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→ 23 January 2020
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Winston Peters defends NZ’s absence from Holocaust forum in Israel | Radio NZ

Winston Peters, NZ Minister of Foreign Affairs

NZFOI: You’ll need to read between the lines on this one…

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters is defending New Zealand’s absence from the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Israel, saying that Speaker Trevor Mallard was happy to attend but the organisers said no.
Winston Peters is defending New Zealand’s absence from the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Israel. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas

National’s foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee has labelled the non-appearance a “disgraceful decision”.

“The government has failed to send a single representative, not even the Governor-General or a minister, to this significant event. We send ministers and Members of Parliament to a number of events around the world, but not to this one,” he said.

“New Zealand received an invite, and now we are going to be one of the only first-world countries, on the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, to not be there.”

The invitation to the forum was for heads of state, which Peters said was a “mistaken impression” of New Zealand’s constitution, so the Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy was never an option.

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→ 23 January 2020
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Why is New Zealand Missing? | KiwiBlog

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

On the 23rd of January (World Holocaust Memorial Day), the Fifth World Holocaust Forum is being held in Israel, hosted by the President of Israel and Yad Vashem.

Invites were sent to many world leaders, including New Zealand. And leaders from 46 countries are attending including US Vice President Mike Pence; French President Emmanuel Macron; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Charles, the Prince of Wales; and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeie.

The attendees include:

  • Presidents – Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, EU x 3, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, US
  • Prime Ministers: Czech, Denmark, Sweden
  • Governor-General: Australia, Canada
  • Speakers: Belarus, Latvia, US
  • Monarchs: Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, UK
  • Ambassadors: Holy See
  • Ministers: Monaco

Now who is missing?

Which is the (almost) sole first world country that is absent?

New Zealand. Not only did we decide not to send the Governor-General, we’re sending no-one at all. Not even a Minister or an Ambassador.

Most of the 46 other countries are sending their heads of state or head of government. We’re not sending anyone.

The Holocaust was a crime against humanity. This Government goes on and on about human rights a lot, yet has decided not to attend the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the largest ever gathering of countries to fight anti-Semitism.

Why?

We send thousands of people to hundreds of different international conferences and gatherings. But no-one for this one.

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→ 17 January 2020
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Qassem Suleimani’s Career of Trying to Kill Jews | Mosaic

Suleimani’s funeral procession

At the funeral of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, one of the few non-family members to deliver a eulogy was the Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh—a reminder that the elite Quds Force, which Suleimani commanded for over two decades, invested much in coordinating terrorist attacks against Israel. And not only against Israel, writes Yehudit Barsky, but against Jews wherever they might be found

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→ 17 January 2020
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Nazi official who risked life to save hundreds of Jews posthumously recognized | Times of Israel

Kleinicke (centre) used his position to save many Jewish lives

BERLIN, Germany – Grasping the dais for support, 95-year-old Holocaust survivor Josef Konigsberg broke into tears. He is the only living person in Germany able to recount firsthand the bravery of Helmut Kleinicke, who was posthumously awarded the designation of Righteous Among the Nations at the Israeli Embassy in Berlin on January 14.

“This is one of the most beautiful days of my life,” Konigsberg said, locking eyes with Kleinicke’s daughter, Juta Scheffzek, who was seated not far from him. “Thank you, thank you.”

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→ 17 January 2020
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Iranians defy Officials By Refusing To Tread On U.S., Israeli Banners | Radio Free Europe

Students walk around, instead of across, U.S. and Israeli flags at the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on January 12.

Chanting “Death to America” and trampling upon and burning U.S. flags have been part of state-sponsored, anti-American acts in Iran for the past 40 years.

Yet people’s opposition to that mantra and disrespecting the flag of the United States and others has increased in the Islamic republic in recent years — with some daring to publicly question the rationale behind such acts.

Amid the fury in Iran in recent days over the establishment’s mishandling of the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), killing 176 people, students at two universities were seen walking around U.S. flags painted on the ground by officials in public acts of defiance against the clerical establishment and the state propaganda that portrays the United States and Israel as Tehran’s biggest enemies.

Videos of the incident at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University — which has been blacklisted by the United States for its nuclear-research activities — showed a majority of students moving to avoid treading upon painted American and Israeli flags.

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→ 10 January 2020
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US President Donald Trump called Iran’s bluff and won | Stuff

US President, Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump is not a strategy man. He has made clear he doesn’t like to think too far down the road; he likes to govern by instinct.

In short, he is a tactical leader, a Twitter president. Tactical leaders tend to make mistakes, largely because they cannot see the long-term implications of their decisions.

On Iran, however, President Donald Trump has not made a mistake.

His tactical game has worked, at least for the moment. He has called Iran’s bluff, taken out one of its most valuable leaders and, so far, made the correct calculation that Tehran will not risk a wider war with the United States.

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→ 8 January 2020
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Iran launches missiles at two Iraqi air bases housing US troops, in revenge for killing of top general | TVNZ

Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani

The Pentagon is confirming that Iran has launched “more than a dozen ballistic missiles” at two targets hosting against US military and coalition forces in Iraq.

‘More than a dozen’ ballistic missiles were fired from Iran at two US bases in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. Source: Associated Press

Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman says “It is clear that these missiles were launched from Iran.”

He says the attacks “targeted at least two Iraqi military bases” at Ain Assad and Irbil.
Hoffman says the US is “working on initial battle damage assessments.”

Iranian state TV says the attack was in revenge for the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, whose funeral Tuesday prompted angry calls to avenge his death.

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→ 7 January 2020
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Solidarity March Against Anti-Semitism: Thousands Rally After Attacks | NY Times

NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 05: People participate in a Jewish solidarity march across the Brooklyn Bridge on January 5, 2020 in New York City. The march was held in response to a recent rise in anti-Semitic crimes in the greater New York metropolitan area.

Tens of thousands of people, some covered in Israeli flags and others singing Hebrew songs, poured into Lower Manhattan on Sunday in a show of solidarity for New York’s Jewish community in the wake of a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in the region in the last month.

The most recent attack occurred inside a Hasidic rabbi’s home in a New York City suburb, when a man wielding a machete stabbed at least five people who had gathered for Hanukkah celebrations.

The violence has shaken the Jewish community in the New York area and underscored the startling rise of these types of hate crimes across the country: Anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — the nation’s three largest cities — are poised to hit an 18-year peak, according to an upcoming report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

“We’re not afraid to stand together, to be able to stand against violence and promote nonviolence,” said Leslie Meyers, 44, who attended Sunday’s rally, which was organized by the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, along with dozens of other advocacy and Jewish community groups.

Speaking to the crowd on Sunday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that New York will increase funding for security at religious institutions and will also increase the presence of the state police force and hate crimes task force in vulnerable communities. Mr. Cuomo said he also plans to propose a new state law labeling hate crimes as domestic terrorism.

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→ 6 January 2020
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What the killing of the top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani means for Jews, the US and Israel | JTA

Crowds gather for Suleimani’s Funeral Procession

A U.S. strike on a vehicle near Baghdad airport early Friday morning killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most influential military commander. Soleimani was the leader of the Iranian Quds Force, which had ties to American and Israeli enemies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and was directly responsible for some of the actions against Israel in Hezbollah’s war against the Jewish state in 2006.

Washington has been gripped by talk about what comes next — a real war between the U.S. and Iran? Iranian strikes on Israel? a string reaction of chaos across the Middle East? — but little actual insight as to what may ensue.

Still, there are already signs that one possible outcome is being taken seriously: attacks on domestic targets, including Jewish ones, like the gathering this weekend of what could be thousands of Jews to protest anti-Semitism in New York City. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter that he had spoken with top police officials about “immediate steps” the NYPD will take to protect key city locations from “any attempt by Iran or its terrorist allies to retaliate against America.”

Here’s what you need to know about the assassination, and what it means for American Jews and Israel.

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→ 5 January 2020
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Iran seemingly in no hurry to avenge US killing of top general Qasem Soleimani | Stuff

Donald Trump’s decision to assassinate a top Iranian general, said to be the chief architect of instability in the region, is the next response to a string of Iranian sponsored attacks.

As US President Donald Trump has been ramping up sanctions and threats against Iran over the past eight months, Tehran has been operating on the assumption that he would not dare risk an outright war, especially with an election approaching.

The drone strike that ended the life of General Qasem Soleimani, the strategy’s architect and chief enforcer, blew up that calculation, creating a stunning new dilemma for Iran’s leaders as they look for ways to retaliate – without the benefit of their master strategist.

That Iran will retaliate is not in question, analysts say. Not to do so would be a sign of weakness that could jeopardise the enormous influence Iran has gained in the region over the past four decades.

The targeted killing of Soleimani eroded the deterrent that Iran believed it had established with a campaign of attacks against shipping in the Persian Gulf and rocket strikes on bases in Iraq, said Kamel Wazne, a Beirut-based political analyst. From Iran’s point of view it is now imperative to restore that, he said.

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