How low will Bridges go?

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, January 28th, 2020 - 23 comments
Categories: immigration, International, making shit up, national, same old national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Simon Bridges has wondered out loud if anti semitism stopped the Government from sending a senior representative to a Holocaust memorial in Israel. Interestingly National apparently did not send representatives to two earlier events. They have not commented on this failure or what conclusion should be drawn from it.

The thinking in National’s ranks seems to be that since claims of anti semitism worked in the United Kingdom to undermine Jeremy Corbyn why waste a good scandal and why not recycle it here?

I could never understand the way it became an issue in the United Kingdom.  The left was the strongest opposers to Nazism.  It takes a whole lot of chutzpah to somehow suggest they are holocaust sympathisers.

And I could never understand the rationale.  The logic seemed to be that if you are pro Palestine you are an antisemitic.

But Simon Bridges is living up to his persona of being a dirty little street fighter and will it appears use any tactic as long as it works.

From Zane Small at Newshub:

Simon Bridges is questioning if anti-Semitism is behind the Government failing to send a senior representative to a high-profile Holocaust memorial in Israel.

The Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem held the World Holocaust Forum last week to mark 75 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz – but no New Zealand officials attended.

Bridges, leader of the Opposition, said he would “like to be generous and say it’s incompetence” that led to the Government’s failure to send someone – but he said he couldn’t help but notice a rise in global anti-Semitism.

“You look at the Labour Party in the UK – they have had very significant problems with anti-Semitism,” Bridges told Magic Talk. “I hope none of that is part of the Labour Party’s calculus – that has no place in New Zealand society.”

The UK’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn – who is standing down after failing to win the recent election – has been bogged down by allegations of anti-Semitic sentiment, with several members of his party resigning over of it.

And he is borrowing from the Donald Trump blindly pro Israel line for some strange reason.

Bridges said he regrets that, under the previous National-led Government, New Zealand signed a United Nations resolution that deemed Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal.

“I’ve been pretty blunt about that – that didn’t come to Cabinet. If it had, I can’t say for certain, but I feel pretty sure it would have been a different result,” Bridges said. “It was the Foreign Minister who now accepts he didn’t bring it to Cabinet – he should have.”

Funnily enough National opposes the UN Migration Pact which when you think about it would have been very helpful to Jewish people escaping pogroms in the 1930s and 1940s. Of course such apparent contradictions are given little weight by National strategists.

The case involves as clear a breach of International Law as you can imagine.  The United Kingdom supported it, the Obama Administration decided to abstain thereby letting the resolution through.  Even Murray McCully supported it and this resulted in something quite unique, praise for him from the Standard. National subsequently backed away after Israel accused New Zealand of committing a declaration of war.

Of course Bridges swings heavily from making accusations of antisemitism to cosying up to actual nazis.

The question has to be asked. In the pursuit of power how low will Simon go?

23 comments on “How low will Bridges go? ”

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  1. Sacha 1
    28 January 2020 at 12:29 pm

    As low as a snake's belly. Imagine the karma..

  2. Sanctuary 2
    28 January 2020 at 12:45 pm

    The far right has been extensively funded by Israel to support it's ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people – remember the perennially flat broke Cameron Slater and his lovely little trip(s) to Israel? The general idea is to equate support for Palestinian causes with anti-Semitism, and to smear anyone who threatens Israel's increasingly Fascistic behaviour with the same trope. Given that National appear to be moving to an extreme right agenda, it was only a matter of time before it adopted a cravenly supine position on Israel and swallowed whole that countries foreign policy agenda. Corbyn was slandered because of his long history of supporting the Palestinian cause, and the existential threat he represented to the deep penetration of the British political class by Israeli money and lobbyists.

    There are few Jews in NZ and a fair bit of sympathy for the plight of Palestine so there is little chance of a sustained smear campaign like the one Corbyn was subjected to getting off the ground, but angry Simon from Accounts and his loud mouth social media brown shirts seems determined to cycle every right wing social media smear possible (all dutifully repeated in our lazy MSM) until they get one to stick.

    • aj 2.1
      28 January 2020 at 3:47 pm

      The general idea is to equate support for Palestinian causes with anti-Semitism,

      Prince Charles has supported the Palestinian cause not only just recently, but for some time. The smear campaign against Corbyn could equally be targeted at Charlie judging by Bridge's comments. Really the Nat's are beneath contempt at times.

  3. Drowsy M. Kram 3
    28 January 2020 at 12:58 pm

    Too low, and there's plenty more where that came from! "Live without limits." laugh

  4. miravox 4
    28 January 2020 at 12:59 pm

    "Of course Bridges swings heavily from making accusations of antisemitism to cosying up to actual nazis."

    Bridges said on Twitter it was "A privilege to meet with @teddyboylocsin"

    Even if Bridges felt the meeting was important and justified, I'm sure there was some diplomatic language he could have used instead of "privilege" that would have signaled his distaste for Locsin's views, if he wanted tho show he was not a fascist sympathiser.

  5. Ad 5
    28 January 2020 at 1:33 pm

    An easier anti-Semitic line would have been to blame PM Peter Fraser for not enabling more threatened European Jews into New Zealand during WW2 and after it ended.

    We could have shouldered a greater effort to help them when they needed it.

  6. Sabine 6
    28 January 2020 at 1:39 pm

    he and his merry bands of supporters will go as low as they have to.

    • Graeme 6.1
      28 January 2020 at 3:29 pm

      And probably take the National vote down there with them. I don't think New Zealand has that much stomach for relentless negativity.

      • Sabine 6.1.1
        28 January 2020 at 6:24 pm

        yeah, nah.They have their supporters and they have a chance of winning. This is not negativity this is the National Party at its finest.

        • Graeme 6.1.1.1
          28 January 2020 at 10:20 pm

          I know some pretty tribal Nats who aren't happy with simon and his bullshit. Unlikely they'll vote Labour, more likely they just won't vote.

          Bill English got National down to 21% after they threw the kitchen sink at Helen Clark in her first term. That was pretty ugly and put a lot of people off. This time they've biffed the fridge and stove as well, it's petty childish behaviour and the people I'm talking about don't see simon's team as an alternative government. The rant I got today about simon wanting 'the government' to pluck the 53 NZers out of Wuhan was what I'd have expected him to fire a Labour or Greens (he's a farmer and understands how you deal with quarantine)

          If National knife simon next week they might have a chance, but the perception of the likely replacements isn't much better. The next National Prime Minister isn't in Parliament yet, and I don't think it's Luxon either.

  7. Robert Guyton 7
    28 January 2020 at 3:29 pm

    Where are trolls invariably found?

    Under Bridges.

  8. The Al1en 8
    28 January 2020 at 4:54 pm

    How low will Bridges go? Lower than his minuscule preferred prime minister poll numbers.

  9. Peter 9
    28 January 2020 at 5:32 pm

    How low will Simon go? Give him credit, he's not about to overestimate the intelligence or ethics and morals of his and his party's supporters.

  10. roblogic 10
    28 January 2020 at 5:49 pm

    Bridges is irrelevant. Keep an eye on the next Nat contender, Christopher Luxon. He's been rather quiet lately, keeping out of the mudslinging and disarray that characterises Bridges' leadership

    • woodart 10.1
      28 January 2020 at 7:24 pm

      pretty sad when the next nat saviour isnt even an M.P.

      • In Vino 10.1.1
        28 January 2020 at 8:39 pm

        That is the catch. How can they parachute him in when he is not even an MP without making the ploy over-obvious? And can he make the grade anyway?

        Only the avid rednecks are harping on Jacinda's imagined frailties. In an actual debate, I don't think Jacinda should be frightened of Luxon at all. From what I have seen, she is quite capable of handling him.

        • Graeme 10.1.1.1
          28 January 2020 at 10:39 pm

          Luxon will have enough conflict with the liberal side of National without Jacinda having to get involved. He's got to win Botany yet, and that could get messy. His christian morals might be challenged defending his chosen party.

  11. Muttonbird 11
    28 January 2020 at 7:29 pm

    The Ardern govt as anti-semites was floated twice a few days ago by David Farrar.

    This indicates it's a deliberate strategy by the Nats. Dangerous territory for them so I expect they'll not take it too much further although I'm surprised Bridges went there today.

    He does have a friendly audience at Mediaworks Radio though.

  12. Tiger Mountain 12
    28 January 2020 at 10:08 pm

    Perhaps Mr Bridges advisors, fresh from spraying “anti semitism” smears at British Labour, urged him to try that approach here. The “chuck it all at the wall and see what sticks” scenario.

    For Soymun it surely signals the end of any consideration of him as a serious politician–in the sense of him having a basic decency threshold. His comments were illogical, untrue in a factual sense, and inflammatory. And issued after meeting with a Filipino Nazi sympathiser!

    National IS serious of course about winning the election at any cost. This episode should be a final warning if it is needed really, for all those that want to see the Govt. returned on Sept.19.