NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday opened his first Cabinet meeting since swearing in his new coalition government last week with a condemnation of the new Iranian president.
He said Iran’s presidential election was a sign for world powers to “wake up” before returning to a nuclear agreement with Tehran.
Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, was elected Saturday with 62 per cent of the vote amid a historically low voter turnout.
You may have heard of the controversy surrounding the comments of Juliet Moses, the spokesperson for the NZ Jewish Council, at the recent anti-terrorism hui.
Here is the transcript of her address, so you can judge for yourself as to whether her remarks conflated terrorism with Islam as members of the Islamic community have asserted. Click this link to read the full transcript.
Furthermore, here is an opportunity to meet Juliet herself and ask your own questions, via a Zoom meeting. Thanks to our friends at the Israel Institute of NZ for organizing this event. Zoom meeting details follow:
Join Dr David Cumin and Juliet Moses for a Zoom Talk on Thursday 24 June, 7pm
Ms Moses is an Auckland based lawyer and spokesperson for the Jewish Council of New Zealand. She was invited to speak at the recent Hui on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism. In one session, there was open support for Hamas and Hezbollah, whose military wings are designated by NZ as terrorist groups. There was no challenge from the officials or leaders in the room. We will discuss this and more.
Please spread the word.
Topic: The Israel Report: David Cumin talks to Juliet Moses
Time: Jun 24, 2021 07:00 PM Auckland, Wellington
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86476677914
Meeting ID: 864 7667 7914
Yesterday, RNZ radio broadcaster Susie Ferguson interviewed Juliet Moses, spokesperson for the NZ Jewish Council, following the controversy at the Hui on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism in New Zealand on Tuesday, June 15.
How many need to be involved to create a terrorist risk?
When discussing the 2018 rally where attendees showed their support of Hezbollah, Susie Ferguson said (2m 30s):
“When we are talking about a rally, that makes it sound really big, I understand we are talking about 20 people, that sort of number, that’s correct isn’t it?”
Thus she implies that because such a small number of people were involved that the Jewish Community was making a mountain out of a mole hill.
To even think this way, suggests that she doesn’t understand the dynamics of a terrorist threat, despite the fact that the Mosque Massacres demonstrated that an act of terrorism can be perpetrated by a single individual, radicalised through their own personal journey, without any formal connection to an organised terrorist organisation.
If one single individual can cause so much harm, tragedy and loss of life, how much more harm, tragedy and loss of life, can twenty something individuals do, if they got together and got organised.
But wait, the fact that they were at a rally showing their support for Hezbollah, showed that they are already getting together, and getting organised…
Terrorism doesn’t respect geographic borders
When Moses cited a Hezbollah bombing that killed 85 in Buenos Aires in 1994, Ferguson cuts in, saying (3m:
“But we are talking about what’s happening in New Zealand here.”
She implies that terrorism acts and terrorism track records overseas don’t count.
But terrorism respects no geographic borders, as the Buenos Aires bombing shows, and as the Christchurch Mosque Massacre also demonstrates.
Calling out a organisation of Muslim terrorists doesn’t mean all terrorists are Muslims
In fact, in the Christchurch Mosque Massacre, not even the passage of time seemed to matter as the perpetrator cited Muslim invasions of Europe that occurred centuries ago, and they occurred overseas.
Strangely, Ferguson seemed to hold the idea that Moses’ comments conflated Islam with terrorism. She asked Moses if this was so. Moses responded by emphatically denying it.
In an interview the previous day with Andrew Little, the Minister responsible for the GCSB and NZSIS, Ferguson said Moses had declared that all Muslims were terrorists (1m50s).
When Little challenged her and said “I’m not sure that that was what was said,” she backtracked and restated her question as “the effects of her [Moses’] words, is that what was in effect what was being said here.”
A position which Andrew did not support in his reply. In fact he went on to say that later over a food, the two groups had a constructive conversation and the matter was smoothed over.
A well-meaning mistake?
It seems like she is trying to protect the Muslim community from some hideous tropes, but in doing so, she unwittingly undermined much of the good that the hui could have inspired. Instead, she has undermined the legitimacy of the Jewish community’s anxieties.
You can listen to the whole interview with Juliet Moses here:
And here is the interview with Andrew Little:
Here is an interview with Abdur Razzaq, the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ chairperson, who led the walkout. In it, he complains that Islam is being securitized, that is, terrorism is being conflated with the religion, and claims that Hezbollah is not a terrorist organisation, but a resistance movement:
NZFOI
In a grass clearing overlooking Wellington a memorial in the form of three steel chairs has been installed.
Unlike a typical memorial consisting of a park bench and a plaque with an idyllic view of the city, the chairs engage in simple object theatre, designer Matthijs Siljee said.
“If new visitors were to walk up the path and their eye level comes level with the grass, they will all of a sudden think ‘hey someone has left some chairs behind.’ It is in that unassuming way that the memorial will introduce itself to the visitors,” Siljee said.
Located in Ellice Park in Mt Victoria, the memorial is the first of its kind in New Zealand, commemorating Anne Frank and the 1.5 million children who were killed during the holocaust.
Israel’s parliament has narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarising leader into the opposition.
Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences.
Lana Hart’s op-ed (“How long before we can forgive?” June 7) raised many important questions regarding the justice system and the attitude toward criminal offenders, among them the recently-deceased former Waffen-SS officer Willi Huber, who achieved hero status among local skiers for his contribution to the establishment of the skiing facilities on Mt. Hutt. Ms. Hart brings several examples of people punished for their behavior and a wide range of responses by the criminals to their punishments.
And while she notes the importance of the severity of the original wrongdoing in determining a person’s punishment, and the principle of proportionality, she fails to understand the significance of Huber’s crimes and fails to attribute sufficient importance to his lack of remorse and his obvious adulation for the leader of the most genocidal regime in human history.
Israel disclosed that the Hamas terror group worked on an electronic system to disrupt the Iron Dome aerial defense system in the building housing the Associated Press’ office in Gaza, which was bombed during the hostilities in May.
During the 11-day Operation Guardian of the Walls, more than 4,300 rockets were fired by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad towards Israel. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about 90% of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome, helping to limit the number of civilian casualties and injuries.
Israel Ambassador to the United Nations and United States Gilad Erdan visited AP’s New York headquarters on Tuesday to share information on the targeting of the building, and to explain to top executives of the media outlet that it was being used by Hamas terrorists trying to “jam the Iron Dome — that is why it was prioritized by the IDF during last month’s operation.”
“While investigating how to secure the building from the missiles, a detailed assessment on 31 May 2021 revealed what appears to be a cavity and a possible tunnel, at the location of the missile strike. The depth of the cavity is approximately 7.5 meters below the surface of the school. UNRWA discovered the existence of a possible tunnel in the context of the investigation of the fired missiles. There is no indication of the existence of any entry or exit points for the tunnel within the premises.
UNRWA condemns the existence and potential use by Palestinian armed groups of such tunnels underneath its schools in the strongest possible terms. It is unacceptable that students and staff be placed at risk in such a way.”
— UNRWA
Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff supplied a list of 50 suspected war criminals decades ago, but successive governments keep classified the immigration documents that could implicate them.
The widely reported death in New Zealand last year of former Waffen-SS soldier Willi Huber served to awaken the consciousness of New Zealanders to the reality that Nazi war criminals and sympathizers live, or have lived, among them.
Huber, who migrated to New Zealand in 1953, was a keen skier. Often referred to as “a heartland hero” and “the founding father” of the South Island’s Mt. Hutt ski field, he achieved near-legendary status in the skiing fraternity and was lauded by some media. He died never having publicly expressed any remorse for his wartime activities.
Since the end of World War II, New Zealand, like Australia, has served as a sanctuary for war refugees and other displaced persons (DPs), mainly from Europe. But not all, it seems, were honest about their background.
After 12 straight years as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is losing power — and the government that’s about to replace him is remarkable in its own right.
Netanyahu’s ouster is a huge deal on its own. Over the past decade-plus, as the country’s longest-serving leader, he has become nearly synonymous with Israel — shaping its foreign and domestic policy as well as its international image, and personally guiding its relationship with the United States.
Over the past two years, his desire to hold onto power — even as he stands trial on corruption charges — along with his opponents’ desire to oust him, have driven Israel’s political system into crisis. He has become so personally polarizing that a range of ideological allies turned against him — and are on the verge of replacing him.
Now, Netanyahu’s opponents have announced that they have succeeded in defeating him. And when they get sworn in later this month, unless Netanyahu somehow manages to scuttle that, the government they form will itself break boundaries. It will be an unprecedented alliance of political right and left, Jews and Arabs, all dedicated to one goal: ending the Netanyahu era. At the same time, there are ways that, even under new leadership, Israel is unlikely to change.
Here’s what you need to know about Israel’s incoming government.
