NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
Since October 7, it has been impossible to truly understand Hamas’ motives and intentions. It can be just as hard to understand Palestinian public opinion right now. After the first few weeks of chaos, two Palestinian polls became available last week – and there is no good way to spin the results.
Just so poignant and moving.
Emily Hand had to run from house to house, forced to move by Hamas as Israeli forces attacked Gaza, her father Thomas Hand told CNN.
“That’s terrifying. Being pulled, dragged, pushed … under gunfire probably,” he said on Tuesday.
It’s one of the details that his daughter is slowly sharing of what happened after she was kidnapped on October 7 and taken to Gaza, a place she now calls “the box.”
“She’s coming out slowly, little by little,” Hand said.
“We’ll only know what she really went through as she opens up,” he told CNN. “I want to know so much information … but you have to let them, when they are ready, come out with it.”
Inspiring stuff and ICYMI: An 85-year-old Israeli peace activist, who was abducted by Hamas and released in October, said she told Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar he should be “ashamed of himself” in a Gaza tunnel.
Prior to the current series of hostage and Palestinian prisoner releases, Yocheved Lifshitz met Sinwar where she was being held captive – a Hamas tunnel she described as an extensive warren.
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.”
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!
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.
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
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.
In May, we had a commemorative luncheon to mark Israel’s 75th anniversary of its establishment.
Here is the audio recording of the event. Enjoy! Thanks to David Allan for his efforts in putting this together.
MEDIA RELEASE
19 JANUARY 2023 (Published in NZ Herald, 31 JANUARY 2023)
OPINION — Recently, there have been calls for resetting our foreign policy in respect of Israel.
For decades now, New Zealand has founded its policy on Israel on the idea of a two-state solution: the idea that a Palestinian Arab state could exist in peace alongside the modern state of Israel.
This idea is dependent on a number of assumptions:
We have sufficient history to see that each of these assumptions has been proven wrong.
Time and again, each Palestinian regime has shown that it has no appetite for peaceful co-existence with Israel. The Arab language rhetoric is clear: the annihilation of the State of Israel is the end goal, and that relentless and deadly violence will be pursued until this goal is achieved.
It is an all-or-nothing philosophy that is prepared to grind its own people into perpetual poverty and suffering. During the 2000 Camp David Summit the Palestinians were offered nearly all of their demands. Amongst anyone who is familiar with such negotiations between peoples, a truly remarkable offer.
Yet the Palestinians declined it, setting off the second intifada. The Gaza peace for land deal only resulted in even more violence. The Palestinians have now received more foreign aid than Europe did to rebuild after the Second World War. And what have they done with it? They have used it to fund hatred, murder and misery.
The Abrahamic Accords have shown that there is an appetite for peace in the Middle East. The normalisation of Israel’s relations with Sudan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and Jordan show this.
Even Saudi Arabia has allowed Israeli civilian aircraft to fly through its airspace. These are monumental signs that the other Arab Middle Eastern nations are tiring of Palestinian narrow-mindedness.
The current Palestinian regime will try to turn us against Israel by accusing it of not holding to Western liberal values while pushing a totalitarian society within their own jurisdictions.
Today, Israel is a shining light in the totalitarian darkness of the Middle East. It demonstrates that Middle Eastern peoples can live together in a true democracy, where their vote counts, where there is no threat of governmental coercion as to how they can vote, where one’s civil liberties are protected by law, where its citizens have access to health care, education and state welfare assistance, where Palestinian Arabs can study law and fight for justice, where people can truly live and whatever they lawfully wish.
The Palestinian Regime needs to understand that its current goal of annihilating Israel, by fostering a grievance industry that enriches its leaders through the suffering of its people, has been discredited. New Zealand has to reset its foreign policy in regard to the Middle East.
Only by showing that this current regime has no credibility, will a new regime emerge that is free of corruption and is willing to enter into genuine peace negotiations with Israel. Only by strengthening our trade and diplomatic relations with Israel will we positively reinforce the regional behaviours we so desire.
We do need a foreign policy reset. We would be fools to continue to persist with the current policy that superficially shows even-handed support to the Palestinian Arabs, and yet has had so little success in bringing peace over so many generations.
Tony Kan
President
NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Box 37 363
Halswell
Christchurch
New Zealand
NZ Friends of Israel Association is a registered charity that fights prejudice and intolerance through raising awareness of Jewish history and culture.
