NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
The September issue of our newsletter is out.
We’re continuing to have problems emailing our newsletter to Gmail, Hotmail and Xtra account holders. If you are one of our members and you’re not receiving our newsletter, then you can download it from here.
In case you missed our briefing with Iran expert Behnam Ben Taleblu, here is an interview with Leighton Smith on NewsTalk ZB:
Folks, we held a farewell reception for HE Ambassador Ran Yaakoby last Tuesday evening.
Here is a transcript of our address to His Excellency and the rest of the audience:
Your Excellency Ran Yaakoby, the Ambassador of the State of Israel to New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Niue and Tonga.
Father Barry Malone of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish of the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
Members of the Committee of New Zealand Friends of Israel
Members of the New Zealand Friends of Israel
Before we get started, there are some housekeeping matters to deal with.
I was flying with a budget Airline in the US called Spirit.
As usual, there was a safety announcement made before the flight began.
They said if an oxygen mask falls down in front of you, please stop screaming, let go of your fellow passenger, if you are travelling with your children, decide which has the most earning potential after college and decide from there who to put the mask on first.
To activate the flow of oxygen, swipe your credit card for the first minute because you are flying Spirit Airlines, a budget airline.
They said: We won’t let you smoke onboard our aircraft during the flight, but if you can step out on the wing, you may, if you can light it, we will let you smoke it. We are very accommodating at Spirit.
To the rest of the passengers, you’re in for a treat. As soon as the smokers step out on the wing, the inflight movie will automatically change to “Gone with the Wind”.
At NZ Friends of Israel, we are much less dramatic.
In the unlikely event of an earthquake or fire, the exits are well signed, and the assembly point is the car park on Rutland St.
You will not need your credit card.
After the formalities are over, you are very welcome to join us for light refreshments.
The toilets are through that door to my right and right again…
So ends our inflight announcements.
Your excellency, I’m sure that when you were appointed to become the Ambassador for Israel to New Zealand, you wouldn’t have thought that it would be so eventful.
In 2020, COVID-19 swept through the world. We were horrified by what we saw in New York City and Italy, which dismayed the world and countries worldwide went into lockdown.
The world owes a debt to Israel who took actions that gave the world much more confidence to use the new vaccines.
Who knows how many millions of lives were saved by your country’s courage?
In a breakthrough step toward long-term peace, the Abrahamic Accords meant normalization of relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
In the West, four horsemen have been unleashed into the world and are causing mayhem and confusion, dividing societies and weakening their ability to discern good from evil.
These four horsemen are Settler Colonialism, Critical Race Theory, Neo-Marxism and Linguistic Theft.
Together they have created a toxic mix that has allowed the false accusations of colonialism, apartheid, illegal occupiers, genocide, and baby killers against Israel to take hold.
Your excellency, we see these things and we know that:
1. Jews are indigenous to the region and to call Jews colonizers is a lie.
2. Jews come in all different races and colors and to call them white settler colonialists is a lie.
3. We see people of different races and religions given equal access to education, employment and so we see them in every walk of life, in government, in the judiciary, in academia, in commerce, in trades, delivery people, cleaners, and civil servants; at every level of society no matter how much prestige that level gets, and so we know the accusation of apartheid is another lie.
4. It’s been nearly fifty years since NZ has seen war. For most of us we’ve never seen it first hand. War is ugly. War is tragic. Civilians die in war; The UN studied modern urban warfare and said that the ratio of civilian deaths to combatant deaths is about 9 to 1.
Yet all military experts agree that Israel has taken steps to evacuate civilians from the battlefront, have brought this ratio down from 9 to 1 to 1.5 to 2.5 to 1. Unfortunately in saving lives, the element of surprise is lost and so the war is prolonged. Yet, there are no regrets, for we all agree life is precious.
We all want the killing to stop. But war is necessary, because every government has a duty to protect its vulnerable, punish wrongdoing and to deter further wrongdoing. Hamas has promised that given the oppportunity, it will repeat October 7 all over again. Only war can prevent Hamas from fulfilling their promise.
Hamas knew that Oct 7 would bring war. And it would put their people in harm’s way. Yet they pulled the trigger anyway and hid in their tunnels while their women and children paid the price.
Even the ICJ judge who presided over the question of genocide stated that her court’s decision was misreported by media. Thus the accusation of genocide is also a lie.
5. We see Israeli Arabs and other minorities saying they wouldn’t want to live under the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, or Hezbollah. We don’t see people lining up to emigrate to China, Russia, your neighbouring countries or Northern Africa.
They want to live in freedom, and thus there are people queuing to live in Israel, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. There is a reason. They want to live in freedom. Thus the neo-Marxist accusation that Israel is an oppressor is also a lie. The wise and sensible know this and they are voting with their feet. Thus the accusation that Israel is the oppressor tyranny based on neo-Marxist ideas, is also a lie.
6. We see the linguist thieves who try to hijack words like resistance and occupation as if they can share in the honor and nobility of the French Resistance of WW2.
But did the French Resistance ever execute German civilians at gunpoint like in October 7?
Did they take German civilians hostage like in October 7? Did they roast German babies in ovens?
Did they rape German girls in front of their parents like in October 7?
In hijacking the idea of resistance they tarnish the good work of the French Resistance.
Through linguistic theft, they try to steal the word resistance and claim its nobility for themselves.
Churchill once said that the first casualty of war is the truth. And indeed, Israel is beset by a concerted campaign of mis- and disinformation that has gathered so much momentum that it has created a kind of anti-semitic hysteria.
The big lie can be beaten. We can beat it with the Truth. In truth, there is freedom. We certainly need to be more savvy and direct in our messaging.
And unfortunately, it may take more war to beat tyranny. Many NZers have a strong belief in pacificism. Unfortunately, the world in which swords will be beaten into plowshares is not yet.
While some people believe that the only way to accomplish their goals is through a winner-take-all, fight to the death, a strong robust defense is necessary.
The world is in a fight between freedom and tyranny. Israel is at the forefront of this battle.
Tyranny may try to hide behind religion, it may hide behind political philosophies such as Self-Determination, Marxism, Nationalism, and Communism. But in the end, tyranny is the true source of oppression.
October 7 was horrific and revealed the depth of evil that Tyranny can bring.
But adversity can also bring out the best in people.
In New Zealand, many New Zealanders have seen fit to organize marches and vigils to support Israel and the hostages.
I’d like to publicly thank Bobby and Judah Meyer, Ravit Abraham, and Orla for organizing the weekly Solidarity march and vigil at the Bridge of Remembrance. It has been held without a break, rain or shine since October. [clap]
I know there are many of you that have regularly attended the Solidarity march, risking abuse, hot sun, heavy rain and freezing wind. I would like us to show our appreciation to your commitment to righteousness too. [clap]
Other NZers have travelled to Israel and brought back stories that have greatly moved us.
We had Bryce Turner speak at one of our events and we were horrified by the story of a raped teenager who subsequently discovered she was pregnant.
As the adults in her family argued about the fate of the baby, the girl emerged from her room, to rightly declare that the baby had done nothing wrong, and the baby would live.
Tyranny and evil bring great tragedy. But it also brings out the best among the noble and true.
New Zealand and Israel share many values.
We both believe that all humans are created equal, we both believe in democracy, the freedom of speech, freedom of association, the freedom of religion, an independent news industry, a separation of government from police, the military and the judiciary; we both believe in the rule of law.
No matter what people may say, Israel today is a shining light of democracy, a source of economic growth and employment, and a great example of plurality and tolerance.
These values are antithetical to tyrants. As long as Israel exists, it might give ideas to the citizens of neighbouring countries, ideas that might make them want freedom too.
A significant number of NZers feel joined to all Jews in Israel and the diaspora because they worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Not all New Zealanders are taken in by the big lie.
NZ Friends of Israel and other supporters in our community can see through the big lie.
October 7 has shocked us too and reminded us of the grim reality that some are not just debating ideas, but are prepared to take away our freedom to impose their will on us through deadly force.
Since October 7, our community has been galvanized into action, in many towns and cities there are brave organizers who have led regular marches and vigils for the hostages.
There are those who are devoting themselves to be social media warriors, recognizing that, social media is a significant debating chamber of today’s modern society and that this is an important battlefront.
We NZers join all Jews in Israel and the Diaspora in working towards a lasting peace in the Middle East, a Middle East where all peoples may flourish, mutually contributing to the success and prosperity of each other. Where one day, swords may be turned into plowshares. But that time is not yet.
As you return to Israel, I hope that you will not feel that Jews in Israel or in the Diaspora stand alone against the dark forces of evil.
Instead, you will know that you have many friends in New Zealand, friends who are faithful and true, who will not give up on you, who will proudly stand with you, and speak up for you, until righteousness prevails.
Thank you.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Hi Folks
Here is a database of all the Israeli hostages known to us and their current status.
Sadly many have died. May their memory be a blessing to all.
Yet many still live.
We would like it to be a resource that can be referred back to and also for those who wish to pray, something to focus your prayers.
With a database like this, it could be easily a numbers or statistical thing but we have included postage stamp images of the hostages faces and included commentary about them so that we never forget that they are human beings.
What happened on October 7 was a crime against humanity and therefore a crime against us all.
We will keep updating it weekly until the crisis is over.
NZFOI
There are two indigenous peoples who cherish the same land, Jews and Arabs.
Both were offered statehood. The Jews said we’ll give coexistence a shot and accepted. The Arabs said, no way, we want a winner takes all, fight to the death. And there has been death ever since.
On October 7, Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel that had been years in the planning.
For years, they had been gathering intelligence on Israel’s border and kibbutz security arrangements through Gazans employed by Israelis as agricultural and domestic workers.
By utilizing the latest use of drone warfare techniques learnt from the Russo-Ukrainian War, approximately 3,000 militants largely neutralized Israel’s frontline security and attacked communities up to 15 km within Israel.
The attacks were marked by indiscriminate, mutilations, rape, executions, abductions and acts of spectacular cruelty. Extensive video recordings were taken by the attackers, showing considerable glee and joy as they carried out their crimes against humanity. Up to 1,210 murders were carried out and up to 250 were taken hostage.
Israel’s government faced with the its duty to:
Had no choice except to declare war to ensure that a further attack would not occur, to deter other organizations from repeating similar attacks and to reassure its citizenry that they could be safe.
Its objectives are therefore to survive and take advantage of Western cultural repugnance toward fatalities among women and children and ignorance of what war involves to undermine world support for Israel.
To expedite this objective, Hamas infiltrates mainstream media outlets with “independent” journalist contractors, controls what can be released to media and actively seeks images, and video footage of wounded, dying or dead children.
Media coverage of this conflict is disproportionately represented by such images and video footage when compared to other conflicts currently underway in Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen.
Casualty figures are produced by the Gaza Ministry of Health which itself is controlled by Hamas, yet Western media nearly always publishes these figures without cautionary statements, as if they can be accepted at face value.
Hamas holds strongly to a religious tradition of martyrdom and sees civilian fatalities as a necessary price for victory.
Victim’s bodies and hostages are used as trophies to demonstrate to the Arab world their continuing resistance and to undermine Israeli prestige.
Their propaganda messaging has evolved as the war progresses:
To the Arabic speaking world the messaging is quite different:
In reality,
For many years, Hamas has built up to 700kms of tunnels beneath Gaza leaving very few city blocks without tunnels underneath them. Each block contains multiple exits.
Hamas’ tactics include
Under the Geneva Convention doing so, relieves these structures from their immunity from violence, and thus the IDF has entered schools, hospitals and UN facilities whenever they have evidence that Hamas has operated from them. The Western public unaware of this dynamic have voiced outrage.
Unfortunately, in war, and in particular urban warfare, civilian fatalities are inevitable. In all conflicts, experts have said up to 10% of civilians will refuse to evacuate.
In 2022, the UN said in recent history, for every combatant killed in urban warfare, 9 civilians die. Israel has taken more steps than any other modern military force to minimize civilian deaths.
They do this by forewarning the civilian population before beginning operations in a particular neighbourhood. This allows civilians to evacuate but it also means Hamas evacuates too as human shields are not effective unless they are in close proximity.
This minimizes civilian deaths but also has the effect of prolonging the conflict.
Even after Hamas has been defeated, its leadership in exile, and all hope of any remaining hostages extinguished; the hatred, prejudice and intolerance is so deeply ingrained among Palestinians and Arabs that it will take at least a whole generation of re-education to dislodge it.
Evidence of how deeply ingrained these beliefs are include:
There are likely to be several phases before a stable solution can be fashioned. The war is an opportunity for the civilian population to be freed from Hamas’ tyranny:
Hamas has expressed a number of motives for planning and executing the October 7 massacre.
Revitalize Arab support for Hamas: For a number of years their Arab allies had been losing their patience with Palestinian intransigence after repeatedly rejecting offers of statehood multiple times, Over the years, Israel was becoming an economic force in the Middle East and Iran was expanding its regional influence, building a bridge of vassal states toward the Mediterranean. Improving relations with Israel would help these Arab states counter Iran’s influence and provide an opportunity for economic betterment through trade with Israel. The Abrahamic Accords gave tangible evidence that such talk had evolved into action.
Revitalize Western support for Hamas: The Russo-Ukrainian War had not only diverted the West’s attention but also diverted much of their appetite for financially supporting the Palestinians as the need to re-arm grew to meet the Russian threat.
Revitalize domestic support Hamas: Hamas like all authoritarian regimes maintains its control through intimidation and repression. Despite receiving considerable foreign aid, it diverts most of it to the prosecution of its winner-takes all, fight to the death war and into its leader’s private bank accounts. Hamas’ cruelty and deteriorating living standards meant growing public dissastisfaction.
To rebuild support it must win hearts and minds.
To win hearts and minds, it must build an effective propaganda campaign from a one-off attack on a scale that makes it impossible for Israel not to ignore it.
In developing an attack to solve these problems, Hamas does not need to win a conventional military victory. A conventional military victory is beyond its reach anyway.
All it needs to do is to survive to win.
Just in case the killings were not sufficient, Hamas instructed its people to record their acts and post them widely on social media.
The extensive 500-700 km of tunnels and its human shields tactic would ensure its survival.
Unlike Hamas’ attack which was over in a day or two, the tunnels would ensure Israel’s campaign would be comparatively long and arduous.
This dynamic leans into the nature of the news cycle where audiences have relatively short memories and great sympathy for underdogs and the downtrodden.
The wokes would then pick up the underdog story and amplify it.
The enduring nature of any Israeli campaign and the inevitable civilian casualties that urban warfare brings would produce more than enough nightly images of wounded, dying and dead children.
These nightly images would serve to spark, fuel and reinforce the horror and anger that Western audiences will inevitably feel over Israel’s perceived cruelty.
Teams of Hamas operatives were charged with taking photographs of wounded, dying and dead children and making them available to “accredited” Gazan photo-journalists contracted to mainstream media outlets such as CNN, BBC and Aljazeera.
Indeed, the greatest risk Hamas faced was the chance that not enough victims would be killed on October 7 to incite a war.
Hamas’ propaganda campaign looks to build the following key idea:
That Israel is callously killing civilians out of homicidal revenge on a scale that minimizes the October 7 attack.
Key ideas to support this base idea includes:
“Israel is fighting a war on children”
“Israel is callously victimizing innocent Gazan civilians through horrendous collateral damage and withholding humanitarian aid causing famine.”
“Israel has stolen our land.”
“All Jews are white settler colonialists.”
Thousands of Western citizens are being convinced that Hamas’ messaging is credible.
That credibility is built on public trust in Western media.
Unfortunately, Western mainstream media often do not inform their audiences that much of the information they present has not been independently verified and quote information supplied by the Gaza Ministry of Health without question.
So far (May 2024), Hamas’ propaganda campaign has been remarkably successful. Thousands have marched in support of Gaza’s “innocent” citizens, and in so doing fall into Hamas’ trap.
In so doing, they knowingly and unknowingly side with and enable perpetrators of tyranny, mutilation, rape, torture and massacres of innocent civilians to prolong their religious mission to destroy all Jews.
Hamas Says Goal of October 7 Attack on Israel Was to ‘Overthrow’ Status Quo (businessinsider.com)
The October 7th Catastrophe. Why Did It Happen? | Hillel Schenker | The Blogs (timesofisrael.com)
‘Hamas gambled with our lives’: Gazans dare to speak out – CSMonitor.com
Protests against Hamas reemerge in the streets of Gaza, but will they persist? | The Times of Israel
Proportionality Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means In Gaza (forbes.com)
How genocide is defined—and why it’s so difficult to prove (nationalgeographic.com)
How Hamas is winning the propaganda war against Israel (msn.com)
How the subterranean maze below the Gaza Strip works.
The Gaza Strip has all the harrowing pitfalls soldiers have learned to expect from urban warfare: high-rise ambushes, truncated lines of sight and, everywhere, vulnerable civilians with nowhere to hide.
But as Israeli ground forces inch their way forward in Gaza, the bigger danger may prove to be underfoot.
The Hamas militants who launched a bloody attack on Israel last month have built a maze of hidden tunnels some believe extend across most if not all of Gaza, the territory they control.
And they are not mere tunnels.
Snaking beneath dense residential areas, the passageways allow fighters to move around free from the eye of the enemy. There are also bunkers for stockpiling weapons, food and water, and even command centers and tunnels wide enough for vehicles, researchers believe.
Ordinary-looking doors and hatches serve as disguised access points, letting Hamas fighters dart out on missions and then slip back out of sight.
No outsider has an exact map of the network, and few Israelis have seen it firsthand.
But photos and video and reports from people who have been in the tunnels suggest the basic outlines of the system and how it is used. The source material includes photographs taken inside the passageways by journalists, accounts from researchers who study the tunnels, and details of the network that emerged from Israeli forces when they invaded Gaza in 2014.
Tactical tunnels
These concrete-reinforced structures are more than a transit pipeline. They serve as shelters against attacks, planning rooms, ammunition warehouses and spaces for hostages.
Illustration by Marco Hernandez
Dismantling the tunnels is a key part of Israel’s goal of wiping out Hamas’s leadership in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack.
Israel has used the existence of the tunnels as justification for bombing civilian areas, including after a large Israeli airstrike hit a densely populated area in the Jabaliya neighborhood. Hamas has denied its tunnels were under some of the specific sites struck by Israel, and it is often impossible to verify Israel’s claims.
To destroy tunnels on the ground, Israeli troops in Gaza will need to find entrances that are often hidden in the basements of civilian buildings, leading into concrete-lined tunnels, imagery suggests. They are typically just six and a half feet tall and three feet wide, experts said, forcing fighters to move through them single file.
One 85-year-old Israeli woman who was held hostage for 17 days in the tunnels after being kidnapped on Oct. 7 described being marched through a “spider web” of wet and humid tunnels. She eventually reached a large hall where two dozen other hostages were being held, she said.
There are still believed to be more than 200 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas, and many are likely in the very tunnels Israel aims to destroy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that bringing them home is one of the two main aims of the invasion, the other being to “destroy Hamas.”
The tunnels used for hiding Hamas equipment and fighters are not the only hidden passageways in Gaza.
After Hamas came to power in 2007, and Israel tightened its blockade of the territory, an extensive network of smuggling tunnels grew under the border between Gaza and Egypt. These tunnels are used to circumvent the blockade and allow the import of a wide variety of goods, from weapons and electronic equipment to construction materials and fuel.
The Egyptian authorities have made extensive efforts to destroy these smuggling routes, including pumping seawater to flood the network and collapse many of the tunnels. But some smuggling tunnels are still believed to be in operation.
Smuggling tunnels
These tunnels have been documented in the Rafah area, where they are used to bring all types of goods and products into Gaza from Egypt.
Illustration by Marco Hernandez
Although the Israeli military far surpasses Hamas’s in both size and equipment, fighting an enemy with its own network of tunnels is a high-risk undertaking.
John W. Spencer, who studies urban warfare at the U.S. Military Academy’s Modern War Institute, describes it as more like “fighting under the sea than it is on the surface or inside of a building.”
“Nothing that you use on the surface works,” he said recently on the Modern Warfare Project podcast. “You have to have specialized equipment to breathe, to see, to navigate, to communicate and to deploy lethal means, especially shooting.”
One of the main dangers of going into the tunnels is that Hamas has booby-trapped the entrances with explosives, experts say.
“The moment they realize the Israelis have entered the tunnels, they will just press the button and the entire thing could collapse on the Israelis,” said Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow at King’s College London who specializes in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The challenge of disabling tunnels
The danger does not end after a tunnel is detected.
Illustration by Marco Hernandez
Israeli forces will probably not be able to destroy the entire tunnel network.
“It is just too big, and there’s no point in dismantling all of it,” said Dr. Bregman. Instead, they will focus on blocking the entrances to the tunnels, likely by calling in airstrikes, or having engineers destroy them with explosives.
They are also unlikely to take their fight underground — unless they believe they have no other choice.
Entering the tunnels would strip Israeli forces of their advantages, Dr. Bregman said. At the moment, the Israelis are making headway with a mass of troops, tanks and helicopters.
“The moment you get down to the tunnel, it is one against one,” he said.
Sources: The Israel Defense Forces; testimony before the United Nations by Eado Hecht, a military analyst who teaches at the Israeli military’s Command and General Staff College and at Bar-Ilan and Haifa Universities; video reports from Deutsche Welle News, VICE News and social media; reference photographs from EPA Images, Getty Images and Agence France-Presse.
Adam Goldman, Helene Cooper and Justin Scheck contributed reporting.
Source: M Hernandez, J Holder, NYT, Nov 10, 2023
Here we give some ideas on how to reconcile some of the issues that conflict Christians regarding the Israeli-Gaza War of 2023:
1. How do we reconcile scriptures that command us to “love our enemies” and “turn the other cheek” with ideas of justice, self defense and war?
In Romans 12 and 13 we have clues to the answer to this question:
In Romans 12 it says:
“Be patient in tribulation” Romans 12:12
“Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse you” Romans 12:13
“Repay no one evil for evil” Romans 12:17
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” Romans 12:18
“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will hea burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
These exhortations are right and true at an individual level.
Paul then takes the conversation up to a whole new level when he discusses the role of our governing authorities in Romans 13:1-6:
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.”
In these verses, governing authorities bear “the sword” to:
• Protect the vulnerable;
• Punish wrongdoing; and
• Prevent further wrongdoing.
This framework can help you to make sense of Hamas and the Israeli government’s objectives and conduct in this war.
That is, how is Hamas or the Israeli government, protecting the vulnerable, punishing wrongdoing and preventing further wrongdoing?
2. From a biblical perspective, should we take sides?
There are a number of perspectives that can inform the Christian on this question.
We are to do justice: Micah 6:8 requires Christians to “do justice.”
Justice is rightly symbolized by a statue of a woman who is:
• Blindfolded: This is to show that justice is impartial. Christians should not take sides.
• Holds a set of scales: Good justice should be based on good evidence. But not all evidence is good and must be weighted or tested. In war, the first casualty is the truth. Thus we should not jump to conclusions. Information must be tested. Where has it come from? Is it verified?
• Holds a sword: Justice must punish wrongdoers and deter wrongdoers from further wrongdoing.
Christians are connected to Israel, and the future of Israel and Jews are tied up with the future of Christians: There are many Christians who connect Israel to Christianity from a eschatological (or prophetic) perspective. Inevitably these discussions take enquirers into realms of much speculation and conjecture. For this reason, we won’t go into this topic at all.
Paul says:
* Christians should call Abraham their father (Romans 4:16-17).
* Christians are fellow heirs of the Promises (Eph 3:6). And those promises relate directly to the Land of Israel (Gen 15:7).
* Christians are adopted into the family of God (Gal 4:4-7).
* The gifts given to Israel are irrevocable (Romans 11:26ff).
* The dividing wall between those with a Jewish heritage and non-Jewish heritage is broken down, united as one (Eph 2:13ff)
* Christians are in some way grafted in to the Jewish metaphorical tree (Romans 11:11ff).
Taken together, there is sufficient there to suggest that the future of those with a Jewish heritage, Israel and Christians are in some cosmic way tied together.
Though connected, Christians must still “do justice.”
3. OK, I get that we have to do justice, so but it seems unfair and tragic that over 35,000 Gazans have died when only 1,200 died on the Israeli side of the border on October 7?
First, we must weigh the evidence. The 35,000 figure is produced by the Gazan Ministry of Health. This organization is governed by Hamas who administer Gaza at the end of a deadly weapon. The figure doesn’t different differentiate between civilians and combatants, nor natural casualties such as death from old age, car accidents or cancer.
Secondly, we have already said that the Israeli government has a duty to protect the vulnerable, punish wrongdoing and prevent further wrongdoing. It’s the third leg that requires a war. Hamas has already promised that however long it takes, it is committed to carrying out more October 7-like attacks. The Israel government therefore has no choice but to eliminate Hamas otherwise other groups such as Islamic Jihad will be emboldened to copy these attacks too.
The UN has carried out research on urban warfare in recent history throughout the world. They found that for every combatant killed, about 9 civilians are killed too.
The IDF estimate they have killed over 10,000 Hamas combatants. If this and the 35,000 figure is to be believed, then the ratio in Gaza is about 1 to 3.5. A figure much lower than the UN’s historical finding of 1 to 9.
How is it so low? Because Israel is giving away the element of surprise and warning where it will attack in advance so that civilians can evacuate. But of course, this allows Hamas to evacuate too as civilians are no good as human shields if they are not nearby. Unfortunately, that also means that the war will be prolonged.
4. Is Israel targeting children?
War is hell. And civilians, especially in an urban battlefield, are tragically put in harm’s way.
In the first four months of the war it seemed like the majority of news items had a dead, dying or wounded children on display.
Yet there were three other major conflicts under way in the world, in the Ukraine, Myanmar and Yemen. There are children dying in those conflicts too, but they aren’t being covered in the same way.
The pictures and video footage are coming from Gazan photographers and videographers. Many of whom are affiliated or even controlled by Hamas.
Hamas knows that they cannot win a conventional military war, so this is a war to win hearts and minds after the Ukraine sucked the oxygen away from the Palestinian cause and Arab nations were tired of funding them when they were repeatedly rejecting offers of statehood.
Therefore, they are intentionally putting children in front of cameras to undermine support for Israel, promote the underdog story and reinforce their victimhood.
You are being played.
6. But why has Israel destroyed so many civilian structures, and fought in schools, hospitals and UN facilities?
The London Underground has some 160 km of tunnels. The NYC subway has 420 km of tunnels. Gaza is the size of Ashburton. Yet there are 500-700 km of tunnels dug under there. If there are so many tunnels, what percentage of civilian blocks have no tunnels? Very few. Putting tunnels and exit holes in residential buildings turns them into legitimate military targets.
Returning hostages and soldiers have said the tunnels are often some fifty feet deep or more. This is why Israel has used very large bombs to destroy them.
Under international laws of war, if a civilian structure is used for military purposes, it loses its immunity. Hamas believes it is acceptable to fight from residential apartments, and use schools, UN facilities and hospitals for weapons storage and operational command posts.
There are several interviews of captured Hamas operatives who have explained that they do so because Israel by and large, does not bomb schools, hospitals and UN facilities.
6. Has Israel committed genocide?
Nearly all independent commentators have examined this issue and decided that in the context of the October 7 attacks, and Hamas’ public statements that they intend to repeat them, then the measures Israel has taken to prevent further attacks, is justified and not an attempt to commit genocide.
Most people misinterpreted the International Court of Justice’s ruling earlier in the year. In fact, they said that its plausible for South Africa to have the right to bring a case, and that the Gazans had a plausible right to be protected from genocide.
They did not rule that the claim of genocide was plausible.
7. Are the Palestinians victims of colonisation?
At its heart, two tangata whenua cherish the same land. Both were offered statehood. One was willing to give coexistence a shot, and accepted. The other rejected the offer, and opted for a winner takes all, fight to the death. And there has been dying ever since.
Settler colonisation is about foreigners displacing tangata whenua from their homeland, not tangata whenua returning to their homeland.
The land was never stolen from them as the Arabs never had manu whenua over the Land. They gave up their opportunity for much of the land when they gambled on winning their winner takes all, fight to the death, and lost.
The Nakba is the basis for their victimhood, and it is a lie, a falsehood.
The other day, a mother shared with me how her daughter was shocked to think that her parents sided with Israel amidst “the genocidal massacre of Palestinian children.” They have since agreed that this topic is off-limits. This mother talked about how much anxiety it caused her, know that there was this rift be-tween them. How can we talk to our family, friends and loved ones? Here’s a guide to ensure that your conversations will be constructive.
Within living memory of the Holocaust, after which the world said it would never happen again, antisemitism has returned.
But what is antisemitism and why should its return be cause for grave concern, not only for Jews but for all of us?
Historically, antisemitism has been hard to define, because it expresses itself in such contradictory ways. Before the Holocaust, Jews were hated because they were poor and because they were rich; because they were communists and because they were capitalists; because they kept to themselves and because they infiltrated everywhere; because they clung to ancient religious beliefs and because they were rootless cosmopolitans who believed nothing.
So what is antisemitism? Let’s be clear – not liking people because they’re different isn’t antisemitism. It’s xenophobia. Criticising Israel isn’t antisemitism: it’s part of the democratic process, and Israel is a democracy.
Antisemitism is something much more dangerous – it means persecuting Jews and denying them the right to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else.
It’s a prejudice that like a virus, has survived over time by mutating.
So in the Middle Ages, Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they were reviled because of their race. Today, Jews are attacked because of the existence of their nation-state, Israel. Denying Israel’s right to exist is the new antisemitism.
And just as antisemitism has mutated, so has its legitimisation. Each time, as the persecution descended into barbarity, the persecutors reached for the highest form of justification available.
In the Middle Ages, it was religion. In post-Enlightenment Europe it was science: the so called scientific study of race. Today it is human rights.
Whenever you hear human rights invoked to deny Israel’s right to exist, you are hearing the new antisemitism.
So, why has it returned? There are many reasons but one root cause is the cognitive failure called scapegoating.
When bad things happen to a group, its members can ask one of two questions: “What did we do wrong?” or “Who did this to us?” The entire fate of the group will depend on which it chooses.
If it asks, “What did we do wrong?” it has begun the process of healing the harm. If instead it asks, “Who did this to us?” it has defined itself as a victim. It will then seek a scapegoat to blame for all its problems.
Classically this has been the Jews, because for a thousand years they were the most conspicuous non-Christian minority in Europe and today because Israel is the most conspicuous non-Muslim country in the Middle East.
The argument is always the same. We are innocent; therefore they are guilty. Therefore if we are to be free, they – the Jews or the state of Israel – must be destroyed. That is how the great evils begin.
Why then should we all care about this? After all, if we’re not Jewish, what has it got to do with us?
The answer is that antisemitism is about the inability of a group to make space for difference.
And because we are all different, the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.
It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Hitler. It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Stalin. It isn’t Jews alone who suffer under the radical Islamists and others who deny Israel’s right to exist.
Antisemitism is the world’s most reliable early warning sign of a major threat to freedom, humanity and the dignity of difference.
It matters to all of us. Which is why we must fight it together.
[NZFOI: And today in 2024, with the trending ideas around Settler Colonialism, Critical Race Theory and Neo-Marxism, the destruction of Israel is falsely justified with ideas that Jews are White Settler Colonialists who are Oppressing the Palestinians. The Palestinians lean into this thinking, portraying themselves as underdogs. They are adept at re-spinning the narrative into supporting their victimhood, while conveniently ignoring the amount of foreign aid, they have received, diverting most of it toward righting a winner takes all, fight to the death war, and graft.
It is often argued that anti-Israel and anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism and semantically this should be true. However, NZFOI has observed that whenever the level of conflict flairs up between Israel and the Palestinians, acts of Anti-Semitism also become much more prevalent throughout the rest of the world.]
