New Zealand Says NO to Recognising Palestine - for Now

New Zealand has taken the sensible approach. I was a bit worried that NZ would jump on board the bandwagon that Australia, Canada and the UK had joined. 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/574305/nz-not-yet-recognising-palestinian-state-foreign-minister-winston-peters-announces

The government has decided against recognising Palestinian statehood, retaining its "when not if" position at the United Nations General Assembly.

Its rationale is that with Hamas in place as the de facto government of the Gaza Strip and no clarity on next steps, there is not a fully legitimate and viable State of Palestine for New Zealand to recognise.

The decision leaves New Zealand with a handful of countries including Singapore, Japan, South Korea and the United States, who have not made the move.

UK Recognises Palestine - Here's the Bill

Palestine say to UK: thank you for recognising us; that will cost you two trillion pounds. This compensates them for the illegal occupation and subjugation of their territory, and now selling arms to their oppressors. 

Sounds fair, and while looking at this, Australia are recognising Palestine too. So, under international law and seeing as Australia has been oppressing them too, Australia needs to take in all those Gazan refugees. How about South Australia? Even Australians laugh at South Australia, so this should find wide acceptance. What has South Australia got that would not be improved by hundreds of thousands of Gazans?

Iran Attack Likely?

The next few days look to be critical. We are teetering on the precipice: 

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1775466025896526146

 

Angelina Jolie on the Hypocrisy of the West

Susan Sarandon Campaigns for Ceasefire

Middle East War 2023

I've been looking around for content that closely reflects how I feel about the current events in the Middle East. Sanity 4 Sweden is close so I embed his video below.

Western World is at War

It is incredible how the media and politicians seem incapable of acknowledging that the western world is at war right now. Look at what is happening; we have a global pandemic that is largely the fault of China. Russia is massing its forces on the border with the Ukraine and scaring everyone. We have war in the Middle East. The Taleban is going on the offensive in Afghanistan now they've defeated the US  (c'mon this is obvious). Then we have repeated attacks on our tech infrastructure shutting down hospitals, fuel pipelines, you name it. Connect the dots and start taking this stuff seriously. Clearly the western world is under attack. Maybe not everything is connected but a good proportion of it must be.

UN Vote

The numbers are in and the UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly against President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel. What took my attention was the Israeli Ambassador using a prop, a replica of a 2,000 year old coin from the region:

https://worldisraelnews.com/danon-presents-replica-1st-century-coin-un-stressing-ancient-jewish-ties-jerusalem/

http://www.jewishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/Danon-exhibits-ancient-coin-at-UNGA-218x150.jpg

Isn't this a rather weak argument from Israel? I think that argument must go along the lines, because there were Jews in the region 2,000 years ago, that means the modern state of Israel gets to do whatever it likes with the city today. Which of course is nonsense, there is a thing called International Law you know.

Now Israel might have a claim if they could show an unbroken chain of governance stretching back that far. But wait, they can't, as any student of history will tell you about the first and second Roman-Jewish wars which the Romans won. They sacked Jerusalem and threw out the Jews, most becoming slaves. If we follow Israel's logic the rightful owners of Jerusalem is Italy, as the legitimate descendants of Rome. But wait, there's more, the Romans lost Jerusalem in the 7th century, so that would mean Turkey gets Jerusalem, according to the Israeli logic. Do you see? The argument as put just doesn't hold water.

So what now? Unpalatable as it may sound, my suggestion is for Palestine and the other states that surround Israel to either win some wars, or give up and trade Israel into oblivion. What are Arabs good at? They're traders first and foremost and good ones. But if going to war then make sure you win it as the winner gets to write the history. Oh no? Oh yes, what we know of Carthage and Troy comes only from the victors at the end of the day. Israel for its part could see the writing on the wall, observe the UN Resolutions and stop relying on the US to back it up as the US will just as soon throw them under the bus when it suits.

Israel recalls ambassador from New Zealand

Background to the issue:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/passes-resolution-israeli-settlements-161223192709807.html

The UN Security Council has voted in favour of a resolution demanding the halt of settlement activity by Israel on occupied Palestinian territory with the United States notably abstaining.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11772739

The Israeli Government has recalled its ambassador from New Zealand after the UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel's continued settlements.
New Zealand co-sponsored the resolution, which said the settlements violate international law and undermine a two-state solution in Israel's conflict with Palestine.

My thoughts, good on you New Zealand, about time something was done. The UN, what a bunch of time serving bureaucrats, they've finally passed a resolution that amounts to something.

I wonder how NZ's Prime Minister is going to handle the fall-out? This will be his first test in international diplomacy. Not bean counting now there Bill.