By Robert Reid*
It was somewhat strange being sent a few messages on the morning of 15 January 2024 telling me to have a look at the interest.co.nz website where I would find a blistering attack on me and my integrity by columnist Chris Trotter.
Strange as even in retirement, I was still in “holiday” mode.
Strange as a so-called left wing commentator was attacking me for being … “left wing”.
And strange because as my twitter intro says, I was “once a panellist”, I have completely retired from my trade union positions, and have just last week been sacked by the new Government from the last of the board and advisory group positions that I previously held.
I thought my days of public life were over and now use twitter (or that awful X nomenclature) for my post public life therapy where, as an individual and without the constraints of any collective responsibility, I can tweet into my dotage.
By Christmas 2023, I had watched too many images of the genocide taking place in Gaza and was appalled at how the US, UK and most of the West (including NZ) were turning a blind eye to, or even supporting, the weeks (now months) of Israeli attacks on the people and infrastructure of Gaza.
However, I was encouraged by 2 events; the South African Government taking Israel to the International Court of Justice and the Yemeni Houthis taking matters into their own hands and attempting to cut off the shipping lanes to Israel that provided oil, arms and consumer goods to that apartheid state.
I had been critical of the “see no evil” stance of the new NZ Government although encouraged by the statements from Te Pāti Māori, Greens, and some in Labour such as Damien O’Connor, David Parker, Rachel Boyack as well as former Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta and former Prime Minister, Helen Clark.
I was therefore outraged to see the US attempting to cobble together a group of countries to militarily attack the Houthis while ignoring or even supporting the genocide in Gaza that the Houthi actions were designed to disrupt.
The US had 3 attempts at this. First was the announcement by the US in mid- December of the Operation Prosperity Guardian to “protect the shipping lanes of the Red Sea” from “Houthi Terrorists.” NZ rushed to join the group of 12 (including all the 5 Eyes countries) under US and UK military leadership. Interestingly most EU countries, including Spain and France who were much closer to the theatre chose not to participate.
A second attempt, again by-passing UN Security Council debate and endorsement, was made on 3 January when the US made a joint statement with 12 countries (not all the same but still including NZ) threatening military action if the Houthis did not desist in their targeted actions against some Red Sea shipping.
Finally, on 11 January 2024, after further Houthi drone attacks on some ships in the Red Sea, NZ joined the US, UK and (only) 7 others (Belgium, Italy and Japan had pulled out, South Korea had joined) to endorse the US and UK air attacks on Yemen on behalf of the coalition of 10 that NZ had signed up to.
In my view NZ had gone to war against Yemen. It did not matter that NZ provided no troops, logistics or military hardware at that stage. The military attacks on Yemeni soil were done in our name.
So I tweeted:
Second night of NZ's coalition bombing of Yemen!
— Robert Reid (@RReidFU) January 13, 2024
So NZ is at war without any debate, mandate, cabinet or Parliamentary resolution and while its government is still on holiday!!
I was quite chuffed that the tweet had 19,000 impressions, 1,120 engagements and 475 likes and 118, mostly favourable comments.
However, my tweet seemed to disturb the equilibrium of your columnist who called my tweet: “hair-raising”, “jaw-dropping”, “excitable”, full of “egregious errors”, and making “loud alarums” (I had to look up the dictionary for that one) and “inflammatory claims”.
Chris quotes one of the two joint statements released by the US on 11 January that names the 6 nations that were physically involved in the military attacks on the Houthis and Yemen but ignores the “on behalf of statement” of the same date (referred to above) that names NZ as a willing coalition partner.
There is a saying on twitter that a tweet doesn’t age well. However, it seems that mine did.
On 22 January 2024 following the first cabinet meeting of the year, the PM, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence in a somewhat bizarre post cabinet standup confirmed that not only was NZ part of the coalition at war with the Houthis, but also that NZ would now be “deploying a Defence Force team of six “highly trained” people to the Middle East to help provide maritime security in the Red Sea”.
In my view if NZ is part of a military coalition and has made a deployment to this coalition, then NZ is at war as my tweet stated.
Interestingly respected Otago University academic Robert Patman, 36th Parallel director, Paul Buchanan, and a number of others have come to similar conclusions or at least expressed similar concerns.
But the shit show of western deception continues. We have had the first ruling on “interim measures” of the South African Government’s Genocide case against Israel by the International Court of Justice.
However instead of Israel and its Western allies taking note of the decision and working on its implementation we find a side-show being created alleging that 12 of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza may have been involved in the Hamas outbreak and shooting of Israelis on 7 October. This has now lead to a frenzied withdrawing of financial support for UNRWA by around 9 countries including 4 of the 5 Eyes (at the moment NZ, to its credit, stands apart). This completely goes against the decisions of the ICJ by again dishing out collective punishment to the people of Gaza.
In a tweet directly criticising Australian Labor Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, former NZ PM Helen Clark said:
Serious as allegations around a tiny % of now former @UNRWA staff may be, this isn’t the time to suspend funding to UN’s largest relief & development agency in #Gaza. #NZ has 3 year funding agreement w/ #UNRWA & should stick to it: https://t.co/vaIGAptCo7 https://t.co/xn6Jt0TKB8
— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) January 27, 2024
The rest of Chris Trotter’s piece then descends into a rabbit hole of accusations and ending up at the strange terminus of attacking those left wingers with an anti-imperialist perspective as being trapped in “identity politics”. I am sure that Lenin, the author of “Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism” would be bemused by this “analysis”.
Perhaps Chris should put his pen down for a while, have a wee rest or a cup of tea. For it now seems with every column, he further trashes his own history and brand.
And while this somewhat petty scrap between Chris and myself goes on, so do the horrific events in Gaza, whether you call them a genocide or not. As I finish writing this piece international media report that over 26,000 have been killed and over 64,000 injured in the current Israeli attacks on that small piece of land, as well as the brutal oppression of Palestinians on the West Bank.
This is heart wrenching. This must stop now!
*Robert Reid is a retired trade union leader, advisory board member and was a regular panellist on TVNZ’s Q+A. In his youth he was a campaigner against the war in Vietnam and apartheid in South Africa.
35 Comments
The ICJ just released a ruling on the charge of genocide in Gaza. The court ruled that Israel is required to stop their genocidal acts. Genocide is the correct word to discuss the mass murder of Gaza's civilians. Sure if your are Israeli or the US/UK governments you can deny it but your still using this word because it fits what everyone is seeing.
I know everyone's an anon account but still take a little responsibility to be reasonably informed when you want to discuss this topic.
In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.[1][2]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide
Seems to fit what's going on...? Of course, Hamas would also like to commit genocide....
But, Rastus - THAT'S exactly what it is!
Gaza is the most crowded place on earth - and that as a DIRECT result of overcrowding elsewhere (lebensraum fur herrenvolk).
We divert to social comment (see the lightweight 'communist' comment adjacent) too much, blaming a dissed creed, or leader, when it's actually the fact that conditions elevated said creeds/leaders.
Oh?
The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
So... that's not happening?
Deliberate. Check.
Large number. Check.
Particular group. Check
Destroying that group. Debatable.
I think it meets the definition of genocide but perhaps you don't. I don't want to get into that debate, I'd rather focus on the hundreds of people are being killed by Israel every day. It seems nobody wants to stop them; nobody has put their hand up and said 'you must stop killing your neighbours'. You don't want to call those killing genocide? I don't really care, as long as we focus on the number of innocent people Israel has killed an is continuing to kill every day.
Where would you draw the line? What action by Israel would you say is too much, and they need to answer for war crimes?
Chris seems to have become a bit of a click bait/attention seeker.
Glad interest.co.nz gave you a right of reply.
I do think Judith Collins/Chris Luxon should have at the very least consulted the opposition parties on the decision to send NZDF personnel - and that the positions/responses from those parties should have been made known in their media/press releases.
Obviously the sending of five NZDF personnel is a placation-type PR exercise with our Five Eyes partners, but very big/significant as nations the world over consider these very awful circumstances arising in the Middle East. Just as Churchill famously stated, 'Never was so much owed by so many to so few' - the same logic can be applied to our military involvement in this issue:
Never have so few been committed to risk so much in terms of our nation's place in geopolitics.
I was quite chuffed that the tweet had 19,000 impressions, 1,120 engagements and 475 likes and 118, mostly favourable comments.
...does this really add anything to the discourse? Along with the first six paragraphs, which just read like hurt feelings because there was a counter opinion.
Robert Reid, Helen Clark both talk their own shop. Both without evidence and facts.
Let's see what we know about UNRWA now.
The “few bad apples” line pushed by the UN has just been obliterated. The Wall Street Journal front page is reporting that an estimated 1,200 Unrwa employees in Gaza are actual “operatives” of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist terrorist organizations, according to Israeli intelligence estimates shared with the U.S. government.
The report said 23% of Unrwa’s male employees—the agency has a total staff of 12,000 in Gaza—took active part in the Hamas organization’s military or political framework, a higher percentage than the average of 15% for adult males in Gaza.
The information in the Israeli intelligence reports is based on sensitive signals intelligence as well as cellphone tracking data, interrogations of captured Hamas gunmen and documents recovered from dead terrorists. Nearly half of all Unrwa employees—an estimated 49%—also had close relatives with official ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-…
For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces
But :
Francis Boyle - American human rights lawyer who serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the provisional government of the Palestinian Authority - states that with States (including US and UK governments) cutting off funding to UNRWA, it is "no longer the case of these States aiding and abetting Israeli Genocide against the Palestinians in violation of Genocide Convention article 3 (e) criminalizing 'complicity' in genocide. These States are now also directly violating Genocide Convention article 2(c) by themselves: 'Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part...'" Link
The war is spreading.... and causing division as Hamas had hoped ... the leadership live like Kings in Qatar or elsewhere sitting on 11b in ill gotten gains whilst the population they represent suffer the very dire consequences...and bottom line is their leaders dont care how many pawns get taken...they are playing hardball or table tennis more accurately when they should be doing deals and releasing hostages. I understand some of the oppressive acts Israel and its recent far right ramped up govt have committed and the need to push back against such BUT (Oct7) Killing/ kidnapping and holding hostage civilians and IDF is a dishonorable act furthermore firing a thousand or so rockets whilst expecting no consequence is for fools... Hamas wanted it all and expected other nations to rise up and join it en masse . If you want to support Ultra Islam and be martyred go ahead... I support the West and like it or not Israels right to be (Zion project or not it attained Sovereign status). I do not support the over zealous manner in which Israel defends itself against a technologically inferior militant force (it is still under random rocket fire ) I do not support BB who clings to power via this conflict. I do understand innocent Palestinians are being killed but I blame very poor leadership on both sides (PA included). As it is, I am firmly in support of the side that contains this to the Middle East and protects trade routes. I have respect for Sharia law and Muslims and understand most are peaceful hard working peoples. It is the 'Ultra' Zion and Islam indeed 'Ultra' anything bothers me. I earnestly hope that a peaceful resolution can be found and that folk do not needlessly have to suffer as they do presently...but when you have very Bad Leaders....you get very bad results... I support NZDF in its endeavor to assist its allies.
https://nypost.com/2023/11/07/news/hamas-leaders-worth-11bn-live-luxury…
Well said.
Also a good essay below by someone who can articulate far more clearly than I if anyone is interested:
https://www.samharris.org/blog/5-myths-about-israel-and-the-war-in-gaza…
This is the most objective, balanced piece of writing about the Gaza/Israel conflict that I have read so far. Everyone should read this, so that they understand what type of world regime they are supporting when they support Palestine. People who are openly supporting Palestine (public figures in NZ) would not have a free life in such a world. They would be persecuted and killed. It's also important to remember that Palestine was offered their own country in the past but they rejected the offer, which most people probably don't remember or know about.
Fair call. I too thought Trotter had lost the plot. But I never take his waffle seriously. (I'm surprised that others apparently do.)
My personal view is that the Hamas led government and Benjamin Netanyahu led government are as bad as each other. Both need to go. And never return.
There will never peace with these extremists justifying their current actions based up past actions that go back over 70+ years. What's done is done. Holding grudges and seeking revenge serves no future purpose except ensuring there are more grudges and more revenge is required.
In short - they are as bad as each other and I'll not be wasting further time until both leaderships are gone.
Only 70 years...?! I think you'll find they both consider that this goes way back further than that. Some people wrote a semi-factual book about it all once. Can't remember the name of it now 😉
There was a sequel too, but the ending was a bit weird/scary. Dragons and nonsense...
LOL. Yes I remember the books. But I prefer Grimms, Andersen, Tolkien, etc. Even those Potter stories seem more balanced. (And they have less porn, incest, bestiality, murder, destruction, etc.) I like my fantasy reading to know it's fantasy rather than to pretend it's real.
70+ years?
Yes. Because before then, the occupants of these lands tolerated each other and the great powers didn't think they needed bastions (footholds) in the middle of energy rich regions. Alas, WWII taught them the importance of energy supply, and the rest, as they say, is history. Economic history explains many things. Just a case of "following the money" while deprecating the propaganda.
Once we get the tech to harness the 342 watts of solar energy that fall upon every square meter of Earth each day - and we're making massive strides through solar, wind and gravity (rain) to say nothing of lunar energy - the great powers will drop their interest in those regions and they'll return to what they were. (Don't tell powerdownkiwi tho. He'll hijack this post too.)
PDK has lived on solar energy - frugally - longer than most have even been aware of it. 20 years plus, and counting.
Who is doing the hihacking, then?
I thought like you, 20 years ago, and though to be an early-adopter/demonstrator. I know, from experience and research, that your posit is base-line incorrect. Every watt that is falling currently IS ALREADY DOING SOMETHING (and the need is to balance that IN wIth the OUT, globally). You can therefore divert/commandeer it, but at the expense of something (either a life-form or a chemical process) else. We've already displaced the wild biomass in that equation: 97% is now humans and their attendant animals; 3% wild. You think that no issue?
https://www.withouthotair.com/ Read it and come back still making your posit. ???
Yes, when the oil is tapped out, they would lose their interest in the regions (a good real is Longhurtst's Adventure in Oil) but the other reason is that no military works, ex fossil energy. E-tanks? E-jets? Ain't gonna happen. Some militaries know this...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421513004576
What about H-tanks? They'll work just fine. (They'll already run on cooking oil as they're designed to.) As will jatropha powered jets. And there's always good old ethanol (albeit most of us will be on very strict diets so the military and the rich can still drive gas their guzzlers.)
You're far too optimistic PDK. ;)
(And thanks for reading.)
Edit: Sorry. The above where I say "...and they'll return to what they were." Is wrong. The effects of climate change became noticeable on a grand scale in the ME first. Crop failures due to dry years and draughts, that became more frequent as the years went on, resulted in human displacement, with migrants moving into the remaining arable areas and cities. As groups with different cultural heritages were forced to live together, existing interests sought ways to divide the 'us' from 'them' to ensure the 'us' weren't disadvantaged. The same will happen, is happening, in other areas where low rainfall is displacing occupants. Sadly we'll be dust, and many generations after use will be too, before things return to the way they were. Sorry for the false hope.
There is no "right" side in thus conflict. Israel has been redrawing the map, and putting down settlements since the early 1970s. Are they surprised that that the neighbour's got upset? Hamas are not exactly free of blame either. That said, if killing 26000 people and displacing almost the entire population while destroying their infrastructure does not count as genocide then I'm not sure what it would take.
Ultimately, this whole thing goes back 100s - 1000s of years and I don't pretend to know what the solution might be.
Actually, it can be traced directly back to the Ottoman (Muslim) Empire being defeated at the siege of Vienna in 1683. The Ottoman Empire, which was based in Turkey, was wanting to further expand into Europe and the next step was to take Vienna. However, the Ottomans were soundly beaten and their army virtually destroyed. Over the next couple of centries the middle east never really recovered from this huge defeat and almost by default Britain was given a United Nation's mandate over so-called Palistine and parts of some surrounding countries after WW1. Britain never knew what to do with the mandate until after the WW2 holocaust they decided they owed it to the Jews to give them their own state. No other Arab state vetoed this decision at the time.
Does knowing this information contribute to my opinion on the present day situation? No.
The US and the West generally are learning that there are consequences to being complicit in genocide. For those in doubt, in addition to the recent ICJ verdict, the vast majority of genocide scholars agree that Israel's destruction of Gaza and its people amount to genocide; Israeli academic Raz Segal has called it a "textbook case" of genocide.
It's easy to lose sight of the main issue here: NZ should do everything it can to stand apart from the US, 5-Eyes, and the West generally on this issue. Of course that does not mean endorsing the Houthis' treatment of women, or whatever other red herring Trotter focuses on. It means making sure that NZ is on the right side of history. NZ should continue to fund UNRWA, which is the best hope for Palestinians in Gaza of not starving to death. And NZ and NZers should continue to call out Israel's attack against the Palestinians for what it is: genocide.
For unknown reasons, Chris has worked hard to differentiate between supporting and declaring war. However history has proved Robert right. Without public discussion or parliamentary authorisation, NZ has plunged itself headfirst into this conflict. While other nations seem to be able to navigate the Red Sea without issues, this Government has ensured that this will not be an option for us. What's worse, we have now opted to cut funding to UNRWA, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This is shameful behaviour. Not in my name.
It's nice to see that someone else besides me has come to the same conclusion I have about Trotter in the last few years. He's always been a bit 'like that' which I put down to a farming background (?) But lately, not only has he started attracting – I think deliberately – more right-wing commenters, but he's allowing nutty anti-vax people and others conspiracy theorists to spout their nonsense on his site as well. There was a time when he deliberately refused to do this and would say so.
Personally I gave up on his site after he accused me of being a Hamas supporter and an anti-Semite – largely I think because I said that Israel creates the conditions for groups like Hamas to flourish. That's pretty much the only thing I can remember saying it even came close to supporting them. I've even said that I don't support any groups of religious nut cases – nothing good ever comes of them. So I've noticed left-wing comments on his site getting fewer and fewer. Pretty soon it'll be him and the lunatic right – good luck to him with that.
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