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Thursday, December 14, 2023

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I know we're at a global tipping point with Israel

Look, I feel like we are now at a global tipping point with Israel and I think tolerance is running very short- and probably about to run out completely for their bombardment of Gaza.

A lot has happened in just the last few days, even just today, to indicate that this is on the cards now.

We've had New Zealand, Australia and Canada putting out a joint statement this morning calling for a sustainable ceasefire, saying that they are alarmed at what's happening to the civilians in Gaza.

A few hours ago, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

And in probably the biggest sign that the time is up, Joe Biden, who has of course been Israel's biggest backer globally, has started to pull his support away from Benjamin Netanyahu and warned Israel it risks alienating its allies if it continues.

He said that they cannot say no to a Palestinian state, and then he went as far as quite pointedly saying to Netanyahu that he had to change this Government- which I think a lot of people will agree with.

A lot of people will blame this Government and the past Governments of Netanyahu for the situation that Israel is currently in. The fact is, these world leaders are basically doing this because they are losing domestic support for continuing to support Israel.

You've seen the pressure mount here in New Zealand on the Government. Labour and Te Pati Māori and the Greens have all put pressure on the Government to call for a ceasefire, there have been protests up and down the country as a result.

In the states, a poll has found that only 20 percent of Americans think that Biden's approach is going to lead to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

It is not surprising that Israel's running out of runway at all- on this show we said pretty much immediately after the October 7 massacres by Hamas that Israel would only have so long to do what they always do, which is disproportionately punish the Palestinian people before sentiment would change.

Sentiment is now changing, the only thing that is surprising is how long the tolerance lasted, how long the runway was for this bombardment. Especially given that the bombardment was never going to work.

We all knew that, right? We'd never fully root out Hamas, we'd never be able to get all of those people out of the tunnels, all it ever was going to do was punish the civilians - which it has - and foment anger and probably create another generation of terrorists.

And only time will tell whether that's going to happen- but I say it probably will.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heather during ww2 millions of people died. What are israel sopposed to do, just cuddle hamas and ask kindly for them to stop being terrorists? Hamas have done this to their own people. And why are other muslim countries not accepting palestinian refugees?

CXH said...

You get what you vote for. Wellingtonians have continually voted for labour or green controlled councils and their city is broken.

Palestinians have voted for Hamas and their cities are broke.

Your vote comes with responsibilities and consequences.

Anonymous said...


It is often claimed that Israel is provoked by the mere existence of Palestinian Arabs and wants to wipe them out.

In fact, it is Arab-Islamists who are affronted by the mere existence of Jews and want to eradicate them from the world.

Muslim anti-Semitism first arose centuries before the establishment of Jewish Israel.

Islamic scripture (the Koran and associated Hadith narratives of Muhammad’s life and sayings) records that the Jews of Yathrib (now Medina) repeatedly refused to convert to Islam when asked by Muhammad to do so.

An angry Muhammad then cursed the Jewish people, describing them as “the offspring of apes and pigs,” damning them in this world and the next.

That’s why Muslims have always see Jews as the worst and most inveterate enemies of Islam.

An oft-quoted Hadith saying of Muhammad that is part of the charter of the Gaza Strip’s rulers, Hamas, states: “The Day of Judgement will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jews will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’“

Muslim Jew-hatred has undoubtedly increased in the Islamic world during modern times.

It was fanned by the Nazis in the 1930s, then still further by Soviet Agit-Prop after World War II, making it a core Arab-Islamist weapon in the ideological and political struggle against Israel.

Adolf Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, has been translated into Arabic. It is widely read and revered throughout the Middle East for its pronouncements about Jews.

Pakistan’s Sheikh Maolana Mawdudi has written admiringly of the “ingenious and mighty leadership of Hitler and his comrades.”

In much the same vein as Hitler, Hasan Nasrullah, the leader of Hezbollah, has said: "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew."

Muslims hold that once a place has been ruled by Muslims, it is “Islamic land” forever.

What is now Israel was ruled for centuries by Muslim Ottoman Turks after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Muslims thus see it as a holy duty to wipe Israel off the map. Indeed, many Arab maps of the Middle East don’t show Israel at all.

Sermonising against Israel on Egypt's Al-Rahma TV on October 31, 2009, Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman stated that: “It has been proven that the Jews are like a cancer – if they are not removed from the body of the [Islamic] nation, they will kill the entire nation.”

Ahmad Bahr, Deputy Speaker of the Hamas Parliament, stated in an anti-Israeli sermon which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on August 10, 2012 that: “If the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty, incumbent on every Muslim, male or female.”

Of course, the Jews are already squatting on “Islamic land.”

Speaking at a public rally held in Gaza on 8 December 2012, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal proclaimed that “jihad,” armed struggle, will continue until Israel is defeated, conquered, and replaced — every square mile — by an Islamist theocracy.

“Since Palestine is ours, and it is the land of the Arabs and Islam,” he said, “it is unthinkable that we would recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of it ... Let me emphasize that we adhere to this fundamental principle: We do not recognize Israel … The Palestinian resistance will crush it and sweep it away, be it Allah’s will.”

Those who keep yakking on about ‘partition’ are deluded.

The Palestinian Arabs could have had their own state in 1948, but elected not to, for the reasons set out above.

Within hours of the historic 1948 United Nations decision to partition the former British Mandate of “Palestine” into a Jewish state and state for the Arabs now referred to as “Palestinians,” Israel was attacked without warning by six Arab nations promising to drive the Jews into the sea and complete Hitler's work.

The problem is Islam, not Israel.

Scott said...

I think it is reasonable to say that Hamas are the new Nazis. Their mentality about the Jews is the same. They hate them and they want to destroy them.
Israel must root out Hamas and destroy it so that it never rises again. The same way that our grandfathers generation destroyed the Nazi menace.
So Israel must be allowed to wage the war that was declared against it on October 7. Then they will have to decide what to do with Gaza. What it seems they cannot do is leave it to its own devices. They tried that and it didn't work.

Anonymous said...

I agree with anon that hamas are the new nazi's. However hamas won't stop there. They want all white people and the west gone and the whole planet to be run by them.

Anonymous said...

Actions speak louder than words. Just look at Israel’s settlements in the West Bank to understand their true motives.

There are lots of moderates who want peace but both sides have uncontrollable extremists who ruin it for everyone.

The Israeli settlers fanatically believe that God gave them the land and the Palestinians should get off it. I’ve seen that blind fanaticism before - in Trumpers who truly believe (without any proof) that the election was stolen. How do you control fanatics like that? How can there be peace. Israel will keep stealing land and Hamas will keep blowing up buses.

HDPA is right - the Western world’s opinion of Israel is changing. They have huge power and are misusing it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry anon 4.43 but did you know that jesus was a jew and that there was a majority population of jewish people in israel during his time. It is their land. They are not colonists or settlers. They are from israel.

Anonymous said...

Sorry anon 8:19 but that makes no sense. It's like saying the Maori were here first so it's their land and it's fair to push you off it. Or move you and your family into an open-air prison like Gaza.