We here in NZ need to debate our role in the world. There is too much at stake. New Zealand should not be afraid to have an independent foreign policy. Someone must say NO to militarism , NO to war, YES to sanity, YES to humanity.
Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has produced a lot of hot air; not only from the President himself, but from the mainstream media, which seems stuck more or less in the same narrative it’s been in for decades.
In the month just ended, one that also marked the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the Palestinian people continued their struggle to survive under Israel’s profitable and cynically-imposed regime of population-control.
For this voting block, the Bible is a literal version of events, not a metaphorical one. They believe the Earth is less than 10 000 years old, they believe climate change won’t flood the planet because God showed Noah a rainbow and they believe that the end of times and Armageddon could be upon us and they will all be raptured away to heaven.
US President Trump’s surrender to Israel’s territorial ambitions reveals contempt for international law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention. Trump’s announcement contradicts even the most recent Security Council Resolution, UNSCR 2334 of December 2016. Israel’s control of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, is illegal because under international law, an Occupying power does not have sovereignty over foreign territory it militarily occupies.
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“In war, truth is the first casualty”, so wrote the Greek dramatist Aeschylus around 500 BC. Experience has shown us that lies precede wars in order to facilitate them. As war rages, misleading propaganda accompanies the slaughter to render it tolerable and after, when war is won, lost or in abeyance, there are fresh lies to cover the criminal acts of the perpetrators.
There are many reasons why states may be said to go to war with one another.
Poor Israel! A fearsome warship (well, small sailing boat really) was approaching her shores (well, the shores of Palestine under international law really). On board were dangerous terrorists armed to the teeth with all sorts of dangerous weapons.
Peace in Northern Ireland was not negotiated by idealists, but by realists. Peace in Palestine will, likewise, be the achievement of those who begin with the situation as it is, not as it should be, or, as it was.