from jets, warships and artillery stationed along the border, with much of the firing was directed at northern Gaza. The electricity was cut off across a large swathe of the strip, though it was unclear why.

A statement from Netanyahu and Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon described the invasion as focused on destroying tunnels connecting Gaza to Israel.

[…]

At least 231 Palestinians have been killed so far, including 39 children, and more than 1,700 injured. One Israeli has been killed by rocket fire from Gaza.

I urge all NZ politicians and parties not to support the Israeli invasion.

isarel air strike on Gaza

 

Update: Protest tomorrow (Sat 19 July) Aotea Square, Auckland, 2pm. [h/t Tiger Mountain]

“Olive branch” march to protest Israeli brutality in Gaza

Palestine Human Rights March – this Saturday 19th July, 2pm, Aotea Square.

Palestine solidarity groups have organised an “olive branch” march in Auckland this Saturday to protest the never-ending brutality against the people of Gaza by the Israeli military.

Olive branches are a sign of peace but there will never be peace without justice for Palestinians.

We will be pointing out that the problem is NOT rockets being fired from Gaza against but Israel’s brutal military occupation of the West Bank; its medieval siege of Gaza; ongoing theft of Palestinian land; detention without trial of thousands of Palestinians and the refusal of Israel to allow the return of Palestinian refugees who were driven from their land and homes when Israel was formed.

The march will be promoting a boycott of Israel as the best way to bring pressure on this rogue state. Just as pressure from an international boycott brought an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa we must do the same to bring an end to Israeli apartheid against Palestinians.

The march will also visit Television New Zealand and The New Zealand Herald to protest the on-going biased reporting of the conflict. For example Palestinian fighters are frequently referred to as “militants” “Islamic militants” or “terrorists” while Israeli fighters are “soldiers”.

200 comments on “I protest against Gaza offensive ”

  1. Tracey 1

    Sigh!

  2. Harriet 2

    “….I urge all NZ politicians and parties not to support the Israeli invasion…..”

    Are you serious?

    No one will stop them. Israel’s new friends at the UN are all African countries as they too, are being invaded by Muslim terrorists.

    Israel is going to occupy the West Bank like Macarther occupied Japan.

    They’re in for the long haul as no one else can give the place security from Hamas and other terror organisations.

    • greywarbler 2.1

      @ Harriet
      An unfortunate pseudo/name you have for this subject.

      ‘Harry it’ must have been the decision made long ago by Israeli armed forces, who also are in the political seat, when viewing the Palestinian problem. And Hamas now that it seems the most obdurate against the Israeli state bulldozer. (Remember one of their drivers running over a protester with one?)

      Your use of the words ‘terror organisations’ is macabre. I would be in terror from the Israeli decimation of my neighbours and my house and service infrastructure and my land and crops, and even the sky isn’t clear and free because of drones and other flying armaments.

      And when the Gaza side retaliate to show they still exist defiantly, from their weakness, they have rained on them a deluge in a ratio of damage of 1000 to 1.

      • Chooky 2.1.1

        +100 GW….and I keep thinking about the four little boys playing on the beach….trying to wrest a normal childhood and some joy despite the terror of the might of Israel threatening and confronting their families …blown to smithereens!….It is a disgrace…and I know Jews who also think this!…we must ALL speak out about these ‘crimes against humanity’!

        • freedom 2.1.1.1

          images from the scene of the attack on the kids at the port
          http://i.imgur.com/ku28eKa.png

          From local news sources it seems the kids were not playing on the beach but collecting metal to sell as scrap, as they do to help their families survive. But at no time has the IDF claimed the children were mistaken for carrying weapons and how could they, as none are visible.

          These children were shot at from aircraft, not by snipers or local police, but from hi tech jet fighters designed to annihilate their enemy. In what world can this be justified?

          • SPC 2.1.1.1.1

            The children on the beach were hit by fire from a ship.

            • freedom 2.1.1.1.1.1

              thanks for the correction SPC, I obviously got my wires crossed.
              I wasn’t just relying on info off the image. I heard elsewhere the attack was an airstrike. If memory serves it was a [reputable?] MSM source.

              • Colonial Viper

                The Israelis have the best optics and sensors available. Multiple surveillance drones overhead. The kids were kicking ball a couple of hundred metres from a hotel international journalists were staying at, on an open, uncluttered beach.

                Therefore the death of the children can have come about solely from deliberate Israeli malice, or utter Israeli incompetence. Given what you know about the skill level, experience and training of the Israeli Offensive Forces, you can pick one.

      • Vicky32 2.1.2

        ” they have rained on them a deluge in a ratio of damage of 1000 to 1.”
        As shown by the casualty figures which as of today are 235 Palestinian dead to 1 Israeli. This is appalling.

    • big bruv 2.2

      Very well said Harriet.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 2.2.1

        Sure, the Palestinians will be safe in Israeli hands 🙄

      • the pigman 2.2.2

        You know there are many right-wing nutjobs who will defend National, its incompetent suite of Ministers and governance of New Zealand to the hilt, yet still don’t try to defend the indefensible in terms of Israel’s policy towards Palestine. I have to give them credit for that.

        The ones who extend their belligerence to blindly supporting Israel though, give me the absolute creeps. It takes a special kind of psychopath…

    • North 2.3

      So let’s all stand and salute Zionist Apartheid shall we Harriet ?

      And then let’s all go down to the nearest beach with four little boy dolls and plant them in the sand head first. Just in commemoration.

      And then take some child members of your family and imprison them with nearly two million others in the patch of land Titirangi to Glendowie and south about 12 kilometres each end. That is Gaza. All 365 square kilometres of it. Let the US funded high-tech ‘shooting-fish-in-a-barrel’ commence.

      And when they’re rushed to hospital……oh sorry, no hospital.

      Until then……you’re a disgusting Zionist-Nazism Exceptionalist. A baggage squatting in a lounge room somewhere draped in the sinister death cloak of Zionist ‘righteousness’.

      • srylands 2.3.1

        That is crap. Israel is the only democracy in the region surrounded by psychopaths. If you have been there you will know that the people have a well founded fear of their neighbours doing them harm. If you have not been there I suggest you do so before you pontificate like a left wing 17 year old in a student newspaper – because that is exactly how you read. Israel will destroy or isolate Gaza and occupy the West Bank by force forever.

        • bad12 2.3.1.1

          SSLands, only if you consider ‘forever’ to be the next 10–15 years, i fully expect at some stage that the Palestinians and their supporters will overrun Israel at some point in the not too distant future…

          • Gosman 2.3.1.1.1

            Unlikely I would suggest given both history over the past 70 years and the state of the Arab world at the moment. That is unlikely to change much in the next 10 to 15 years.

            • Pascals bookie 2.3.1.1.1.1

              well, the whole strategy of ‘stability in the middle east’ has taken a pounding over the last decade, thanks largely to policies you supported. Bets are pretty much off. Whatever arises from the wreakage of Iraq Syria and Lebanon will determine what Israel’s neighborhood looks like.

              One thing is for sure is that there are millions of people growing up now in an environment of radicalised sectarian warfare. When the current 18 year-olds hit their late twenties we might find that AQ looked unambitious, and naively simplistic in it’s methods of 4gw. In the same way that we look back on the PLO and the MB now.

              • Gosman

                Whatever emerges from the mess in Iraq, Syria and to a lesser extent Egypt is unlikely to be stronger than what was there before and certainly in no position to challenge the Israeli military.

                • Pascals bookie

                  ” unlikely to be stronger than what was there before”

                  in what sense of ‘strong’?

                  “certainly in no position to challenge the Israeli military.”

                  In what sense of ‘challenge’?

                  The ‘what’ that arises from the neocons great plan to remake the middle east will have it’s largest effects not in arsenals, (which aren’t that important in modern warfare, take a look around), but in identity.

                  ISIS will come and go, just as OBL’s band has pretty much gone. But that’s what they do, it’s the new normal, if you like. Each new movement builds on the last, achieves something different and makes the next thing not just possible, but not far from ‘necessary’.

                  Something must replace the states that have become illegitimate. And given that the borders no longer hold the place in the minds that they once did, (which was never as starong as it was here anyway).

                  There is a big difference, for example, between Palestinian refugees demanding a Palestine rather than moving to Jordan, and announcing that they wish to join, or become, an emirate of the Caliphate.

                  Israels plan hasnpt changed, they still play the game of squeezing the moderate pal authorities, and balaming them for not being able to control the radicals. The next lot may not be Palestinian nationalists, like Hamas are.

                  • Colonial Viper

                    Gossie is quite right though IMO – Israel is absolutely fine with Syria, Iraq and Egypt having been politically fragmented and thrown into disorder. Some commentators have argued that Israel co-operated with Saudi Arabia in some cases as their aims became co-incident i.e. disrupt Persian influence in the ME.

                    • Pascals bookie

                      Sure they are. They were happy to support Hamas back in the day as a conservative religious alternative to the secular PLO too. Worked swell right?

                      Doesn’t change the facts. The states that are falling apart were no threat to Israel, and haven’t been for 50 odd years. Look at Saudi Arabia. Well equipped military, islamist, rich, no threat whatsoever to Israel because ‘stability’ enriched the rulers and that’s all they care about. Same went for Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Libya.

                      The coming state(s), in whatever form they take, will not be like that. Look at the demographics. Look at their ‘baby boomer’ cohort (much younger than ours, median age through the ME is under 30), and the politics they have grown up under.

                      Violently sectarian, ‘democracy’ hopes discredited, literally battle hardened in internecine war that the west doesn’t even begin to understand the tactics of. We still blather on about air supremacy and training standing armies in the face of the complete failure of either to effect anything faintly resembling victory over the last decade. Fuck, people still saying the surge worked because it reduced violence for a time. derp.

                      They won’t be put back in a box, there’s no box to put them back into, they all got broken.

                    • greywarbler

                      Pascals Bookie sounds right on. I am sure that people like David Kelly RIP who had spent time trying to understand and inform themselves on the ME, advised against the sort of action that the west has undertaken with the zest of boys reading war comics.

                      And probably boosted by scenarios in computerised war games at the Pentagon and in other blinkered nation sites. Where the goodies win and the baddies run away screaming.

                      Fighting needs energy. People have energy unless they are starved. Then also energy is used in brain impulses, and the emotions of hate, revenge, disgust, rejection and retaliation at their religion and fellows being disrespected, injured and tortured. Then there is the simple desire for freedom from invaders, and to kill the enemy.

                      Oil may run out but the bank of insults and anger has built up so much that it will be irrelevant. Urgent action to stop it increasing is needed but the fascist neo lib machine rolls on because too many people make their money and good money too, from plying these destructive policies. Why change, when the supine usa government makes over to Defence a budget of :-

                      http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/military_budget.htm
                      Apr 5, 2014 – The FY 2015 US Military Budget is $495.6 billion, second only to Social Security. The true cost is $738.8 billion.

                      http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/military-spending-cuts/u-s-military-spending-dwarfs-rest-world-n37461
                      The usa spent more on defence in 2012 than the next 10 high spending
                      countries spent on defence combined.

                      http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-wars-in-afghanistan-iraq-to-cost-6-trillion/5350789
                      US Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq to Cost $6 trillion | Global …
                      http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-wars-in-afghanistan-iraq…trillion/5350789
                      Feb 12, 2014 – It asserts: “Another major share of the long-term costs of the wars comes from paying off trillions of dollars in debt incurred as the US government failed to include …

                      US to Spend $1 Trillion on Nukes | The Diplomat
                      thediplomat.com/2014/01/us-to-spend-1-trillion-on-nukes/
                      by Zachary Keck – Jan 8, 2014 – The U.S. will spend $1 trillion over the next 30 years maintaining and ..

        • freedom 2.3.1.2

          Q: what are they like dealing with free speech by Jews inside Israel?

        • Daveosaurus 2.3.1.3

          Israel is the only democracy in the region

          False. To name but one country in the region, Turkey is more democratic than Israel.

        • Pascals bookie 2.3.1.4

          “Israel is the only democracy in the region surrounded by psychopaths.”

          “a well founded fear of their neighbours doing them harm”

          “Israel will destroy or isolate Gaza and occupy the West Bank by force forever.”

          Hmmm.

          If they are to occupy the west bank forever, as the current PM claims is necessary, then the claim that they are democracy and not some sort of apartheid state becomes pretty hard to defend.

          Also, it in turn fully justifies Palestinian militancy, does it not? Would not Palestinians also have “a well founded fear of their neighbours doing them harm”?

          Crap indeed.

          • Colonial Viper 2.3.1.4.1

            Not just a fear that their vastly more powerful neighbour wants to do them harm; its a grim daily reality.

      • SPC 2.3.2

        There are hospitals in Gaza.

      • Fear all 2.3.3

        In my life time the shock of the 6 day war in 1967 was enough to let me know that we are looking at modern day FASCISM TREAD CAREFULLY
        because our protests are on very dangerous territory that being our own conscience in speaking out against the Zionist rot that has been supported by all the powers that are in our history and how complicent have we been in supporting it thru history ? without damaging ourselves in the eyes of the oppressed in this war

    • Murray Olsen 2.4

      Does the training to be a Hasbara agent take very long? Is the pay good?

      The worst terror organisations in the area are Mossad, Shin Beth, the IDF, Likud, the even further right parties, and the settlers organisations. No one can give Israelis security from these except themselves. A disease is infecting their society and its name is fascism. I am on the side of the Israelis and other Jews who recognise this, the side of the Palestinians who are being murdered, and the side of humanity.

      I am boycotting Israeli goods. I am still considering a full boycott of Israeli academia. The Zionists running things now are like the AWB in South Africa. Netanyahu is as bad as Terreblanche. South African apartheid was stopped, and Israeli apartheid will be as well.

  3. Tiger Mountain 3

    C’mon Aucklanders, show solidarity with the Palestinians–2pm, tomorrow (Sat 19th) Aotea Square, other centres check your networks.
    http://auckland.scoop.co.nz/2014/07/olive-branch-march-to-protest-israeli-brutality-in-gaza/

    People around the world are saying that Israel’s butchery must stop.
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153067675439546&set=gm.171106636392903&type=1&theater

    • karol 3.1

      Thanks, TM. Will add it to the post.

    • Hutty 3.2

      It will be the same ‘rent a crowd’ protesters who turn up to every protest and that will put the majority of Aucklanders most off. The only thing the police should bring is water hoses to give ‘rent a crowd’ its first shower in months

      • blue leopard 3.2.1

        Aww look a wee Key clone how sad there are people in this country that are so devoid of the ability to think for themselves that their only response is to slavishly play ‘copy The Leader’.

        I guess freedom is either misunderstood or considered to be over-rated by some.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 3.2.2

        Oh look, a right winger labeling people then advocating violence against them 🙄

        • Gosman 3.2.2.1

          Left wingers are just as capable of the same. Your place on the political spectrum is usually no indicator of whether you are a douchebag or not.

  4. ianmac 4

    Listening to the effect on the families of the tragic deaths in the Canterbury car crash I thought how this must be for the families in Gaza when they too loose family members to unnecessary violence. Mums. Dads. Kids including babies. Theirs is tragic as well and there is nowhere to run to.

    • Chooky 4.1

      +100…yes agreed ianmac …but it is worse for the Palestinians and their children because ” there is nowhere to run to”….and the Israelis are doing this deliberately…it is no accident!.

      By Robert Fisk:

      “Israel-Gaza conflict: Medical charity likens work to ‘patching up torture victims in an open-air prison
      Comments by senior Médecins Sans Frontières official expose ethical dilemma of humanitarian work in conflict zones”……..

      http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/israelgaza-conflict-medical-charity-likens-work-to-patching-up-torture-victims-in-an-openair-prison-9613296.html

    • North 4.2

      Hah ! Major difference here Ianmac. Palestinians are not actually human, or if minimally so, much much less so. Wipe out 70 times as many in 10 days, injure thousands ?

      “Hmmm…….noted. Though I have to say……when you elect terrorists to govern you……..”

      “Oh did you see all those poor people at that wedding in Tel Aviv scrambling for cover when the sirens started……” Imagine it !

  5. Jenny 5

    The British Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron accurately described Gaza as the world’s largest prison camp.

    In Gaza the racists that run Israel have trapped over a million virtually defenceless Palestinians leaving them no possible escape, Latest reports are of Israeli ground troops targeting the tunnels under the border of Isael’s ally Egypt, to finally closed Gazan’s sole access to the world beyond Israel’s borders.

    If the South Africa Apartheid Regime in a last bid to cling to power, had bombed and invaded and murdered their way through their artificially created Bantustans, as the Israeli Apartheid regime is doing now to the enclosed artificial enclave they have made of Gaza, they would have been condemned by the world. There would have been no sympathetic one sided propaganda about the right of the regime to defend itself from the “terrorists” led by Nelson Mandela.

    • Chooky 5.1

      +100 Jenny

    • freedom 5.2

      Here is an excellent CrossTalk episode on Gaza exposing the Israeli talking points for the fundamental lies that they are. Hamas did not start this offensive. Hamas and the people who deal daily with the big International politics of the situation established an environment where peace could be discussed. Israel refused to talk peace. Two days later three Israeli teens died in circumstances Israel still refuses to let anyone investigate the true details of. These are facts.
      http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/171904-israel-assault-gaza-strip/

      • Rosie 5.2.1

        One very disturbing aspect of the current military strikes against Palestine is the lack of evidence of who killed the three Jewish boys, Israel’s inability to prove it was Hamas and their reluctance to allow investigation.

        Thats an excellent interview btw. Anyone who missed it last week should view it. Our media should view it.

    • Gosman 5.3

      Yes and the reason people aren’t treating this the same as apartheid South Africa is because it is a different situation with a differently level of complexity.

      • freedom 5.3.1

        Maybe you should share your no-apartheid theory with the tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews living in Israel.

        • Gosman 5.3.1.1

          The same Ethiopian Jews the State of Israel organised an airlift to get them out of Ethiopia in the 1980’s do you mean? I am sure some Jewish people would treat them appallingly just as I am sure some non Europeans get treated appallingly in places like Australia and New Zealand. However are you suggesting there is official discrimination against them?

          • freedom 5.3.1.1.1

            Is there an official edict or body of law I can point you to saying these people are denied the same laws that other settlers enjoy, no of course not. That is not how Israel does things. The same way that Indonesia never officially claimed it was legal for its troops to systematically kill anyone they chose to in East Timor when they illegally invaded that country.

            You support Israel, we get it.
            You support the unjust imprisonment and destruction of a sovereign people.
            Your argument’s stake is firmly positioned in a ground filled with the corpses of children.

            But I hope you try to learn about the potential this world is destroying with views like yours.

            Peace be with you.

            • Gosman 5.3.1.1.1.1

              Then it isn’t the same as Apartheid as that was the law in South Africa that set up one law for one group and another law for a different group based on race.

              • Jenny

                @Gosman

                Black South Africans who I have met and who had lived the experience of being at sharp end of South African Apartheid, and who also have some knowledge of what is going on in Israel, have told me that from their experience Israeli apartheid is worse.

                Israel has lots of different race based laws for Palestinians, in fact they rarely even use the term Palestinian, referring to the native people of the region as “Arabs”, implying that they are a nomadic people with no roots to the land, (and therefore no citizenship rights). This logic has been used to justify the wholesale house demolitions, olive grove bulldozing, land grabbing, and evictions of Palestinians from their ancestral homelands. This is the same sort of moral (immoral) justification that was used to justify apartheid in South Africa. White South Africans even had to the gall just as the Israelis do to claim that they were the first to ever settle there. And that this gave them the right the treat the blacks as foreigners giving them no legal rights in South Africa itself but corralling them tiny enclosed areas known as Bantustans. Ask yourself Gosman, How different are Gaza and the Westbank to Bantustans?

                If you were honest Gosman you would have to conclude that the Israeli version of Bantustans are worse.

                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantustan

                • srylands

                  I have not been to Gaza, but I understand it is a shit hole.

                  On the other hand I have been to the West Bank, and it was fine.

                  • North

                    SSLands. Shithead. Section off 365 square kilometres of the Gold Coast (that is Gaza – 365 square kilometres). Increase the population of that sectioned off portion of the Gold Coast to nearly 2 million. Blockade that sectioned off portion of the Gold Coast for six years. Bomb the shit out of it every couple of years.

                    I daresay you’d find that sectioned off portion of the Gold Coast WOULD be a shit hole.

                    It says everything about you that you reduce it all to the level of a travel guide. You truly are insane. Shithead.

                  • Jenny

                    “I have not been to Gaza, but I understand it is a shit hole.”

                    srylands

                    Well I been to Gaza, and apart from the destruction wrought by the Israelis it is beautiful, the people were welcoming kind and brave. Every single person I met there had at least one member of their family killed or wounded by Israeli violence.

                    Many spoke English and were well educated, they told me that this is important to them to try and get their message out to the world. There were few jobs due to the Israeli blockade which not only stops imports into the territory but also bans exports. But I did see municipal workers, in white overalls cleaning and tidying the streets. I saw smashed and bombed factories and farms. (Infrastructure being a particular target of the Israelis). Water bores and pumping stations for irrigation were particularly hard hit. I met a chicken farmer whose thousands of chickens and all the buildings housing them had been destroyed, all he could show me was the long concrete pads on which his chicken houses had once stood, now swept clean. Livestock had been another target of the Israelis. I met a beef farmer whose herd had been targetted by Israeli tank fire and wiped out. (though some replacement livestock had been smuggled in through the tunnels). I toured a new waste water treatment facility rebuilt by the UN after the original one was destroyed in operation cast lead. I lifted my camera to take a photo, which caused a bit of panic as this particular water treatment plant was near the border and my guides told me that the Israeli soldiers on the border regularly shoot people who take photos that near the border. I saw a ground up graveyard that had been used as a parking lot for the invading Israeli tanks.

                    When I was in Gaza it was relatively peaceful apart from the Israeli jets that regularly buzzed the city. Though there was a bombing run on the tunnels on the Egyptian border which I was told was a regular occurrance as the Israelis tried to close the Palestinians only lifeline to the outside world.

                    I stayed in a high rise hotel on the waterfront, the lifts didn’t work and the stairwell was full of bullet holes, having once been stormed by invading Israeli. soldiers. Only salt water came out of the taps and shower heads. Next to my hotel there were these large bare concrete pads where other high rise buildings had once stood before being blasted to the ground by the Israelis. One very notable thing was the way that the Palestinians tried to clean up the ruins and rebuild their city, I saw groups of Palestinians in the mounds of rubble, breaking up the concrete with sledge hammers and while others carefully straightened the recovered reinforcing steel with little hand held pipe benders. I saw people in the street with donkey carts loading up their carts with bits of concrete and steel which I was told the “municipality” gave them a small recovery fee. (The democratically elected government Gaza of course being Hamas, but I never heard them being referred to as that, they were just referred to as the “Municipality”). A lot of the rubble cleaned from the damaged buildings and factories was taken to a huge central site, which I can only describe as an enormous almost medieval looking hive of human activity, that is, apart from some big dump trucks delivering even more rubble and a few furiously industrious hydraulic diggers busy breaking up the bigger concrete blocks. My guides told me that everything had to be recycled because of the Israeli blockade which prevented any building materials entering the city.

                    The efforts of the Palestinians labouring to rebuild their city amidst war and destruction and loss is a testimony to the human spirit.

                    Resistance can take many forms, and though sryland’s racist mates are trying to murder and starve the citizens of Gaza in an attempt to turn their city into a “shit hole”, as he puts it. One day it again will be one of the greatest cities on the Mediterranean. And in fact it is now, one of the representatives of the “Municipality” told me that we that through what we do here we could lead the world in sustainability and recycling.

                  • Murray Olsen

                    Did they let you bulldoze olive trees, SSlands? Did you get to fondle an Uzi? You really are beneath contempt, you piece of shit.

                • Gosman

                  We aren’t discussing Palestinians. We were discussing Ethiopian Jews. As for the Palestinians (non Israeli Arabs), of course they will be treated differently given they are not Israeli citizens and live in areas largely outside Israeli civilian control . You would have a case for discrimination against Israeli Arabs but they aren’t treated anywhere near as badly as South African non Europeans were during Apartheid.

                  • Jenny

                    As for the Palestinians (non Israeli Arabs), of course they will be treated differently given they are not Israeli citizens and live in areas largely outside Israeli civilian control .

                    Gosman

                    But that’s just it Gosman, they are under illegal occupation by the Israeli military aided and abbetted by paramilitary racist settler groups. The illegal settlements in the occupied zones are inhabited by Zionist extremists and directly funded by the Israeli government and indirectly by the US.

                    • Gosman

                      Yes. Congratulations on identifying one of the major problems. The difficult part is trying to get a solution acceptable to both sides. You are unlikely to force Israelis in to accepting a solution they deem a threat to their existence.

                  • Daveosaurus

                    We aren’t discussing Palestinians.

                    Read the headline again. Gaza is in Palestine.

      • North 5.3.2

        No Grossman. Talking for the world again. That is you treating this as distinguishable. Nelson Mandela certainly did not. You have taken hook line and sinker the propaganda of the Israeli Foreign Ministry……a more excellent Goebbels undertaking than money could buy.

        As if money were a problem. The US continues to pay to Zionist Israel more than THREE THOUSAND MILLION US DOLLARS A YEAR in military aid. And turns a blind eye to its application, including nuclear. Until the application betrays a blood lust. Upon which the US routinely reproaches the ‘disproportionate’ behaviour of its psychopathic child, helpfully urges restraint, and offers mediation services. Until next time when again they turn a blind eye. Wipe the blood from your hands America. So as to piously maintain the charade.

        Simple fact is Zionist Israeli is a Nazi state led by Neo-Nazi Bejamin NatziYahoo, backed up by Obama as the latest in a succession of US presidents similarly engaged. The Oppressed turned Oppressors. And a disgrace to the memory of their oppressed. Were their roots not Zionist they’d have fallen right into line 75 years ago.

      • Morrissey 5.3.3

        Yes and the reason people aren’t treating this the same as apartheid South Africa is because it is a different situation with a differently level of complexity.

        It’s unfair to compare Israel to apartheid South Africa. Israel is a far harsher, far more merciless regime.

        • SPC 5.3.3.1

          All Arabs have the vote in Israel – it’s just that they are a minority and powerless. Palestinians have a different territory for their own state, it’s just that they have yet to effect it.

          • Puddleglum 5.3.3.1.1

            Hi SPC,

            It’s a bit more complicated than that, as Nadia Ben-Youssef explains here:

            Even a brief look at the history of Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the population, exposes Israel’s entrenched system of privilege, exclusion and inequality. After the Nakba in 1948, although the overwhelming majority of Palestinians became refugees, some 150,000 Palestinians remained in their homeland, becoming a minority in Israel. From 1948 until 1966, these Palestinians lived under a military regime, subject to permits and curfews, and witnessed the legalized confiscation of the vast majority of their land; this despite the fact they were granted Israeli citizenship in 1952. Significantly, this Citizenship Law created the unique bifurcation between citizenship and nationality whereby one’s citizenship is Israeli, but one’s nationality is either Jewish, Arab, Druze or “Other.” As there is no guaranteed right to equality enshrined in Israeli law (nothing like the US Constitution’s “equal protection clause”), the government often applies different policies and standards to citizens on the basis of ethnic or national belonging. To date, more than fifty laws have been passed that restrict Palestinian citizens’ rights in all areas of life.

            The discrimination is not only severe, as Chomsky describes, but institutional and ideologically prescribed. Thus, when the Arab political leadership in Israel calls for a “state for all of its citizens,” they and their parties face attempts to disqualify them from participating in the Knesset under the argument that such demands contradict the constitutional values of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic” state. Just as in the OPT, the Israeli regime within the Green Line is predicated on inequality and permeated with racism. It is this reality that Palestinians and their allies are aiming to change, and it is this that demands our attention.

  6. greywarbler 6

    Listening to the news this morning about the awful damage and loss of the Malaysian flight connected with rockets from the Ukraine area, supposedly sourced from Russia.

    Then thinking about the awful damage and loss in Palestine connected with armaments from the Israeli area, supposedly sourced from USA or companies connected with the USA.

    There seems a parallel between the two examples.

    • Gosman 6.1

      Most Israeli armaments and munitions are most likely sourced within Israel. It is is usually the higher end of the armament spectrum that the US provides equipment (e.g. fighter planes).

      • freedom 6.1.1

        Gosman, you seem to be suggesting Israel is some sort of low level arms manufacturer barely able to build a potato gun. Are you aware that Israel designs and manufactures many of the world’s most widely used targeting, guidance and detonation technologies? Not to mention their leadership in military Drone technologies. Technologies that the US and many other Governments willingly purchase.

        • Gosman 6.1.1.1

          Actually I’m suggesting the opposite. The majority of the munitions and armaments being used in Gaza is likely being sourced from Israeli arms manufacturers rather than US. It is one of the reasons why an arms boycott of Israel is unlikely to be very effective.

          • One Anonymous Bloke 6.1.1.1.1

            Over the period 2008-19, the US is set to provide military aid to Israel worth $30bn, while Israeli annual military exports to the world have reached billions of dollars.

            Reality check.

            Israel has no iron deposits. Just saying.

        • greywarbler 6.1.1.2

          @freedom
          Thanks for that info. I wasn’t aware that Israel was such a big armaments pusher.
          Seems usa and Israel are pretty synergistic.

        • Morrissey 6.1.1.3

          Israel tests its arms on live targets. Live human targets.

      • North 6.1.2

        Oh I am sorry. I stand corrected Grossman…….it’s ONLY the high-tech fighter jets that IDF Nazis deploy in the righteous ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ in Gaza that the US gifts/pays for. And there’s no change out of Washington’s annual $US three billion military aid/encouragement I take it ?

        Excellent ! I must henceforth coach myself to honour your psychopathic cognitive dissonance. And to be moved, and won over, and not despise your splendid rationalisations of Naziism in action.

        And I’ll try to be won over too when you come back weirdly explaining that these fighter jets aren’t actually all that high-tech and they’re ex-USAir Force……and you know…….second hand. I might be tested bad me but I hope I can find within myself the decency to manfully apologise to the psychopath. Again.

        • Gosman 6.1.2.1

          Equating the situation in Palestine and Israel with Nazism is not going to be very productive in my view. It is also not accurate.

          • Colonial Viper 6.1.2.1.1

            It seems to me the Israeli power elite have learnt quite the wrong lessons from the Nazis. So it’s actually a pretty accurate and useful discussion to have. Especially with regards to the visceral political hate Israelis have of Palestinians that they are willing to ghettoize an entire people, crush attempts at free movement and economic activity, half starve half of the population within the ghetto, then apply collective punishment to the entire population using full military force.

            Even more interesting is Israel’s creation of an apartheid state where Palestinians are persecuted second class citizens limited in rights and employment, and certainly unable to marry any Jew.

            • SPC 6.1.2.1.1.1

              There is no ban on Palestinians and Israeli Jews marrying.

              The state of Israel has no civil marriage – thus there are only Jewish, Christian and Moslem marriages. Many Israelis are forced to marry outside Israel.

              There is a problem when Israeli Arabs marry Palestinians as the Palestinian may not be allowed to live in Israel.

              • Colonial Viper

                Ok that is a much more informed and correct description of the situation. Thank you.

            • Gosman 6.1.2.1.1.2

              Have you ever tried to understand why the Israelis have an issue with the Arabs? I’m not meaning the rabid Zionist settler bloc either but your average Israeli citizen. Remember a lot of Israelis are as left wing as you are.

              • Colonial Viper

                Except they keep voting in hard line right wing militarist political parties into power, as well as war criminal former military offices.

              • One Anonymous Bloke

                Left wing Israeli parties are calling for peace and land concessions. Right wing parties, not so much.

    • BLiP 6.2

      I’m not sure there’s a parallel as much as there is a glaring dichotomy in the way the two tragedies are being portrayed and dealt with. When it comes to the slow-motion massacre of Palestinian innocents, where is the wall-to-wall media coverage, where is the earnest quest to find facts and speak truth, where are the world’s politicians united in their condemnation of the killers and the resolve to sort things out? Sure, more and more people are starting to “get” that Israel is a terrorist state, but its no thanks to those who should know better, can teach the rest of us, and can actually do something about it. Palestine is no threat to the international airline industry, doesn’t provide politicians with an opportunity for trite sound-bites, requires more intellectual fire-power than the MSM is able to deliver, and, alas, doesn’t generate sufficient outrage to merit the application of international justice and the enforcement of the stated will of the United Nations.

  7. freedom 7

    even if you put a machine gun into the hand of the child and had him wearing a grenade belt whilst strapped up as a suicide bomber it still shows what Palestine faces more clearly than a thousand press releases ever could
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BsXH6vvCUAAsdKM.jpg:large

  8. Rosie 8

    I hope Aucklanders turn out en masse to stand with Palestine in solidarity tomorrow. It’s good too that the march will take in the Herald offices and TVNZ to protest against bias in the reporting of the conflict.

    I think Morrissey mentioned a few days ago there was an action in the UK, supported by John Pilger, Ken Loach and another well known person (sorry, I forget the name of the third person) against the BBC for the same reasons.

    Some of you may feel cynical about signing petitions and see it as nothing more that clicktivism but for those willing to give it a go there is an AVAAZ petition calling on certain companies and banks to stop supplying and trading with Israel. The link is from the net, the one in my inbox was far more detailed and goes into how those companies eg, hewlett packard and caterpillar are working with Israel to support their military action against Palestine. I couldn’t copy and paste from my email because my name is in the content, so heres the condensed version:

    https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_this_is_how_it_ends_slold_imnew1/?wjowhcb

    • freedom 8.1

      Of course neither TVNZ or the Herald will likely mention it.
      Like the BBC forgot to cover this London story about a protest against their bias.
      http://rt.com/uk/173044-bbc-protest-gaza-uk/

      • Rosie 8.1.1

        Thats right freedom, no point holdings one’s breath to see if our media will cover the criticism directed at them.

        The protests in the link you provided were large, loud and energetic. Kinda hard to ignore you’d think. I liked the comment “British Brainwashing Corporation”

        • Gosman 8.1.1.1

          And yet the BBC is the State controlled media organisation that many leftists seem to want to emulate in NZ.

          • Colonial Viper 8.1.1.1.1

            “State control” an irrelevancy. Its in the control of the power elite and parrots their chosen narratives.

            • Gosman 8.1.1.1.1.1

              I would suggest you are unlikely to change that very easily without massively inferring with its independence. Of course I suspect that you are happy with doing that as you don’t really want a free and independent media. You just want a media you can control.

              • Colonial Viper

                Yep. Control with enforcement of actual standards of journalism and editing.

                • Gosman

                  Every despot I have seen controls the media for that same reason – to control standards.

                  • One Anonymous Bloke

                    Despots throw professional journalistic standards out of the window, on Planet Gosman standards are despotism.

                    Or is despotism a typical red herring introduced in bad faith?

    • Tiger Mountain 8.2

      AVAAZ is large enough and consistent enough to be taken seriously imo, am a regular clicker of AVAAZ campaigns.

      For the previous Apartheid state a combination of internal action and international solidarity support built up unstoppable momentum for change, but it was economic pressure that was crucial in the end. Smart Boycotts as advocated will likely work on Israel too.

  9. Chooky 9

    ‘Today – we are all Palestinians’

    By John Minto / July 18, 2014

    For 66 years the Palestinian people have been brutalised by an apartheid Israeli government. The ground offensive begun this morning is just a continuation of murder and mayhem Israel has visited upon Palestinians every day since 1948.

    For example on average every three days over the past 13 years a Palestinian child had been murdered by Israel. You’d never know that reading our mainstream media which are little more than propaganda mouthpieces for Israel just as the media were once propaganda outlets for the racist white South African government.

    The firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel has never been the issue. They are a symptom of the real problem which is Israel’s brutal military occupation of the West Bank; its medieval siege of Gaza; its on-going theft of Palestinian land; its apartheid wall; its murder of Palestinians on a daily basis…

    The only thing for humanity to celebrate from all this is the heroism of the Palestinian people. Their spirit ofindomitable determination and resistance will win through in the end.

    Our job in New Zealand is to stand squarely with the Palestinian people and isolate the apartheid Israeli government and its vile and inhuman policies and practices.

    Let’s show the brutal bullies that we stand with Palestinians.

    We are all Palestinians!

  10. Mainlander 10

    If the Palestines/Hamas know this will be the outcome of firing missiles into Israel day after day wouldnt logic dictate that if they stopped, then surely Israel would as well, i just dont get continuing to poke the bear when the consequences end up the same as always

    • karol 10.1

      You make it sound as if the Hamas rockets started the protest. The Israelis say, any country would retaliate against something like the Hamas rockets.

      Palestinians put up with the harsh treatment, persecution and stealth of land, homes etc, along with various kinds of personal destruction and brutality, often resulting in death/murder. Using the above Israeli logic, wouldn’t any country retaliate (against such brutality as dished out by the Israeli regime) with rockets or anything they can muster?

    • One Anonymous Bloke 10.2

      There are peaceful voices on both sides being drowned out by an outpouring of right wing dogma and bigotry.

    • emergency mike 10.3

      So you’d advise them to just roll over and accept whatever brutal oppression and injustice that Israel hands out to them? Do us all a favour and educate yourself before making such vapid comments. Here you go – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRMTeYdGnvw

    • framu 10.4

      If the Israelies know that ineffective rocket attacks that kill virtually no-one will be the outcome of launching air strikes and bombing orphanages, schools and homes for the disabled day after day wouldnt logic dictate that if they stopped, then surely Hamas would as well, i just dont get continuing to poke the bear when the consequences end up the same as always

      yes its bad that hamas launch rockets into civillian populations – i think we can all agree that its not a good thing, but these pro israeli arguments are staggering in their one sided and hateful attitude towards other humans

  11. One Anonymous Bloke 11

    Anyone who supports National Party policy towards drone strikes has no business judging Hamas or Israel.

  12. alex 12

    And of course the rockets sent from Hamas mostly are fired from Hospitals and Schools, they wonder why the return Rockets land in exactly the same places.I see fault on both sides but I get tired of the Palestinians on the news every night parading the wounded and crying in only the way they can. Hamas stop firing back and show you can be peaceful or are you just another terrorist organisation fronting as a Government.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 12.1

      Take a look at the way the map of Palestine (what’s left of it) has changed over the last forty years. What do governments normally do when neighbouring countries invade their land?

      We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…

      • Gosmen 12.1.1

        Weird you mention that because the UK land mass was largely untouched by the Germans during WWII beyond the air attacks and occupation of the Channel Islands. Yet they responded in kind with a massive sustained bombing campaign against German cities.

        • One Anonymous Bloke 12.1.1.1

          Whereas it’s the similarity between Churchill’s rhetoric and Hamas’ actions I’m calling attention to, and the double standards of people who approve of bombing a wedding to kill one “high profile target” but then condemn Hamas rocket fire as beyond the pale.

          Armchair ghouls.

    • Colonial Viper 12.2

      And of course the rockets sent from Hamas mostly are fired from Hospitals and Schools, they wonder why the return Rockets land in exactly the same places.

      Nope. Hamas is smarter than that – they know how to keep the local populace on their side and avoid locating their arms in this way where possible – especially as they know that the Israelis have no compunction against hitting civilian targets like schools and hospitals anyway.

      I see fault on both sides but I get tired of the Palestinians on the news every night parading the wounded and crying in only the way they can.

      There are dozens of Palestinian dead and wounded every day. Of course they are crying.

      There has been only 1 Israeli death so far.

      This is not “war” this is a massacre.

      • Chooky 12.2.1

        +100 ..”This is not “war” this is a massacre”..or genocide

        • Gosmen 12.2.1.1

          Genocide suggests an organised campaign fron one group to reduce the numbers of another group significantly so as to eventually wipe them out. How has the Palestinian population in the Gaza stip fallen significantly?

          • One Anonymous Bloke 12.2.1.1.1

            How about you look up the definition of genocide rather than poisoning the water, Gosman?

            Hint: it doesn’t have to be successful to qualify.

            • Gosman 12.2.1.1.1.1

              It is an organised effort to wipe out a particular group. I am arguing that the Israelis could quite easily wipe out the Palestinians if they so desired. They cleared out large sections from the State of Israel when it was founded and they are much stronger militarily now than they were then. The fact that there hasn’t been a significant reduction in the Arab population of both the Occupied territories AND in Israel proper (in fact the opposit has occured) would suggest to me that there can’t be an organised effort to wipe them out because the Israelis tend to follow through on any plan they implement.

              • One Anonymous Bloke

                And yet the practical effect of Israeli-Palestinian hostility has been the virtual ethnic cleansing of large swathes of Palestine, whether you count from 1948, 1967, 2000 or today. Meanwhile Israeli politicians openly promote full scale genocide.

                The longer two enemies fight, the closer they resemble one another.

                What you ‘would’ think about that is of little concern to me, let alone them.

              • I suspect that would be an irony too far even for the Netanjahu government…

  13. srylands 13

    There was a welcome rally for peace in Midland Park at lunchtime. Pity about the weather which resulted in a small turn out.

    http://www.nzfoi.org/ai1ec_event/peace-rally-midland-park-wellington/

    • One Anonymous Bloke 13.1

      Were there any calls for Israel to stop illegally occupying land?

    • Murray Olsen 13.2

      That’s not a rally for peace. That’s a rally in support of whatever Netanyahu feels like doing. Peace would not be the result of Gaza surrendering. The Zionists will not stop until they have everything. They need to be stopped.

  14. infused 14

    Well Hamas fired after the truce… What do you expect…

    They rejected the truce.

    • Chooky 14.1

      “They rejected the truce”….Meaning?….

      …from a brutalised downtrodden subjugated people alienated and barred from their original homelands, a sling shot act of defiance ( David)

      …against an armed-to-the teeth, nuclear power, aggressor and homeland invader and usurper ( Goliath)

      • Gosmen 14.1.1

        Are you suggesting that the Palestinians should be able to return to the lands they had pre 1948? Do you also think the Germans should be allowed to return to the lands they lived in for centuries pre the end of WWII?

        • One Anonymous Bloke 14.1.1.1

          Why 1948? Why not 1967? cf. Ismail Haniyeh.

          As usual, the answer is: because Gosman consistently argues in bad faith.

          • Gosman 14.1.1.1.1

            Why do you use 1967 instead of 1948 as your basis point?

            • One Anonymous Bloke 14.1.1.1.1.1

              I didn’t suggest it as a basis point any more than Chooky suggested 1948.

        • Chooky 14.1.1.2

          @ Gosman “Are you suggesting that the Palestinians should be able to return to the lands they had pre 1948?”

          ….Yes ( although I did not suggest this and 1967 would be a good starting point)

          …and seems like Einstein would agree on 1948! ( really the Israeli government has let Jews down very badly!)

          http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/old/Einstein.htm

          http://www.indypendent.org/2009/05/14/reclaiming-einstein/

          Your equating Palestinians with Nazisim is a false and mischievous equivalence

          • One Anonymous Bloke 14.1.1.2.1

            Hamas leaders have suggested 1967 as recently as 2008.

            • Chooky 14.1.1.2.1.1

              so they are reasonable and moderates

              • One Anonymous Bloke

                Erm no. I don’t think right-wing Semitic murderous animosity towards fellow Semites is the sole fault of the Palestinians though: too many hate schools preaching the Protocols.

          • One Anonymous Bloke 14.1.1.2.2

            The link between right wing Palestinian groups and Nazism is not just a historical artifact but stains Hamas’ Charter to this day, a major roadblock to peace.

            • Chooky 14.1.1.2.2.1

              …a major trumped up “roadblock to peace” !

              ‘Dumping blame for the Holocaust on the Grand Mufti is an insult to its six million victims
              A highly incriminating story, if true – but “possible” is hardly the stuff of history’

              By Robert Fisk:

              http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/dumping-blame-for-the-holocaust-on-the-grand-mufti-is-an-insult-to-its-six-million-victims-9587755.html

              ….”The Grand Mufti, let’s face it, was a pretty horrible man, immoral and racist, but he was a puny figure in the history of Nazism’s epic evil. Dumping the Holocaust on this wretched figure is ultimately an insult to history as well as to the six million victims of an evil regime. It also provides another means of denigrating the entire Palestinian people – whose lands are still being gobbled up by the Israeli government – when the real criminals were neither Muslim nor Arab but Europeans, that cultured, largely Christian race who have inflicted more suffering on the people of this world than any other in recent history.”

              • Gosman

                I agree the Grand Mufti was inconsequential in the global sense a d certainly did not drive the Holocaust. However he was influential in Palestine especially in the post WWII situation leading up to the creation of the State of Israel. A lot of the blame for the Palestinian’s situation can be laid at his feet.

                • Colonial Viper

                  It’s Israel who learnt from the operation of the Warsaw Ghetto, and applied it in the 21st century on another disempowered marginalised peoples who have no secure homeland of their own.

              • One Anonymous Bloke

                There’s nothing trumped up about Hamas’ denial of Israel’s right to exist. Fisk’s argument amounts to ‘they did it too’, but nobody’s hands are clean.

                • Chooky

                  the Palestinians were driven out of their homes and their homeland of Palestine at the point of guns by the Israelis… and it continues….are you trying to justify this?

                  • One Anonymous Bloke

                    The Israelis use similar rhetoric to justify their aggression; nothing justifies it.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      Meh, sticks and stones. Hamas leaders may say whatever, but in terms of actually murdering dozens of civilians a week including women and children, only the leadership of Israel has proven that they are both capable and willing.

                    • One Anonymous Bloke

                      The list of Palestinian suicide attacks doesn’t undermine your confidence at all?

          • Gosman 14.1.1.2.3

            I never mentioned Nazism. I did mention Germans. Germans and Nazism are not the same.

            • Chooky 14.1.1.2.3.1

              You state: “Are you suggesting that the Palestinians should be able to return to the lands they had pre 1948? Do you also think the Germans should be allowed to return to the lands they lived in for centuries pre the end of WWII?”

              …what is your point? …. WWII atrocities against the Jews and Gypsies and Gays and disabled and handicapped and women who had abortions and Communists and any German who defied and resisted the fascist Nazis were committed by the fascist Nazis and their Government

              …just as the atrocities against the Palestinians are committed by the fascist Israeli Government and fascist Israelis …and not Jews in general or around the world

              You are making a false equivalence between Palestinians and Germans…very convenient argument for the persecution of Palestinians….but a nonsensical argument for more reasons than one…because initially the Palestinians did not mind sharing their Palestinian homeland with the dispossessed European Jews…and they had far outnumbered Jews living in their homeland Palestine for centuries and had lived with them in peace.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 14.2

      Well Israel is still illegally occupying all that land and treating Palestinians like untermensch…what do you “expect”?

      Trying to find justification for killing is a fool’s errand – there isn’t any. Hamas try to justify it, so do right wing Israelis, and so, apparently, do you.

      I’m not daft enough to “expect” that UN resolutions will be enforced any time soon, and they’re still a good place to start.

      Do you approve of US drone strikes too? Weddings and so-forth.

    • North 14.3

      What truce are you speaking of Infused ?

      Apartheid is still advanced daily. The Wall continues to be built. Palestinians still find villages and land arbitrarily and illegally appropriated into Israel by its inexorable construction. The West Bank is still occupied. Fanatical zionist ‘outposters’ still beat, maim and execute the ‘sub-human’ Palestinians and steal their land at gunpoint, indeed they are paid by Tel Aviv to do so. Terrified twelve and thirteen year olds still stand in the docks of Nazi IDF kangaroo courts in Israel for throwing stones at the IDF savagely beating their schoolmates. Stones for fuck sake ??? IDF bulldozers still mow down villages and houses to make way for illegal settlements and Israeli-only roads in the West Bank, the map of which is polka-dotted with illegal settlements. The six year blockade/seige of Gaza continues from land, sea and air.

      What truce are you speaking of arsehole ?

      For your infantile and woefully ignorant comment to mean anything at all it would have to be read thus – “The Palestinians continue to resist the above……” Oh my ! How ‘terroristic’ of them !

      Picture the western world ‘giving’ New Zealand to Australia. That’s what happened to Palestine in 1948. Since which time Zionist Israel has ‘appropriated’ over 80% of what was left to the Palestinians in 1948. You wouldn’t resist ? No. I understand that. You’d be ‘kapo’. Though I daresay not from your lounge room as in the instant. You’d be hard out to impress. By denouncing your fellows for doing so.

      • Gosman 14.3.1

        The Western world did not give Palestine to the Jews. The United Nations, (which included Communist nations in Eastern Europe and non Western independent nations in places such as South America and Asia voted to split the UN mandate territory between two people. The land was being administed for the UN and the UN had the right to do so.

        • One Anonymous Bloke 14.3.1.1

          UN resolutions are a good place to start.

        • Colonial Viper 14.3.1.2

          Meh, the Israelis have taken far far more than was ever approved in that UN decision.

  15. Bill 15

    Like it or lump it, the demand for a ‘right to return’ has to be dumped. No state, let alone a small one the size of Israel, could survive a sudden influx of millions.

    That aside, I’m curious what direct involvement the NZ government has with Israel. If there are no connections, then there is no leverage to use in order to alter our own government’s behaviour/attitude to Palestinians and Israel. If there are connections, they need to be identified and novel ways found to politically exploit those connections.

    Meanwhile, the NZ government simply isn’t ever going to condemn Israeli actions unless the US and/or (maybe) Europe has led some chorus of condemnation.

    And so, bearing the above in mind, what are the protests for or what do they hope to achieve? Is the idea to raise awareness? Well, I’d suggest there is little room left for raising awareness much beyond the levels it already sits at. Maybe – sadly – then, what lies at the heart of the protests is a desire among protesters to stoke their own sense of self righteousness of an afternoon…and maybe a desire on the part of various political cults that have their fingers in this pie to sign up a few fee paying members.

    Having already had this conversation in the real world, I’m aware some people might be pissed off by the line of reasoning. And sure, maybe I am being overly cynical. But if there is no opportunity or likely prospect of your particular plan of action affecting something, then why execute it?

    • Gosmen 15.1

      The right of return is not possible or practical. The best that can be hoped for is some compensation for lost property and maybe a land swap between the State of Israel and some future Palestinian state.

      • Bill 15.1.1

        Yup. A two state solution that no-one will be overly happy with but that everyone could live with.

      • North 15.1.2

        Bullshit ! Your ignorance has excluded knowledge of the essential spirit of the Balfour Declaration of 1919. 1948 was final delivery (in circumstances of an overwhelming sense of guilt) of the 1919 promise. And Palestine was raped with millions then and since sent into exile and still not allowed to return, in order to honour the promise.

        Did your bullshit ‘cloak of legtimacy’ training at the Foreign Ministry in Tel Aviv did you ?

        Strange how the Nazis in Tel Aviv and their sympathisers here are right up the UN for 1948 yet they’re all “Fuck You !” to the UN ever since. Subsequently taking more than 80% of what the ‘mandated” UN did not ‘mandate’ to them in 1948. I guess it’s all down to this – “It’s OK. Palestinians are not human like us”.

        • SPC 15.1.2.1

          The Balfour Declaration was in 1917.

          Fulfilment of this promise did not require the displacement of any Arab or any Jew. It stated a Jewish homeland without prejudice towards local Arab inhabitants.

          Displacement occurred because Arab nations would not accept partition into two states and there was a war on Israel.

          During that war Israeli held territory grew. Since 1949 the UN no longer recognises acquisition of territory taken in war – which is why the remnant Palestinian land taken in 1967 was called occupied.

          During the war Arab armies ethnically cleansed the West Bank of Jews – the settlements under occupation since 1967 are the Jewish revenge. Yet paradoxically the state of Israel did not and does not allow Arab refugees right to return to their homes in a now enlarged Israel.

        • Gosman 15.1.2.2

          What is your solution then given there is over 5 million Israeli Jews living in the area you think belong to Arabs?

    • Colonial Viper 15.2

      You don’t protest because you think you are going to achieve some practical solution. You protest because you wish to show that you’re fucked off, aren’t going to mope at home, and are going to be counted. But you know this Bill.

      • Bill 15.2.1

        Well no CV. The reason for engaging in a protest has to be that it will achieve something. If whatever is being proposed achieves nothing (or will have a negative impact), then other propositions have to be found, formulated and/or considered.

        Far too many people at protests are like geese in a train. Their presence, therefore, amounts to nothing regardless of their overall numbers.

        Now tell me, who it is that I’m meant to display my ‘fucked offness’ to and why? Because I’m trying to anticipate likely answers and thinking – “I don’t think so”. But maybe I’ve missed something, and my thinking on that front is wrong.

        • karol 15.2.1.1

          See the quote from the protest press release in my post – they march is proposing an international boycott, plus a protest at NZ Herald and TVNZ to protest biased reporting.

          • Gosman 15.2.1.1.1

            Why is the reporting biased? Seems to me that they are reporting the Israeli attacks and the civilian casualties. Did you want them to make out this is purely the fault of the Israelis? If so then isn’t that in itself biased?

            • karol 15.2.1.1.1.1

              Did you read the post and the linked press release?

              It has a lot to do with HOW it’s reported, the choice of language etc.

              • infused

                Most people aren’t dumb enough to read one source for their news.

                • karol

                  It’s a pity we often need to look overseas to get more diversity of reporting.

                • Colonial Viper

                  Most people aren’t dumb enough to read one source for their news.

                  Wrong. “Dumb” has nothing to do with it. Instead, most people are not pro-active in sourcing their news but rather are time strapped, passive consumers who trust the major mainstream sources.

          • srylands 15.2.1.1.2

            How are you going to get an international boycott? The USA would veto it in the security council.

            • freedom 15.2.1.1.2.1

              Bless your sweet bombastic brain srylands.
              Burroughs would applaud you for being such a poster boy for soldiers’ pay.

              All countries can boycott something if they so choose. Sure it helps to have UN approval and co-operation, but the US stormed off and invaded two countries and is Drone bombing the crap out of another without your Vogon stamp of authorization and you have repeatedly defended their actions. What’s a few boycotts compared to the deaths of a million civilians?

              NZ for example. Even if solely within the civilian populace. NZrs could immediately choose to boycott all trade, travel and other relationships with Israel and refuse to re-instate them until Israel leaves Gaza, returns all lands confiscated or illegally settled since say 1967, then guess what – hey presto, the world still spins and a non-violent response to violence gains attention even importance in the grand bazaar of the conflict. Then we tell two countries and they tell two countries and so on and so on and so on.

              Yes, boycotts lead to broken contracts then commercial pressures which create product restrictions, putting jobs at risk and before you know it we have crazy eyed politicians filling the airwaves putting us all into stupors of various depths so I make no bones, there would be a gargantuan pile of crap to deal with. But we, like any other country on earth, can actually do it if we choose to.

              We need not one word of permission. Even as part of the Commonwealth we are still able to navigate and chart the course of International relations as we so choose. It is called self-determination, sovereignty, independence. It is the basis of our own country’s democracy. I know you struggle with those terms but goddam it man, we don’t need the permission of Uncle Sam to tell us when we are allowed to stand up.

          • Tiger Mountain 15.2.1.1.3

            The subtext of this protest linked to a specific event–the ground attack on Gaza, provides the valuable service for participants of confirming that others do care apart from you individually, and more importantly as the photos filter through to Palestine that the people there are not forgotten by so many around the world as these international images portray.
            https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153067675439546&set=gm.171106636392903&type=1&theater

            The ‘official’ text is to
            • present a different view to the public than that in the Herald or TV news (while hopefully appearing in the msm as well as activist blogs and fb)
            • symbolically scold Israel’s greatest friend the USA at the US Embassy
            • seriously begin to encourage a ‘smart’ consumer boycott to pressure Israel economically

        • Colonial Viper 15.2.1.2

          Well no CV. The reason for engaging in a protest has to be that it will achieve something.

          Nah disagree, that’s not how protests have worked in the history of protests, you can never be sure what any individual protest has achieved or how it has influenced the minds of ordinary people or the power elite; what did any single protest against the Springbok tour accomplish, were any games even called off? But the cumulative effect is important and sometimes society changing.

          No issue with what you said about lemmings going to protests and not having any idea of what is going on though, that happens too much.

          • Tiger Mountain 15.2.1.2.1

            Not you too CV with brain fade today, first Gosman multiplied into Gosmen, then Bill forgets what protests are for, now you appear to disremember that the Hamilton game was called off due to a ground invasion by ’81 Stop the Tour protestors.

            Lemmings? If the 50,000 Queen St No Mining march was populated by them, all power to Lemmings against Mining.

            • Colonial Viper 15.2.1.2.1.1

              now you appear to disremember that the Hamilton game was called off due to a ground invasion by ’81 Stop the Tour protestors.

              Please forgive, I was still learning the ABCs those days 😀

              (nice fact tho I’ll file away for future use)

            • Bill 15.2.1.2.1.2

              What’s this bit about me forgetting what protests are for? You think some bar of effectiveness is a bar too high that should never be set?

              I note Karol pointing out that a part of the reasoning is to with bias reporting which, apart from implying that people need to be outside various media outlets every day to protest their presentation of various dominant paradigms as objective, well…it might achieve something in this instance if it was more than a ‘one off’…ie, one day outside a couple of media outlets as opposed to something that could generate a head of steam.

              Meanwhile, even allowing for a presence at media outlets, where does that leave people protesting in Hamilton or Wellington or Christchurch or wherever else?

              As pointed out by others, even though there are there plenty of people who already boycott Israeli products, there will, and for a number of reasons, be no officially sanctioned boycott of Israel or Israeli goods. And, putting aside the problem of goods manufactured in occupied territories, dodgy labeling and so on, I’m just reflecting on the efficacy of the decades long and ongoing boycott of Nestle… Consumer power simply….isn’t power.

              So what’s left? Find the connections between the NZ government and Israel’s government….between NZ companies and Israel. And apply a building pressure at those points. But maybe that’s too hard a row to hoe when compared to a nice simple venting of ire off the back of a 2,4,6,8 march and rally with simplified sloganeering?

              • Colonial Viper

                So what’s left? Find the connections between the NZ government and Israel’s government….between NZ companies and Israel. And apply a building pressure at those points. But maybe that’s too hard a row to hoe when compared to a nice simple venting of ire off the back of a 2,4,6,8 march and rally with simplified sloganeering?

                the question always is, how do you effectively leverage the insiders who can apply these pressure points into acting. Building mass movements which make it clear that the current position does not have popular legitimacy is simply one of those ways, crude as it is.

                I am very much for your concepts of applying smart pressure though, Bill.

  16. Penny Bright 17

    FYI

    FYI

    18 July 2014

    ‘Open Letter’ /OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key :

    “Upon which International Human Rights Law are you relying to NOT publicly condemn the Israeli State bombing and invasion of Gaza?”

    New Zealand Prime Minister John Key,

    Please be reminded of the following, stated on the NZ Government Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) website, regarding New Zealand’s commitment to the ‘Rule of Law’ – nationally and internationally:

    http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Foreign-Relations/1-Global-Issues/Human-Rights/index.php

    Human Rights

    New Zealand is strongly committed to the protection and promotion of international human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and in the seven core human rights treaties.
    New Zealand seeks to defend and advance international human rights in multilateral human rights fora, focussing on the meetings of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and negotiations of new international human rights instruments.

    New Zealand also focuses on the promotion of human rights in our region and in countries with which we have bilateral relationships, through exchanging views about human rights and providing practical assistance.

    “Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law ”

    http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

    http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Treaties-and-International-Law/05-International-Humanitarian-Law/index.php

    International Humanitarian Law

    International humanitarian law is also sometimes described as the “law of armed conflict” or the “laws of war”. It is a framework of rules that restricts the means and methods of warfare and protects people who are not participating in the fighting, in order to limit the effects of armed conflict for humanitarian reasons. International humanitarian law does not regulate when or why a State may use force, or determine whether an armed conflict is legal or illegal, and the rules of international humanitarian law apply equally to all sides regardless of who started the conflict.

    International humanitarian law is made up of a body of treaties. Many of the rules set down in these treaties have become so widely accepted that they are now regarded as customary international law and binding on all States.

    The core international humanitarian law treaties are the four 1949 Geneva Conventions, concluded after World War II, which cover:

    wounded soldiers on the battlefield;
    wounded and shipwrecked at sea;
    prisoners of war;
    civilians under enemy control.

    These four treaties have been universally adopted by all States.
    The Geneva Conventions have been supplemented by two Additional Protocols adopted in 1977 relating to the protection of victims of armed conflicts, and a third Additional Protocol adopted in 2005 specifying an additional emblem that may be used by organisations of the Red Cross. Other important international humanitarian law treaties regulate the types of weapons that can be used in armed conflict, including the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, the 1980 Conventional Weapons Convention and its five protocols, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, the 1997 Ottawa Convention on anti-personnel mines.

    http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Foreign-Relations/1-Global-Issues/Human-Rights/0-overview.php
    Human Rights

    New Zealand and Human Rights

    International Obligations and Treaties
    New Zealand is strongly committed to the protection and promotion of international human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and in the key human rights treaties.

    ………

    International Obligations

    As a member of the United Nations, New Zealand supports the human rights provisions of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are also a party to the seven core international human rights instruments which follow. Links to the following can be found in the Related Resources section of this page.

    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
    International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
    International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
    Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
    Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
    UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
    UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
    These instruments impose obligations upon parties, including requirements for regular reporting on implementation of the treaties.

    …………………………..

    http://gaza.scoop.ps/2014/07/ministry-of-health-gaza-update-170714/

    Ministry of Health Gaza Update 17/07/14
    July 17, 20140 comments
    Important (400 x 255)

    The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports the following statistics as at 1800 hours on Thursday July 16, 2014:

    Deaths: 235 – 52 children, 24 women 18-60 years, 16 persons over 60 years
    Injuries: 1,764 – 521 children, 323 women 18-60 years, 67 over 60 years.
    ICU: 23 patients

    Gaza Under Attack English (400 x 571)

    Israeli Aggression Against Medical Staff
    Dr. Anas Abu Alkkas – Killed by Israeli airstrike
    Mohammed Al Najjar – nurse, injured
    Nader Al Buhasay – ambulance officer, injured
    Husam Radi – Lab Technician Injured on the way home from work at Kamal Odwan Hospital

    Damages to Primary Health Care centers
    Six centres damaged:
    Al Fakhari
    Beach
    Al Attatrah
    Ashi clinic
    Medical Relief for Chronic Diseases
    Beit Hanoun Center for Medical Relief

    13 Centers closed

    Hospitals Attacked
    European Gaza
    Al Wafa

    Ambulances
    Three ambulances destroyed and damaged in Ambulance Center

    Massacres Against Families
    a. Hamd Family in Beit Hanoun – 6 martyrs.
    b. Kaware’ Family in Khan Yunis – 8 martyrs.
    c. Al Manasra Family in Central Gaza – 4 martyrs.
    d. Al Hajj Family in Khan Yunis – 8 martyrs.
    e. Abu Jame’ Family in Khan Yunis – 2 martyrs.
    f. Abd Al Ghafour Family in Khan Yunis – 2 martyrs.
    g. Ghanaam Family in Rafah – 4 martyrs.
    h. Al Arja Family in Rafah – 2 martyrs.
    i. Al Astal Family in Khan Yunis – 3 martyrs.
    j. Al Sawali Family in Khan Yunis – 2 martyrs.
    k. Al Batsh Family in Gaza – 17 martyrs.
    l. Sheikh El-Eid Family in Rafah – 3 martyrs
    m. Abu Daqqa Family in Khan Younes – 3 martyrs
    n. Bakr Family in Gaza City – 4 martyrs, all children
    o. Zo’rob Family in Khan Younes – 3 martyrs
    p. Al Astal Family in Khan Younes – 4 martyrs
    q. Shehaibar Family in Sabra, Gaza City – 3 martyrs, all children

    Medical Treatment Abroad
    10/07/2014 – 11 medical cases permitted to enter Egypt
    11/07/2014 – 0 – borders closed.
    12/07/2014 – Four medical cases permitted to enter Egypt
    13/07/2014 – Six medical cases sent to Jordan, three permitted to enter Egypt
    14/07/2014 – Four medical cases permitted to enter Egypt
    15/07/2014 – One medical case permitted to enter Egypt
    16/07/2014 – Six medical cases sent to Jordan

    OIA REQUEST:

    Please provide the following information which confirms:

    Upon which International Human Rights Law, you, as Prime Minister of New Zealand, are relying, to NOT publicly condemn the Israeli State bombing and invasion of Gaza, and call for the immediate cessation thereof.

    Yours sincerely,

    Penny Bright

    2014 Independent candidate for the Helensville electorate

    Jacquelyne Taylor

    Peace Advocate

    • Gosman 17.1

      Why do you assume that a Govenment has to reference human rights law every time a country does some action which might require a censure?

      • One Anonymous Bloke 17.1.1

        The meaning of the word ‘obligation’. The meaning of the word ‘treaty’.

        • Colonial Viper 17.1.1.1

          Gossie will be all keen to recite letter and verse our “obligations” under the TPPA if that passes.

    • Chooky 17.2

      +100 Penny

    • greywarbler 17.3

      Thank you Penny Bright for a thorough summary of the Gaza disaster. Much appreciated.

    • SPC 17.4

      Penny when the IDF withdrew from Gaza, the area was no longer one of civilians under enemy/Israeli control.

      That would only apply on IDF incursion and occupation.

      • Murray Olsen 17.4.1

        Gaza remained surrounded, blockaded, and under a large degree of IDF control, backed up by the threat of bombings at any time. How can that not be a situation of civilians under foreign control?

  17. Sable 18

    Disgusting but predictable behaviour from yet another US stooge state like the “new” Ukraine.

    • Gosman 18.1

      If you think Israel does US bidding I would suggest you are seriously mistaken and naive.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 18.1.1

        Yet more information on what Gosman ‘would’ ‘suggest’. Is there no end to the vacuity?

        • Colonial Viper 18.1.1.1

          Gosman is right though. It’s the US which does Israel’s bidding, not the other way around.

          • Chooky 18.1.1.1.1

            …unfortunately for the USA and Americans

          • Puddleglum 18.1.1.1.3

            I tend to Chomsky’s analysis on this point – that Israeli actions are largely joint US/Israeli actions and that the US has repeatedly drawn the line for how far Israel can go.

            In essence, Israel is a kept state. It will receive patronage only so long as it does useful things for the U.S.. The history of the start of massive U.S. ‘aid’ to Israel closely reflects that patronage relationship – the first large instalments coming after the 1967 war which weakened Nasser.

            Nasser – a secular nationalist – was of course a threat, potentially, to the power base of the Saudi Crown that ruled, and still rules, the oil resources largely in the interests of the west (and the elite itself) rather than for the people of the region.

            If you track U.S. aid to Israel (see this April 2014, Congressional Summary – especially table B2), you’ll see that aid did an uptick post-1967 and, more decisively, post-1970 when Israel mobilised in order to threaten Syria which was intervening against the Jordanian attacks on Palestinians (the month called ‘Black September‘). [Edit: and the aid changed dramatically from a mix of economic and military loans to significant military and economic grants.]

            Prior to the late 1960s aid was very modest. Geopolitical events essentially changed that because they changed U.S. interests.

            Strangely, that Israeli mobilisation in Black September was not mentioned in the Wikipedia link on Black September that I just linked to. But, as this very recent ‘Jewish Chronicle’ analysis of the current situation reveals, Israel has, since Black September, acted as Jordan’s on-the-ground, ‘silent guarantor’ of Jordan – with the full support of the U.S. as indicated, in part, by the aid up-tick:

            Since the early 1970s, long before the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1994, Israel has acted as a silent guarantor of the Kingdom’s security, along with its traditional allies Britain and the United States. Back in the days of the Black September Palestinian terrorist organisation, the IDF mobilised forces to prevent a possible takeover of the country by the PLO and Syria.

            Pro-Israel lobbies within the United States are certainly significant but not decisive – probably only effectual at the margins. It suits U.S. geopolitical interests in the Middle East to have Israel as a ‘marshall’ (along with Jordan, Pakistan and, to an extent, Turkey – what the Nixon doctrine called “cops on the beat”) on the ground as an enforcer of those interests.

            Even if there were no pro-Israeli lobbyists the U.S. government would continue to make its own calculations in relation to Israel and act on those. There would be little difference in U.S. support, or otherwise, for Israeli actions.

            There’s a particularly happy confluence of interests between the U.S. and Israel – at least for the past forty-odd years and, of course, for the moment.

            A two state solution is currently not calculated to be in those interests and so is unlikely to eventuate.

            • Colonial Viper 18.1.1.1.3.1

              Pro-Israel lobbies within the United States are certainly significant but not decisive – probably only effectual at the margins

              I understand that they can muster significant amounts of campaign money. As well as indirectly control the level of corporate contributions to both parties. So while the ‘explicit’ Israel lobby may hang about the margins, the ‘Israel network’ is far more pervasive.

              One other point. If the US is convinced to give Israel say $1B in military aid money, just think about where large chunks of that money finally gets spent. Yep. Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin. Hence the MIC push Congress in that direction as well.

            • swordfish 18.1.1.1.3.2

              I broadly agree, Puddleglum. But I think the argument made by both Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein is a little more nuanced than that. Yep, the US is very much in the driving seat vis-à-vis Middle East policy in general, and, yes, Israel always needs a (tacit) green light from the US before it embarks on any significant action. (thus critiquing the Walt and Mearsheimer thesis).

              But, they do argue that the Israel lobby within the US is, indeed, very powerful when it comes to ensuring continued support (in the White House and Congress) specifically for Israel’s on-going illegal Occupation. So I think it’s a little more than simply being effectual at the margins. A few years ago, an independent monitoring group calculated that the US Israel Lobby (and I can’t quite remember now whether it was the full spectrum of pro-Israeli groups or just AIPAC) comprised the second most powerful Lobby-Group in the US (after the Gun Lobby). As CV has alluded to.

              • Hi swordfish,

                That’s fair enough and I don’t claim to have any insight over and above what I read and a general framework I have for understanding how power operates.

                For example, I view he influence of lobbyists as first and foremost dependent upon a filter based on the primary interests of power. Some sources of lobbying are acceptable, others less so.

                If a pro-Palestinian lobby group arose that was extremely well-funded and sought a one-state solution I don’t think they’d get very far pushing for their policy preference, no matter how much money and how many lobbyists they had. Any congressional candidate who took campaign funding or bowed to such a lobby group would not have a stellar career – and not just because of public reaction. Their party – whichever one it was – would ensure that person never got to a position where they could enact such a policy.

                The reason would be that such a position would endanger what are called by the U.S. elite the ‘national interest’ or ‘national security’. Serving those interests is the necessary and sufficient condtion for a lobby group gaining any measure of influence over policy in these sorts of issues.

                Well, at least that would be what I’d assume given my understanding of how power exercises itself. But there’s a lot of variability and different calculations that can fit within that broad imperative. I just think that imperative remains the foundation of U.S. support for Israel and Israeli actions.

                I may be wrong of course.

  18. Paul 20

    This is what happens when you tell a different story to the one the MSM want you to hear?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=022aQy5b2wQ

    We are being fed propaganda on Gaza

    • Bill 20.1

      Good link Paul. Particularly nice that he broadens the critique towards the end and gives illustrative examples of other journalists in other areas getting axed…having their careers ended…. for not echoing establishment thought.

      Which kind of feeds into any protests at media outlets. I wonder if people are content to give individual (yes, they probably are playing ball) journalists a hard time or whether they can be bothered to find and target shareholders/execs etc?

      To wind up this comment and to add an illustrative example from closer to home. I remember having a fairly lengthy conversation with Janet McIntyre some years back when she was working for 60 Minutes. Her degree of ignorance on world affairs was astonishing. Yet she gets nominated for and wins awards for ‘Current Affairs Reporting’…

      • Colonial Viper 20.1.1

        Her degree of ignorance on world affairs was astonishing. Yet she gets nominated for and wins awards for ‘Current Affairs Reporting’…

        “Journalists” who aren’t the least bit curious about truth or context. Oxymoronic.

  19. OnceWasPete 21

    I would feel more comfortable with your comments if you also denounced the terrorist acts by Hammas in launching rockets against Israeli civilian targets and in conducting their terrorist operations from civilian areas. Or do you not feel that is important?
    What response do you think Israel should take?

    • One Anonymous Bloke 21.1

      Ask the Israeli/Palestinian Left:

      Two states for two peoples.
      Borders based upon the June 4, 1967 lines.
      Jerusalem will be an open city, the capital of two states.
      Palestinian refugees will return only to the Palestinian state.
      Palestine will be demilitarized.

      Or how about Ometz LeSarev?

  20. North 22

    OnceWasPete @ 21 above – re Hamas – “and in conducting their terrorist operations from civilian areas.” Auckland urban area 1086 square kilometres with a population of 1.4 million therein. The ENTIRE Gaza Strip one-third of that area at 365 square kilometres. With a population close to 2 million.

    Picture Titirangi to Glendowie and go 12 kilometres south at each end. You’ll stop before Manukau City. There are virtually no areas of the Gaza Strip which are NOT “civilian areas” you dick. Yeah there must be kids’ playgrounds, parks and postage stamps of undeveloped land but in real terms there are no non-civilian areas. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Zionist Israel planned it that way. It is essentially a refugee camp with a sitting-duck population. Consult a map before you spout your risible self-talking, self-pleasing false equivalency bullshit.

    And while you’re at it have a look at a map of the West Bank. Positively polka-dotted with illegal settlements. Like measles.

    Laughable how to fact-free fuckwits like you literally thousands of IDF deployed with serious US supplied/paid for armaments, which in this latest round of ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ has delivered 250:1 consequences, well no they’re NOT terrorists. While a fraction of that number resisting an historic/instant/future daily life of occupation, apartheid, oppression and pointed brutality, deploying in that resistance relative slingshots, ARE terrorists.

    Get real sweetie ! This ain’t about your moral ‘comfort’.

    .

    • Once was Pete 22.1

      My, what an angry hostile fellow you are. Whats the matter – didn’t mummy love you? Your arrogant, condescending and one eyed outburst is immaterial to me. I don’t need a geography lesson, from someone as partisan as you. I see you know how to look up wikipedia, pity you didn’t brush up on english expression.
      What a poster child for the anti-semites! This hatred really has blinded you hasn’t it?
      Maybe some anger management might help you, then you could really talk with the adults.
      So it is not terrorism and rocket attacks are ok – well thats good to know! Says it all really.

      • North 22.1.1

        OnceWasPeteAndStillIsCrazy @ 22.1 – already in the past, and to no productive end really, you’ve sprayed this sour framing of my being, including I think my childhood. Crude and as per usual completely off the point.

        Frankly I rank your anti-semite screech – your one albeit fallacious point – I rank it alongside your fantastical Dr Phil shit about my early life. Get a grip !

        I will ask this of you: please……..please do not wish upon me the ‘elan’ (chuckle chuckle facepalm) of YOUR English expression. What passes for your paragraphing could do with a bit of work too.

        It’s not generally known and I hope he doesn’t mind the disclosure but I trained under Morrissey. Mate. Ever Breen done like a dog’s dinner ? Mate. Wanna try ? Again ? M-m-m-maaa…..Oh no I can’t.

      • Colonial Viper 22.1.2

        Israel chose to turn Gaza into a ghettoized community. The shame falls on a so-called religious nation armed to the teeth with advanced cruise missiles, drones, LGBs and guided missile destroyers killing civilians and children on a daily basis.

  21. freedom 23

    NBC doing their bit for truth justice and the Israeli way.
    There are numerous reports coming out about this story and all say the same thing.
    NBC pulled out an Arab speaking journalist who knew his stuff and replaced him with a talking head.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/ayman-mohyeldin-pulled-gaza-nbc_n_5595989.html
    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jul-18/264312-nbc-pulls-gaza-reporter-after-massacre-report.ashx

    and Israel’s expanding use of experimental weapons is also coming to light
    http://mirelamonte.tumblr.com/post/91991843448/doctors-spooked-by-israels-mystery-weapon
    http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-firing-experimental-weapons-gazas-civilians-say-doctors

  22. freedom 24

    Perspective, it’s a wonderful thing

    I know I bleat on how humans need to grow up and stop hitting each other to solve their problems
    this cartoon exemplifies exactly what I mean

  23. Once was Pete 25

    To North above. My statement to Karol was that I would ‘have been more comfortable with her comments if she had also…..etc. From this you should be able to infer that I don’t support either side in this conflict. But then reasoning doesn’t appear to be your strong suit. You seem to be ok with Jewish civilians including kids being killed, but not Palestinians. Not a very high humanitarian standard is it?
    You say that I was off topic. If I was you took us there with your personal abuse. Personal abuse is the refuge of the intellectually challenged. By your abuse you invited me to speculate on your character and upbringing.
    Not content with your ad hominem attack you now resort to argument from authority. Who cares if you were trained by Morrissey. He clearly didn’t do a very good job of training you to think! Perhaps you were his pa.
    Done Like a dinner? Not on your life, but then you would not be able to see the inconsistencies in your own reasoning.

  24. North 26

    Still sore aye OWP ? – I infer from “I don’t support either side……” an incapacity to formulate in other than corporate media construct and watery false equivalency. It’s easy. Know nothing but sound like you do. They don’t want us to ‘think’. Why oblige them by buying their manipulative shit ? Doing so in the face of 250:1…..well words fail.

    Every aspect of my political sense of things is lit up by the cruelty on cruelty of laying blame on the essential victim. Dishonesty deployed to rationalise and sanitise the victimiser’s victimisation of the victim. Particularly enraging when the victimiser’s ‘entitlement’ is grossly apparent. As I believe is the reflexive Zionist pose. Yes yes yes no more rockets no more death. OK. But that’s surrender to an ever encroaching evil. Nelson Mandela ? The ANC ? There’s your answer.

    We see the entitled victmiser number in the fatuous Paula Bennett – entitlement to ravage the poor and disadvantaged for the gain of TheGodKey, herself, and the over-rich for whom they are proxies. While falsely expressing ‘care’. The Wellington equivalent of the Tel Aviv “No civilian deaths intended.” Fuck off ! Constructively at the very least every one of those deaths is intended. Zionist Exceptionalism ‘licenses’ Zionists to do whatever apparently. And determinedly unknowledgable fools buy it.

    I do take issue with your insistence that it was me who propelled you into off-topic conjectural abuse of me as a child. “See what YOU made ME do.” No. You lost your rag and bashed up your keyboard. Your estimate of my intelligence does not disturb my more or less accord with myself on that score.

    The Morrissey bit was just a bit of fun man. Fuck ! Never met the guy but admit I like his style. No prisoners. A mean old tongue. Good on him ! My social/political ethos and the ability to express in the oral and written word were taught me not by Morrissey but by my good old (deprived Depression kids) Ma and Pa, the ones who never loved me OWP. The word in both forms is the primary tool in my 38 years in the one calling and I’m very grateful to them.

    Truce if you like. My dinner’s ready. The spoiled dog’s already had his.

  25. Once was Pete 27

    Truce is fine. Enjoy your dinner.

  26. North 28

    Kia Ora OWP. Bad12……P.Ure……hope you jokers watching.

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  • Don’t run your business like a criminal enterprise
    The Detail this morning highlights the police's asset forfeiture case against convicted business criminal Ron Salter, who stands to have his business confiscated for systemic violations of health and safety law. Business are crying foul - but not for the reason you'd think. Instead of opposing the post-conviction punishment and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 hours ago
  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    3 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    8 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    8 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    8 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    8 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    9 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    10 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    13 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    1 day ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 hour ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    9 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    22 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
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