Gerry Brownlee’s new “kith and kin”

By
John Minto
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41
75

I’ve never thought much of Gerry Brownlee. He appears to me a typical right-winger with the added disability of a nasty personality.

Brownlee’s defenders say he just speaks his mind bluntly when he needs to but that’s not the problem.

He’s an old-fashioned bully on behalf of “old money” Christchurch – the ruling elite who live in his wealthy Ilam electorate.

When he praises anyone – such as he has the Christchurch City Council – it’s because he has them right where he wants them. Under his thumb.

He’s an easy target for jokes: “Here comes Gerry – lock up your pies” as an acquaintance said to me recently.

I didn’t pick him as particularly ideological. I would have thought his politics were pragmatic right wing rather than ideological right wing.

I’ve changed my view this last 24 hours with his aggressive pro-Israel stance.

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In one of his first acts as Foreign Minister he has written to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to get our diplomatic relations “back on track” after Israel withdrew its ambassador to New Zealand last December following our co-sponsoring of a security council resolution which condemned Israel for continuing to build Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land.

Settlement-building on Palestinian land is one of many Israeli provocations which are blatant violations of international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Brownlee announced:

“I’ve sent a letter to Mr Netanyahu yesterday firstly congratulating them on their national day but expressing a desire for the Israeli-New Zealand relationship to get back on track and to do that by recognising that we’ve got synergies and innovation and agriculture and various other things like that.”

Since then Brownlee has gone much further by repeating streams of Israeli propaganda as fact.

I shouldn’t have been surprised at Brownlee’s expressed close affinity with Israel. Around this time last year as Defence Minister Brownlee visited Israel and met Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon – better known as the “butcher of Qana”.

Brownlee is in love with the racist Israeli state in much the same way his predecessors in the National Party were in love with our (white) “kith and kin” in apartheid South Africa.

Brownlee repeats the Israeli position that the situation can only be solved with negotiations between Israel and Palestinian representatives. This is NOT the way forward because there is a huge power imbalance between the parties and in any case Netanyahu went into the last Israeli election promising NOT to do any deal with the Palestinians. The apartheid Israeli state has never been interested in peace. They have always wanted Palestinian land much more than they want peace – hence the continuous settlement building across occupied Palestinian land.

What is needed is for the international community to insist that Israel obey international law and uphold United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Brownlee says New Zealand “should not intervene in the dispute beyond condemning terrorism”.

For Brownlee, this means that whatever murder and mayhem Israel perpetrates against Palestinians is justified as national defence while any Palestinian resistance to Israel’s military occupation is terrorism.

The world has long moved on from support for apartheid in South Africa and it is moving away from support for apartheid Israel.

International boycotts played a key role in bringing South African apartheid to an end. Through the increasingly successful international BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign the same international action will bring an end to Israeli apartheid.

Brownlee wants to move New Zealand in the opposite direction and build stronger economic relations with the racist state. This is the equivalent of putting the boot into Palestinians.

Brownlee was on the wrong side of history with apartheid South Africa and is in the same position now with apartheid Israel.

In his letter Brownlee congratulated Israel on its “National Day of Independence”.

Will he write to the Palestinian leadership on May 15th to lament with them on their Yawm an-Nakba, meaning “Day of the Catastrophe” which marks the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Israeli terror squads, the mass theft of Palestinian land and the establishment of an Israeli state based on racism towards Palestinians?

No.

They’re not his kith and kin.

 

 

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41 COMMENTS

  2. I never had any time for McCully, but at least he stood up to these bastards in the UN.
    I’m sure our relations with the Saudis will also remain cordial, despite their actions in Yemen.

  3. Yep, what a bad joke and failure for New Zealand Jerry is. English really has no idea what he doing appointing that turkey to the job.

    And his embarrassing spineless display in Aussie this week only cemented that fact.

  4. It always amuses me when white Kiwis whose ancestors stole land from the Maori opine on matters concerning Israel, yet they never ever criticise Islamic countries.

    I guess it’s just plain old Jew hatred. Kiwis are good at that

    • Our criticism is of the actions of a state, not of an ethnic group. There are plenty of Jewish people in the world, including many in Israel, who condemn the actions of the state of Israel.

    • Here’s some criticisms of Islamic countries Andy.

      Saudi Arabia is committing genocide in Yemen, supports ISIS and Al Nusra in Syria, and has the worst human rights record. Saudi Arabia and Israel enjoy a close relationship today and although they are the most evil of all Middle East countries they enjoy the support of the US and the West (and NZ) .
      Qatar has been running enforced labour camps on migrant workers, and Turkey which was a secular country has now become an Islamic one which supports various terrorist groups in Syria and is trying to annihilate the Kurds from Iraq and Syria.

      As for Gerry, a choleric, cantankerous and dyspetic buffoon with as much diplomatic skills as Trump on his early morning rampage on Twitter.

      • Jax, Andy is only concerned about human rights in “Islamic” countries when it suits him. Mostly to deflect criticism from Israel’s aggression against Palestinians and the wholesale illegal seizure of land on the West Bank.

      • I agree 100% Jax. What a huge disappointment this is.What the hell is Brownlee doing! He’s turning the clock back again! I wish we had Helen Clarke back again!!She stood up for right against the “Big Boys” America, South Africa etc.Brownlee obviously has no conscience,no empathy no decencey.Hasnt he seen the theft of Palestinian land,the murder of innocent people,the jailing of children! I can’t believe New Zealand is going down this path!! I am ashamed that it is siding with Netenyahu,Trump and May!!

    • What are you ?

      Some sort of neo liberal apologist freak ?
      …………………………………………………..

      New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
      http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html

      Thule Society – Wikipedia
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society

      Young Hitler – Excerpts Appendix | The Thule Society
      http://www.younghitler.com/thule_society.htm
      ………………………………………………………

      Explain the above shit if you can.

      And by fuck , – you’d better start doing your homework real fast and coming up with some real badarse excuses for genocide you [Expletive deleted. Please refrain, Katipo. – Scarletmod]
      ..

    • …when white Kiwis whose ancestors stole land from the Maori …

      Nice to see you finally acknowledging colonial land-theft from Maori, Andy. Baby-steps, mate. Baby-steps.

      …yet they never ever criticise Islamic countries.

      Oh, we do.

      You just never seem to notice with your Selective Vision (the opposite of Superman’s x-ray and telescopic vision-powers).

      I guess it’s just plain old Jew hatred.

      That’s pure Waikato River bullshit, Andy. But even so, now you know what your bene-bashing feels like.

      The fact is that the blockade of Gaza is illegal; the Israeli settlements on the West Bank are illegal; and the Gaza Wall is the Berlin Wall v2.

      Channeling a certain cowboy-actor-turned-president, all I can say is; “Mr Netanyahu, tear down that wall!”

    • Is that ROFLYAO ‘amused’? Or a dry little snicker?

      What about the Kiwis whose ancestors never stole land from the Maori? Are they allowed to opine on matters concerning Israel? Have you passed out your approvals to these people? Do they know of the privilege you have conferred?

      A large global puff on your part – ‘plain old Jew hatred’ The Israelis who act on arab hatred are not worthy of hate. Contempt, for sure. However, ‘Israeli’ is not a synonym for ‘Jew’, as you might know.

      And specifically WHICH ‘Kiwis are good at that’? Or are you flicking your tar brush about? Indiscriminate things, tar blobs. Just as likely to mark the flicker as well as the target, eh?

  5. The Minister for Fine Dining Gerry Brownlee says New Zealand should not intervene in the dispute beyond condemning terrorism.Of course both Israel and the U.S. have declared the democratically elected Hamas to be terrorists , so no prizes for guessing the N.Z govt. stance. And of course one of the main supporters of Hamas is Hizbollah, who did a sterling job of throwing Israel out of Lebanon after their illegal invasion , and inflicting a rare defeat on the Israeli defence force.This of course led to Hizbollah being declared a terrorist organisation.To my mind, any enemies of the U.S. Empire and Israel are friends of mine!

    • I doubt whether Jerry really understands the Middle East situation and the Palestinian conflict, probably just believes what he is briefed on by his staff from Wellington and the Beehive which would probably have a USA/Israeli slant on the situation ?

  6. I have few regrets but one of them surely is that I didn’t push the fat bastard down the escalator at CH CH AP. Think of the clamour and the earthquakes! ?
    He stood, leaning like an idiot pine tree there for a moment at the top, communicating his leg messages, via his massive arse, to his brain, encased in the jowls he’s built himself over the years on our $-six figures plus entitlements. One shove, history would have been made, repairs sought for the escalator, an excavator to fill in the hole in the floor and a period of imprisonment for me and well worth it for the laugh.
    Yep. A regret.

    • @ COUNTRYBOY … love it 🙂 Had your objective at CHCH airport been activated , in many Kiwis’ eyes, I’m sure you would be seen as a hero.

      Anyway deserving of a medal just for the thought.

      • Judith C …. Paula B…. Nick S … Simon B .. Jonathan C

        Michal…I’d get severe RSI if I typed out all the list of Nasties that could replace Gerry. It’s like shooting ducks on a pond, to use a temporally-significant simile.

        Notice I didn’t even type out the whole of their last names, but the initial consonant summed each one up…pricelessly

        Priceless ….

    • Airports are fast becoming like those signs you used to read going into a town in the country.

      “Welcome to Ohakune” with a large carrot icon.
      “Welcome to Auckland Airport” with handicapped toilets fit for a horny All Black.
      “Welcome to Christchurch Airport” with backdoor entry for “diplomatic” Gerry in a hurry.

      If only Countryboy acted on his impulses.

      “Welcome to Christchurch Airport” with a Gerry-sized hole at the base of the escalator.

      Priceless CB…priceless

  7. Not to mention the Mossad have been running riot in NZ even attacking peace activists and he knows it.

    They probably have some videos of him jerking off to something unsavory – like a cornetto. Hard to explain the weird u-turn from him otherwise.

    • There are some priceless stories circulating about what was seen from a neighbouring building, which overlooked a certain unnamed office of a certain unnamed politician.

  8. There were a number of issues that warranted airing. However, describing Brownlee as a nasty, typical right winger, and alluding to weight issues, diluted the message.
    Had the writer referred to Brownlee’s questionable decision making in the light of him being a former woodwork teacher, ipso facto would have spoken more forcefully.

    • Obviously the entry level for a diplomatic post has deteriorated somewhat.

      Nicky Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations possesses even lower skill levels than Gerry. She is an ex -Waffle House waitress.

  9. Like Grosser, the new NZ embassador in Washington, who could not wait to rub shoulders with Trump supporters after his win to become president, and threw a party to warm the relationship, Brownley is doing exactly the same.

    National government ministers are willing sycophants, when it comes to US administrations, they lick their boots and more, any time.

    The Assies have the same problem, with Turnbull and Bishop, the first one, their PM, now beeing in the US, having a great time with the formerly mistrusted Donald Trump.

    They know, they are small fry in the geopolitical sphere, and as the US is the superpower with the most guns and ammo, they will do what previous “leaders” have done, and cuddle up to big brother Uncle Sam.

    So Brownlee is getting very friendly with Netanyahu and Israel’s government, as they know, Trump loves them too, and will show damned little sympathy for the Palestinians, stuff them.

    There is a new wind blowing on this globe, a harsher, colder wind from Washington, and the White House, that is why Brownlee does what he does, to keep warm and close to “traditional allies”.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/89876348/a-glittering-trump-inauguration-party-at-nzs-washington-embassy-cost-taxpayers-81000

    “”The event was considered as a constituency building activity to position New Zealand’s interests effectively with the new US Administration and Congress.”

    Guests included senior US Presidential transition team representatives, Republican Congressional members and nominees for roles in the Trump line-up as well as influential business and media guests and “NZ Inc. business community contacts”.

    The party was funded from Mfat’s baseline budget and met standard approval criteria and processes, Mfat said.”

  10. Over this man. Over this government. CB – you missed a great opportunity to improve your country.

  11. The only thing a bully respects is a bigger bully. So moving in tandem with US policy on Israel was a given.
    I think you had as much influence on NZ policy to apart hide SA as anyone in NZ John: And I think NZ because of the similar colonialism and the unique sporting rivalry in rugby that existed during the time of change, that NZ in turn had more effect on changing that governance than any other country.
    Why don’t you see what you can do for Palestine?
    D J S

    • Kinda hard when this govt’s neutered the MSM to only say that which puts them in a good light, – including justifying genocide in Palestine…

  12. I didn’t realise Lianne Dalziel was such a push-over as mayor. Or are there battles behind closed doors that we don’t hear about?

    About the only one who will take Gerry on is Winston with his signature ‘is it not a fact…?’

    Poor old Gerry. ‘World famous in Christchurch’. Still, he could do with a quick hug or two from Nemesis. She’s been following the Brownlee trail of arrogance for quite a few years now. She must just about be there… schadenfreude, how sweet thy name. 🙂

  13. Gerry Brownlee is an utter sellout & disgrace . So desperately seeking approval, he’s prepared to lunge straight in & lick the ****s of the worlds biggest Menace.
    The Menace that totally controls USA to perform wars in the Middle East at their bidding (WHY does USA send them $billions annually of taxpayers money ???)
    The Menace that now has it’s tentacles deeply embedded in all western governments by infiltration. The Menace whose “members” control all the worlds media (NZ included)… the Menace whose “members” control the worlds Banking system..

    But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

    WHY THE HELL do you really think life has taken a turn for the worse, in all western countries..for NO good reason..in this day & age?

    New Zealand. Far away and safe we always thought. Our naivety has proved deadly. Did we ever foresee that one day NZers would be living homeless and in cars??
    But I’ve gone far beyond JB topic..
    Nevertheless he is only another symptom. Of the NAIVETY that is killing our once well off Nation.
    God Save NZ . Because ignorance & naivety of the people sure wont.
    And NZ has no true leader. Only traitors for years.

  14. Go CountryBoy ! You always cheer me up with your feisty words.
    You must be the singular exception to the astute Gordon McLauchlan’s book on NZers called “Passionless People”.
    Go CB !!!!!

    John Minto : You are a genuine Truth Warrior . Salute. NZ needs you.

  15. With “talent” such as Gerry, being Foreign Minister now, there is real hope, I guess. All this past running down of Labour, for their supposed lack of talent, it must now sound like total BS diversion tactics by members of this government.

    If Gerry Brownlee is all they can come up with for such a senior job representing NZ Inc. overseas, then the Nats have far less talent than even Labour.

    Here is HOPE, there is real HOPE, that the Nats will stand there like an emperor without clothes, very close to the election, and voters will think, hey, I cannot be bothered to vote for this lot, I may as well stay at home. And if Labour and Greens get their voters motivated enough, they may just make that little difference, and send the Nats off onto the opposition benches.

    And let us wait, what more embarrassment, if not revelations of a total cover up, may result in public fury from the drip feeding of ever more so far hidden info about Pike River Mine and that disaster.

    I am embarrassed for the media, the useless MSM we have, that they do not dig deeper, after the latest video recordings were now presented, only 13 hours of much more that exists. Videos the family members of the victims attest to NEVER have seen before.

    Good grief, are there any journos that still care to do a proper job?

    Those that voted Nats last election will soon prefer to sink deep into the ground for embarrassment, wishing to not be seen anywhere, having cast votes for them to run the show and to run this country into the ground.

    Re Gerry, perhaps a minder of sorts may not go amiss, to keep an eye on the man, when he travels overseas, even to just keep him away from the many banquets.

  16. Brownlee writing to Netanyahu so quickly is really bizarre.

    There are a few inferences that Julie Bishop was approached by some NZ pro Israeli diehards to force Mccully to retract his support for the UN resolution. By not retracting or apologizing Bishop therefore was refusing to meet or cooperate with Mccully. This led to the earlier than expected transfer to Brownlee. It would also explain Brownlee’s writing to Netanyahu prior to meeting with Bishop. The two events could be linked.

    Sound incredible but nothing surprises me when it comes to Israel firsters.
    If true it is scandalous.

  17. Brownlee writing to Netanyahu so quickly is really bizarre.

    There are a few inferences that Julie Bishop was approached by some NZ pro Israeli diehards to force Mccully to retract his support for the UN resolution. By not retracting or apologizing Bishop therefore was refusing to meet or cooperate with Mccully. This led to the earlier than expected transfer to Brownlee. It would also explain Brownlee’s writing to Netanyahu prior to meeting with Bishop. The two events could be linked.

    Sound incredible but nothing surprises me when it comes to Israel firsters.
    If true it is scandalous.

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