Sheree Trotter: Indigenous Peoples and Israel

Dr Sheree Trotter

Last week we had Dr Sheree Trotter as a guest to our Christchurch meeting.

Today, one hears that the Palestinians are an indigenous people that is having their homeland stolen from them by the white settler colonialists, the Jews.  Is this true?

The events of October 7 have divided New Zealanders.  The connection to indigenous rights has created fault lines for our Maori community.

On Thursday, we were delighted to welcome Dr Sheree Trotter to talk to us about the establishment of the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem and her views on how the Middle East Conflict has impacted her Maori Community.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Sheree Trotter is a researcher, writer, and co-director of the Indigenous Coalition For Israel. She also co-founded the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation, Aotearoa New Zealand (formerly Shadows of Shoah). Sheree is Māori (Te Arawa) and earned her PhD in History at the University of Auckland.

Here is an audio recording from the meeting.

Protesters Regret ‘From the River to the Sea’ Chant Upon Learning Meaning – Newsweek

A new survey found many potential protesters couldn’t explain the meaning behind the controversial phrase. UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner hired a survey firm to poll 250 college students from across the country, and a majority, or roughly 86 percent, said they supported the phrase, a common protest chant to express support for Palestinians in the ongoing conflict against Israel.

Still, only 47 percent could name the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, which historically encompassed Palestine and today includes both Israel and Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

And even more surprising, once students learned more about the region, 67.8 percent of those surveyed no longer agreed with the sentiment.

Read more: Protesters Regret ‘From the River to the Sea’ Chant Upon Learning Meaning (newsweek.com)

Why Iran is the common link in conflicts from Gaza to Pakistan — NYT

By Cassandra Vinograd

Published Jan. 18, 2024

Updated Jan. 19, 2024, 9:33 a.m. ET

Israel and Gaza. Yemen and the Red Sea. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq — and now Pakistan, too.

At every flashpoint in a set of conflicts spanning 1,800 miles and involving a hodgepodge of unpredictable armed actors and interests, there’s been a common thread: Iran. Tehran has left its imprint with its behind-the-scenes backing of combatants in places like Lebanon and Yemen, and with this week’s direct missile strikes on targets in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan.

The Iran connection stems partly from Iran’s decades-long efforts to deter threats and undermine foes by building up like-minded militias across the Middle East.

In addition, Iran itself, like neighboring countries, faces armed separatist movements and terrorist groups in conflicts that readily spill over borders.

But what does Pakistan have to do with Gaza? Here’s a look at how Iran ties together recent tensions.

What’s the back story here?

Ever since the 1979 revolution that made Iran a Shiite Muslim theocracy, it has been isolated and has seen itself as besieged.

Iran considers the United States and Israel to be its biggest enemies — for more than four decades its leaders have vowed to destroy Israel. It also wants to establish itself as the most powerful nation in the Persian Gulf region, where its chief rival is Saudi Arabia, an American ally, and has often had hostile relations with the Saudis and some other predominantly Sunni Muslim Arab neighbors.

With few other allies, Iran has long armed, trained, financed, advised and even directed several movements that share Iran’s enemies. Though Iranian forces have been involved directly in wars in Syria and Iraq, Tehran has mostly fought its enemies abroad by proxy.

Iran, which calls itself and these militias the “Axis of Resistance” to American and Israeli power, sees it all as “part of a single struggle,” said Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a policy analysis group.

Iranian leaders call their approach a forward defense strategy, saying that to defend itself, the country must take action outside its borders.

“If they are to avoid fighting the Americans and Israelis on Iran’s soil, they’ll have to do it elsewhere,” Mr. Alhasan said. “And that’s in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, Afghanistan.”

How well the strategy works is open to question. Terrorist groups have attacked recently on Iranian soil. And for years Israel has carried out targeted attacks on Iran’s nuclear program, killing some of its key figures and destroying facilities.

Why does Iran outsource its conflicts?

While Iran wants to project its power and influence, it is reluctant to directly engage the United States or its allies, courting major retaliation or all-out war.

How secure Iran’s leaders feel in their grip on power is unclear. But they know that decades of sanctions and embargoes have degraded Iran’s military forces and its economy, and that their repressive government faces intense domestic opposition.

Iran has hoped to compensate for its vulnerabilities by raising the prospect that it could develop nuclear weapons — which would put it on par with Pakistan and Israel, and ahead of Saudi Arabia.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program has only peaceful purposes, and Tehran has carefully kept the uranium it produces just below the threshold for bomb-grade fuel, which is considered the red line that could trigger military action against its underground nuclear complexes.

Investing in proxy forces — fellow Shiites in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and the Sunni Hamas in the Gaza Strip — allows Iran to cause trouble for its enemies, and to raise the prospect of causing more if attacked.

“Proxy forces have allowed Iran to maintain some level of plausible deniability, while asymmetrically supplying Tehran with a means to effectively strike Israel or apply pressure to it,” the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point wrote in a December report.

Iranian officials have publicly denied being involved in or ordering Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. But they also praised the assault as a momentous achievement, and warned that their regional network would open multiple fronts against Israel if the country kept up its retaliatory war against Hamas in Gaza.

Some of those proxies have, in fact, stepped up attacks on Israel, but have avoided full-fledged warfare.

People waving yellow-and-green Hezbollah banners watch the group’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, deliver a speech on a giant video screen.

Who are these proxies for Iran?

Hezbollah in Lebanon, widely considered to be the most powerful and sophisticated of the Iran-allied forces, was founded in the 1980s with Iranian assistance, specifically to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. The group, which is also a political party in Lebanon, has fought multiple wars and border skirmishes with Israel.

Hezbollah has been trading fire across the border with Israel’s military almost daily since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, but it has thus far refrained from fully joining the fight.

The Houthi movement in Yemen launched an insurgency against the government two decades ago. What was once a ragtag rebel force gained power thanks at least in part to covert military aid from Iran, according to American and Middle Eastern officials and analysts.

The Houthis seized much of the country in 2014 and 2015, and a Saudi-led coalition stepped into the civil war on the side of the Yemeni government. A de facto cease-fire has held since 2022, with the Houthis still in control of Yemen’s northwest and its capital, Sana.

Since the war in Gaza began, the Houthis have waged what they call a campaign in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment. They have launched missiles and drones at Israel, and have disrupted a significant part of the world’s shipping by attacking dozens of vessels heading to or from the Suez Canal.

That has transformed the Houthis into a force with a global impact, and prompted the United States and Britain, with help from allies, to carry out missile strikes on Houthi targets inside Yemen.

Hamas, in the Palestinian territories, has also received weapons and training from Iran, and has fought repeated wars with Israel.

Why did Iran strike directly, not through allies, in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan?

It has a lot to do with the government’s problems at home.

As tensions rise across the region, Tehran has increasingly become a target.

Last month, a separatist group attacked a police station in southeastern Iran, killing 11 people. Two senior Iranian commanders were assassinated in Syria, and Iran blamed Israel.

Then this month, suicide bombings in Kerman, Iran, killed almost 100 people — the deadliest terrorist attacks since the Islamic Republic was founded. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Iran analysts, and Iranians close to the military, say the government wanted to make a show of force with an eye to the hard-liners who make up its base of support, and were already incensed at Israeli attacks. Iran went on the offensive.

It said this week that it had fired missiles at the Islamic State in Syria, and at what it said was an Israeli base for intelligence gathering in northern Iraq. (The Iraqi government denied that the building struck was tied to Israel.) It also fired into Pakistan.

“Iran has signalled clearly that it is not willing to deploy those capabilities for anything less than the defence of their homeland,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, a policy group.

What does Pakistan have to do with this? It’s not even in the Middle East.

The separatist group Jaish al-Adl wants to create a homeland for the Baluch ethnic group out of parts of Iran and Pakistan, and it operates on both sides of the border. It also took responsibility for the deadly attack last month on an Iranian police station.

The two countries have accused each other of not doing enough to prevent militants from crossing the border.

Iran said its strikes in Pakistan targeted bases for Jaish al-Adl, but Pakistan pushed back against Iran’s reasoning, citing what it said were civilian casualties. On Thursday, Pakistan responded by bombing what it said were terrorist hide-outs inside Iran.

Pakistan and Iran have had mostly cordial relations, and the frictions between them have little to do with Iran’s other regional conflicts. But Iran’s decision to strike inside Pakistan has the potential to damage its relationship with Pakistan. At a time when the region is already on edge, a miscalculation could be especially dangerous.

Vivian Nereim, Salman Masood and Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.

A correction was made on Jan. 19, 2024: An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has raised the prospect that it could develop nuclear weapons, maintaining that its nuclear program has only peaceful purposes, but it has not developed them.

How we handle corrections

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 19, 2024, Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Iran Is the Common Link in a String of Conflicts, From Gaza to Pakistan. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Hanukkah and how it’s celebrated around the world – Stuff

In 2023, Hanukkah is on December 7 through December 15.

Hanukkah – also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew – is Judaism’s “festival of lights. On eight consecutive nights, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah – a multi-branched candelabra.

Read more

The Economist Misleads With Flawed A-Z on the Arab-Israeli Conflict

For many, the Economist is a respected publication that gives insightful and easy to read reports of world events.

So its disappointing to see that the good people at Honest Reporting have found so many flaws in the Economist’s background briefing on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“In what needed to be a well-researched piece, The Economist recently provided its readers with an A-Z glossary on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Unfortunately, it is rife with inaccuracies, omissions, and flat-out mistakes that mislead rather than inform.”

Read more

Israel Toolkit: A quick briefing for the beginner

Hi Friends and supporters

The Gaza-Israel conflict has touched a nerve in NZ society in a way that other conflicts in the world haven’t.

Here is a toolkit resource that gives you a handy easy to read resource that briefs you on the regional history, and the talking points in this Gaza-Israel conflict.

Don’t let your well-meaning people in your circle get taken in by Hamas’ propaganda machine!

NZFOI responds to NZ Psychological Society

This afternoon we received this outrageous letter from the NZ Psychological Society.

Here is our response sent this afternoon.

To the Executive of the New Zealand Psychological Society

One of your members has sent us your open letter to the international community of Psychological Societies regarding Gaza.

We applaud your efforts to protect the civilians of Gaza from harm.

On the other hand, we deplore the absence in your letter of any condemnation of the atrocities carried out on October 7.

The absence of such condemnation leaves you wide open to the accusation that you find rape, summary executions of whole families in their homes, the beheading of babies, immolation of captives, gouging out of eyes, executing people at bus stops, and sitting in their cars, the abduction of civilians, children, babies, and the elderly, justifiable.

These are crimes against Israel, they are crimes against all Jews, and they are crimes against all humanity.  They are therefore crimes against us, New Zealanders. This is evil.

The people of Gaza elected Hamas as their government.

With such power, Hamas has great responsibility.

On October 7, Hamas committed a series of atrocities on such scale that no right-thinking nation could ignore.

In so doing, Hamas has taken their people into war.

No government who carries out such an act of war can expect that there will not be any consequences for its citizens.

But Hamas’ ideology values martyrdom more than the lives of their people.

And therefore they have no regret in using their people as human shields.

Consequently they fight their war from residential apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and even designated safe zones.

This war is not a war of vengeance, it is not a war of evening up the score, it is not just about defending Israel, it is about making Israel’s people safe.

October 7, has shown the world that Hamas is prepared to throw aside its humanity in the furtherance of its cause. Their evil is revealed.

Any idea of coexistence, of living with Jews in peace and harmony, is far from Hamas’ mind.

History shows that unless evil is confronted then many more will die.

Although we sympathise with your goal of trying to protect the non-combatants in Gaza, we are deeply disappointed that your letter leaves you wide open to the accusation that you condone the October 7 atrocities as justifiable actions to further a political cause.

In doing so, you contribute rather than mitigate a tragedy.

There is also a war for the world’s heart and mind.  For our hearts and minds.

Do not be taken in by the emotional messages currently before the media.

The number of casualties that was supposed to have died outside a hospital began with 500 and since then the number has steadily dropped.

There is much value in independent investigations after the conflict is over. 

From past conflicts, Western news agencies have attested to Hamas’ misinformation campaigns.

You and your members are scientists, and if you as a society feel strongly enough to weigh into this conflict, then we urge you to examine this conflict and its history and the respective claims of both sides with the same forensic care you take in your professional life.

If you do, you may find that talk of apartheid practices, invasions, indigenous peoples, and colonization is not as simple as some would have you think.

We urge you to re-write your letter with these thoughts in mind.

Regards, etc.

NZFOI ADDRESS TO RALLY ON OCT 29, 2023

FOLKS

I’M TONY KAN,

PRESIDENT OF THE NEW ZEALAND FRIENDS OF ISRAEL

TO THE ORGANIZERS OF THE MARCH

TO THE OTHER MEMBERS OF NEW ZEALAND FRIENDS OF ISRAEL

TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SACRIFICED THEIR TIME TO BE HERE

WELCOME

I HAVE SAID THIS BEFORE AND WILL SAY IT AGAIN:

FOR DECADES NEW ZEALANDERS HAVE HOSTED ISRAEL TRAVELLERS

TRAVELLED THROUGH THE MIDDLE EAST OURSELVES

SERVED AS PEACEKEEPERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

WE HAVE EATEN WITH ISRAELIS

LAUGHED WITH ISRAELIS

ARGUED WITH ISRAELIS

CELEBRATED WITH ISRAELIS

EVEN MARRIED ISRAELIS

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ISRAEL

IS A CRIME AGAINST ISRAEL

IS A CRIME AGAINST JEWS

IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

AND IT HAS BROKEN OUR HEARTS

NO MATTER WHAT DIFFERENCES ONE MAY HAVE ON A POLITICAL ISSUE

IT IS EVIL TO INVADE SOMEONE’S HOME

TO COLDLY SHOOT PEOPLE IN THEIR BEDS

TO COLDLY MAKE THEM KNEEL ON THE GROUND AND EXECUTE THEM

TO COLDLY KILL PREGNANT WOMEN BEFORE THEIR PARTNERS AND CHILDREN

TO COLDLY BEHEAD BABIES

NO MATTER WHAT YOUR CAUSE MIGHT BE

NO MATTER HOW RIGHT YOU THINK YOU ARE

THIS IS EVIL

THIS IS EVIL AND IT MUST BE CONFRONTED

ISRAEL’S MILITARY OPERATIONS TODAY

ARE NOT ABOUT VENGEANCE

ARE NOT ABOUT EVENING THE SCORE

IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT DEFENDING ONE’S COUNTRY

IT IS ABOUT ENSURING THE SAFETY OF THE ISRAELI PEOPLE

THE TRAGEDY IS THAT THE PEOPLE OF GAZA

ELECTED HAMAS TO BE THEIR LEADERS

AND WITH SUCH POWER COMES MUCH RESPONSIBILITY

AND HAMAS HAS CHOSEN TO ORGANIZE AN ATTACK

ON A SCALE THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED

THAT CONSTITUTES AN ACT OF WAR

AND IN SO DOING

THEY HAVE BROUGHT WAR UPON THEIR PEOPLE

BECAUSE ISRAEL MUST ACT BOLDLY AND COURAGEOUSLY

TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF HER PEOPLE

PEOPLE

THAT WE KNOW AS FRIENDS

AND THEIR RELATIVES

GRANDPARENTS

UNCLES

AUNTIES

COUSINS

FATHERS

MOTHERS

BROTHERS

AND SISTERS;

BOYFRIENDS

GIRLFRENDS

THE TRAGEDY IS THAT IN SO DOING

MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE HAVE DIED

AND EVEN MORE WILL DIE

BUT THIS WAR WILL BE NO DIFFERENT THAN OTHER PREVIOUS CONFLICTS

THERE WILL BE A FIGHT FOR THE WORLD’S HEARTS AND MINDS

FOR OUR HEARTS AND MINDS

HAMAS OWES ITS EXISTENCE TO FOREIGN AID

THEY HAVE WATCHED THE RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR JEOPARDIZE EUROPEAN AID

THEY HAVE WATCHED THEIR ARAB ALLIES RECOGNIZE

THAT ISRAEL BRINGS TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS

TO THE REGION

AND SEVERAL ARAB COUNTRIES HAVE CHOSEN TO RECOGNIZE ISRAEL

AND A BRISK TRADE HAS BEGUN

NOW THEY HAVE CALLOUSLY STARTED THIS CONFLICT TO

RE-IGNITE THE FLAME OF SUPPORT

TO REINVIGORATE THEIR GRIEVANCE INDUSTRY

BY ENSURING THAT INNOCENTS

WOMAN,

CHILDREN AND

THE ELDERLY

ARE PUT IN HARMS WAY

UNLIKE OTHER WARRING NATIONS

ISRAEL WILL NOT INDISCRIMINANTLY BOMB CIVILIANS

THEY WILL USE ALL THEIR INTELLIGENCE RESOURCES

TO IDENTIFY HAMAS’ OPERATIONAL CENTERS

AND MUNITIONS STORAGE SITES

CARPET BOMBING IS NOT ON THE TABLE

BUT THEY HAVE AN ENEMY

WHO VALUES DEATH BECAUSE

THEY HAVELUE MARTYRDOM MORE THAN LIFE

AND SO THEY ARE WILLING TO PUT THEIR CIVILIANS AT RISK

BY FIGHTING THEIR WAR FROM HOSPITALS

BY FIGHTING THEIR WAR FROM SCHOOLS

BY FIGHTING THEIR WAR FROM RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

BY FIGHTING THEIR WAR FROM BEHIND THEIR WOMEN, CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS

BY FIGHTING THEIR WAR FROM UN FACILITIES

AND EVEN BY FIGHTING THEIR WAR FROM SAFETY ZONES

IN 1938 THE BRITISH OFFERED THE ARABS STATEHOOD

ALONGSIDE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE

THE ARABS REJECTED IT THEN

IN 1948, THE UN RECOGNIZED THAT THERE WERE TWO ETHNIC GROUPS

THAT HAD A DEEP HERITAGE IN THE REGION

WHICH WAS ONCE PART OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE

THEY VOTED TO CREATE TWO NATIONS

THEY MIGHT LIVE SIDE BY SIDE AT PEACE WITH ONE ANOTHER

THE ARABS REJECTED THE OFFER OF NATIONHOOD THEN TOO

IN 2000

STATEHOOD WAS AGAIN OFFERED TO THE ARABS

AND THIS TOO WAS REJECTED

EVEN THOUGH 90% OF THE ARABS’ DEMANDS WERE MET IN THE OFFER

IN FACT THE ARABS WOULD REJECT OFFERS OF STATEHOOD TWICE MORE

EACH TIME THE DEAL WAS SWEETENED WITH EVEN MORE CONCESSIONS

IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

THE ARABS HAVE REJECTED STATEHOOD A TOTAL OF FIVE TIMES

THE ONLY GOAL THEY SEEK

IS THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL

YOU WILL HEAR

ACCUSATIONS OF JEWISH COLONIZATION

ACCUSATIONS OF DISPLACED INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

AS IF THERE IS ONLY ONE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

BUT HISTORY TELLS US THAT FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS

BOTH JEWS AND ARABS

HAVE LIVED IN THE REGION

SO WE IN THE WEST MUST TAKE ONE OF THE KEY STRENGTHS THAT WE BRING TO CIVILIZATION

AND THAT IS THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

AND CAREFULLY SIFT THROUGH THE INFORMATION WE RECEIVE THROUGH THE MEDIA

AND WEIGH THE EVIDENCE

BEFORE WE JUMP TO ANY CONCLUSION

THE TRUTH WILL NOT EASILY COME TO YOU

WHEN EVIL WILL SEEK TO MISINFORM

WAIT FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIONS AFTER THE CONFLICT BEFORE JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS

YOU WILL HEAR HOW GAZA IS ONE OF THE MOST DENSELY POPULATED AREAS OF THE WORLD

IMPLYING THIS IS THE SOURCE OF THEIR POVERTY

BUT IF YOU RESEARCH IT

FOR EVERY GAZA THERE IS A SINGAPORE

FOR EVERY DELHI THERE IS A TOKYO

FOR EVERY JAKARTA THERE IS AN AMSTERDAM

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR

THE SOURCE OF THEIR POVERTY IS THEIR GOAL OF WAGING WAR OVER BUILDING A NATION

FINALLY OVER 200 HOSTAGES WAIT TO BE RETURNED

AND WE ARE EXTREMELY FEARFUL FOR THEIR SAFETY

BECAUSE WE KNOW IN TRYING TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THE MAJORITY

ISRAEL IS PUT IN THE IMPOSSIBLE DILEMMA OF JEOPARDIZING THE SAFETY OF THE HOSTAGES

THANK YOU FOR COMING OUT TO SUPPORT ISRAEL TODAY

IN DOING SO, YOU SUPPORT

THE RIGHT OF AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE TO BE SAFE IN THEIR HOMELAND

YOU SUPPORT THE IDEAL THAT HUMANITY SHOULD NOT SETTLE THEIR DIFFERENCES THROUGH VIOLENCE

THAT IF WAR IS INEVITABLE THAT HARM TO WOMEN, CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY SHOULD BE MINIMIZED.

YOU SUPPORT TRUTH OVER MISINFORMATION

THAT YOU SUPPORT THE IDEA THAT GOOD PEOPLE SHOULD NOT STAND ASIDE LEAVING EVIL TO TRIUMPH

THANK YOU

“We will never forget, but will not be captive to the past”

The Press 18 October 2023

Juliet Moses

Julian Moses is a spokesperson for the New Zealand Jewish Council.

“Hamas did not build a state, but a terrorist infrastructure to destroy one.”

Jews are an ancient people with a long collective memory. Embedded in the memory, alongside happier times, our massacres we have suffered – during this destruction of our two temples in Jerusalem by the Babylonians and Romans, the 1190 massacre at York Castle, the pogroms of the Russian Empi (which my family flew), the 1929 Hebron rights, the Nazis’ Kristallnacht 1938, Baghdad’s Farhud of 1941, the 1972 Munich Olympics, to name a few.

Now there is another messenger that we will carry with us. October 7, 2023.

On our joyous festival of some Torah, Hamas, the year-round-backed terrorist regime that rules Gaza, stage a mass coordinated terror attack on Israelis with thousands of rockets and infiltration by more than 1500 members.

More than 1400 Israelis were murdered (proportionately in New Zealand, that would be about 770 people) and thousands hospitalised. More than 190 hospitals remained in Gaza. It was the deadliest day for us since the Holocaust.

As President Biden said: “this attack is brought to the surface painful memories and the scars left by millennia of anti-Semitism and genocide of the Jewish people.”

The barbarity, gleefully broadcast to the world, is unspeakable. Literally. Hardened war correspondence and soldiers at the scene had been rendered speechless, crying and retching.

There were raped women paraded through Gaza like trophies, Holocaust survivors and children taken hostage in Taunton, babies burned in the cops, families riddled with bullets while in hiding, a woman’s execution uploaded onto Facebook for her granddaughter to discover, 260 revellers at a music festival – peace – slaughter, shot in the back and safely and dismembered by grenades as they had in a bomb shelter.

The victims included Arabs (who comprise 20% of Israel’s citizens) and many other nationalities. Elderly peace activist Vivian Silva, who drove cancer-stricken Gazans to Jerusalem for treatment, is presumed adducted.

It leaves an indelible bloodied stain on the frame fabric of humanity.

Our pain and read are soothed by the many Kiwis who have expressed their horror and supported us, and compounded by those who not even allowed us the dignity and time to mourn.

While the death squads still stalled their prey through Israel and we were desperately missed during our family and friends need to check on them, the celebrations, justifications, equivocation, sanitisations and contextualisations began.

In New Zealand came from politicians, academics, columnists, a formal all-black, and (I will limit the word “civil”) society groups.

In declaiming about decolonisation, liberation, power imbalances, resistance and justice, they had to history’s long list of codewords like Christ-killers, poisoning the wells, Usery, and racial purity, that legitimise the dehumanisation and massacre of Jews. Yet, it is they who have lost their humanity.

Thousands marched in Auckland on Saturday, shutting the Hamas rallying cry “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” demanding the annihilation of Israel, where almost half the world’s Jewish population of some 15 million lives. We do not feel safe.

There was also the silence, including from those we believe to be friends, record the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “In the end, we remember not the words of our enemies, the silence of our friends.”

As a moral duty of anyone who cares about the Palestinian people and wants peace to unequivocally condemn these atrocities, demand the release of hostages and reject the insidious inversion of morality in reality being propagated.

That inversion will talk about occupation and blockades, but omit to mention that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, dismantling every settlement and removing every two (including those buried there).

It created the conditions for Palestinians to self-government for the first time in history, to be free and flourish, and coexist peacefully with the neighbours.

Instead, they elected Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist regime, after which both Israel and Egypt imposed military blockades to defend their borders.

Hamas did not build a state, but a terrorist infrastructure to destroy one.

Hamas does not want, and violently derails, peace – except that which the founder of Palestinian nationalism, Yasser Arafat, envisaged when he said, “peace for us means the destruction of Israel.”

Actually, can be no peace without the destruction of the genocidal ideology of Hamas. Enshrined in Hamas’ founding document as the unambiguous injunction to both obliterate Israel and Jews.

Hamas knows that, unlike itself, as well sees its first duty is protecting its people. Hamas launched this attack – for terrorism, not territory – understanding is people, who had two holes hostage, would pay a terrible price.

What would you demand of our government if there were an army of over 30,000 Isis-like terrorists and our border, willing and able to continue their genocidal mission?

In the meantime, Jewish people will do what we have always done. We will outlast Hamas, as with all our enemies who have sought our destruction through our civilisation.

We will never forget, but will not be captive to the past. We want to smear for all innocent lives lost. And to all those who on our right to self-determination, freedom and dignity, we will honour the same in return and continue to out stretch our arms in peace.

Rob Berg: Jews and the World Today

At our AGM last week, Rob Berg, the President Emeritus of the Zionist Federation of NZ, addressed the members.

His talk was entitled “Jews and the World Today”.

Here is the video recording of the event and below it is the PowerPoint slide deck so that you can follow along.

Video of address