Phil Goff, a former Labour MP, Minister, and High Commissioner to London, recently wrote an op-ed on the Israel-Gaza conflict, published by Stuff. Much was made of Mr Goff being a former Minister of Foreign Affairs. I decided, as a former Chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense committee to write a reply, now over a week ago. To date, my reply has not been published. Granted, Stuff is under no obligation to do so, but one would think a bit of balance would be welcome including from someone who is also a former politician, involved in foreign affairs, and who has actually been to Israel recently.
I should add, regular Sunday opinion columnist, Damien Grant, engaged this topic well-after Mr Goff’s op-ed was published, but many would expect that a guest op-ed would be responded to by another guest op-ed.
Here’s what I wrote:
Phil Goff has recently written an op-ed that repeats the usual grave allegations against Israel in its ongoing conflict with the Islamic terrorist group, Hamas.
Mr Goff is very welcome to his opinion but it also requires serious pushback, firstly around the gross stereotyping that Israelis are all for the war and its conduct, all the while warping the legacy of the Holocaust to suit his narrative. Throwing words about like genocide and apartheid does nothing but show a willingness to engage in emotional theatrics detached from reality.
I have recently returned from Israel. I was in the Gaza envelope, visiting the massacre sites and survivors including at the Nova music festival where almost 400 young party goers were murdered by Hamas and Gazan militants. While not able to get into Gaza for obvious reasons, I was at the border observing the artillery fire into Gaza knowing that destruction and death awaited those on the other end – a sad and sobering reality. War is ugly as I also saw on my visits to Iraq and Afghanistan in previous years.
The Nova music festival site. Each pole in the ground is one death,
Outside the Bibas family home in kibbutz Nir Oz. The mother and two children were abducted and killed; the father was also taken hostage and eventually released. Just one example of the October 7th events that Mr Goff forgets to mention in his op-ed.
Mr Goff also makes no mention of the remaining hostages or the grotesque spectacles Hamas have staged when returning some. No mention that Hamas have rejected another ceasefire offer which Israel has agreed to. No mention that civilians are left in the open while Hamas fighters hide in tunnels funded by UN monies. No reflection on why Hamas is more than willing to let it’s people die when returning the hostages would end things. Mr Goff is also very quick to criticise Netanyahu (which many in Israel also do), yet not one mention of Hamas’ leaders including that they too are subject to arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (note, Mr Goff wrongly states that Netanyahu has been found guilty).
During my visit, the conduct of the war, political leadership, and the future was debated fiercely by those I met. Israel is a democracy in the same way New Zealand is. Their leaders are elected, their media is free and open, and debate is robust. For Mr Goff to suggest there is a callous single view is demonstrably false, just in the same way he knows that sending New Zealand troops to fight overseas always came with much discussion and soul searching.
We know with certainty that there is no such open debate in Hamas-run Gaza. Any who question Hamas and the war are tortured or killed. While the United Nations talks about famine, it also actively undermines recent attempts by other groups to provide aid. I do get the politics of it all, but you would think the ‘who’ and ‘how’ would be secondary to just getting supplies in. Mr Goff also forgets to mention that Hamas itself is actively trying to stop Gazans accessing these food supplies, while continuing to sequester the UN supplies.
As you move about Nir Oz, flags outside homes designate what happened to the occupants. Yellow for taken hostage, and black for killed.
We all want the war to stop. I want the war to stop. The sad truth is Hamas and other terrorist organisations do not, and yet so many in the West align themselves with Hamas’ worldview and mistruths. Perhaps if the protest, theatrics, and action Mr Goff talks about was directed at Hamas and those supporting them, rather than only and obsessively at Israel, we might actually see the peace we all want.
Simon O'Connor a former National MP graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Political Studies . Simon blogs at On Point - where this article was sourced.
Here’s what I wrote:
Phil Goff has recently written an op-ed that repeats the usual grave allegations against Israel in its ongoing conflict with the Islamic terrorist group, Hamas.
Mr Goff is very welcome to his opinion but it also requires serious pushback, firstly around the gross stereotyping that Israelis are all for the war and its conduct, all the while warping the legacy of the Holocaust to suit his narrative. Throwing words about like genocide and apartheid does nothing but show a willingness to engage in emotional theatrics detached from reality.
I have recently returned from Israel. I was in the Gaza envelope, visiting the massacre sites and survivors including at the Nova music festival where almost 400 young party goers were murdered by Hamas and Gazan militants. While not able to get into Gaza for obvious reasons, I was at the border observing the artillery fire into Gaza knowing that destruction and death awaited those on the other end – a sad and sobering reality. War is ugly as I also saw on my visits to Iraq and Afghanistan in previous years.
The Nova music festival site. Each pole in the ground is one death,
with this photo only capturing some of the area.
There is much that could be said in response to Mr Goff’s emotive claims. What struck me most was he did not make even once mention of the horrors of October 7th when 1200 Israelis (mostly civilians) were barbarically killed. This was not an act of resistance - this was killing broadcast live to the world with pride. Talking with Israelis during my stay – be they Jewish, Arab, and Druze – they all know that Hamas will not stop killing. It’s in their Charter, in black and white! Part of the collective trauma that Israel has is the knowledge that if Hamas and other Iranian proxies got renewed opportunities, they would just keep killing till every Israeli is dead.
There is much that could be said in response to Mr Goff’s emotive claims. What struck me most was he did not make even once mention of the horrors of October 7th when 1200 Israelis (mostly civilians) were barbarically killed. This was not an act of resistance - this was killing broadcast live to the world with pride. Talking with Israelis during my stay – be they Jewish, Arab, and Druze – they all know that Hamas will not stop killing. It’s in their Charter, in black and white! Part of the collective trauma that Israel has is the knowledge that if Hamas and other Iranian proxies got renewed opportunities, they would just keep killing till every Israeli is dead.
Outside the Bibas family home in kibbutz Nir Oz. The mother and two children were abducted and killed; the father was also taken hostage and eventually released. Just one example of the October 7th events that Mr Goff forgets to mention in his op-ed.
Mr Goff also makes no mention of the remaining hostages or the grotesque spectacles Hamas have staged when returning some. No mention that Hamas have rejected another ceasefire offer which Israel has agreed to. No mention that civilians are left in the open while Hamas fighters hide in tunnels funded by UN monies. No reflection on why Hamas is more than willing to let it’s people die when returning the hostages would end things. Mr Goff is also very quick to criticise Netanyahu (which many in Israel also do), yet not one mention of Hamas’ leaders including that they too are subject to arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (note, Mr Goff wrongly states that Netanyahu has been found guilty).
During my visit, the conduct of the war, political leadership, and the future was debated fiercely by those I met. Israel is a democracy in the same way New Zealand is. Their leaders are elected, their media is free and open, and debate is robust. For Mr Goff to suggest there is a callous single view is demonstrably false, just in the same way he knows that sending New Zealand troops to fight overseas always came with much discussion and soul searching.
We know with certainty that there is no such open debate in Hamas-run Gaza. Any who question Hamas and the war are tortured or killed. While the United Nations talks about famine, it also actively undermines recent attempts by other groups to provide aid. I do get the politics of it all, but you would think the ‘who’ and ‘how’ would be secondary to just getting supplies in. Mr Goff also forgets to mention that Hamas itself is actively trying to stop Gazans accessing these food supplies, while continuing to sequester the UN supplies.
As you move about Nir Oz, flags outside homes designate what happened to the occupants. Yellow for taken hostage, and black for killed.
We all want the war to stop. I want the war to stop. The sad truth is Hamas and other terrorist organisations do not, and yet so many in the West align themselves with Hamas’ worldview and mistruths. Perhaps if the protest, theatrics, and action Mr Goff talks about was directed at Hamas and those supporting them, rather than only and obsessively at Israel, we might actually see the peace we all want.
Simon O'Connor a former National MP graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Political Studies . Simon blogs at On Point - where this article was sourced.
10 comments:
Unfortunately Simon the left do not want a balanced view, let alone the facts or truth!! You will find the usual terrorist supporters like madam b et al will all appear now. Yet not one has taken up my offer. Odd that....
It is also not mentioned in the msm that Hamas makes a specific practice of using civilians as human shields by, for example, having their armoury stored in the basement of a civilian hospital.
Thus ensuring that any attack on their military will necessarily slaughter many civilians. This is BY DESIGN.
I am not at all surprised at your experience Simon because I am an inveterate (almost weekly) writer of letters to The Post, one of Stuff's papers, and because I criticise the anti-colonialist, pro-maori, pro-green, climate crisis (among other) rubbish they publish as opinion pieces, my letters do not get published. The letters' page has a list of items and subjects which would qualify a letter for exclusion if they were present. Strangely, however, many of the opinion pieces actually over-ride the paper's own guidelines and supposed standards. Sorry about your disappointment but it is standard practice these days in our Marxist news outlets and merely emphasises how important sites such as Breaking Views are for those who want to let off the steam of frustration.
Stuff will not publish anything that its owners diagree with citingits values.. Its loyal readers and i know a few are all of one political view and have no problem with censorship at all. It is a war of the virtuous against bad people who must not be given credence. It is not a news service. It is political daily manual for believers plus a few crashes. Bit of weather and piffle stories
Good on Goff for speaking up for "humanity over genocide".
New Zealand recently joined 23 other countries calling out Israel and demanding a full supply of foreign aid be allowed into Gaza. Foreign Minister Winston Peters called Israel’s actions “intolerable”. He said that we had “had enough and were running out of patience and hearing excuses”.
New Zealand has imposed travel bans on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, accusing them of undermining peace and security through inflammatory rhetoric and support for illegal settlements in Gaza.
Better late than never, but too late to stop Israel from achieving its demented goal of emptying Gaza and expanding greater Israel. Once the genocide is over, all those who supported it, all those who ignored it, all those who did nothing, will rewrite history, including their personal history. It was hard to find anyone who admitted to being a Nazi in post-war Germany, or a member of the Klu Klux Klan once segregation in the southern United States ended. A nation of innocents. Victims even. It will be the same.
Well done, Simon.
MSM is so polarized, there's no honest, balanced reporting. It's a pity this happens with tax payer dollars.
The overall agenda is to destroy the West and its Judeo -Christian foundations . It is quite all right to lie and have biased media because destroying the West is paramount. Its contribution of rule of law, democracy , free speech , tolerance , freedoms , respect for human life , growth of science and technology to improve life are not considered.
I can be certain those intent on destroying these values will not be happy when they go. Sharia law and Jihad and forced reverence for the teachings of Mohammad a war -lord and husband to multiple women including a pre-teen girl will be the replacement ideology and theology.
Anon 10.31 is just playing with words. You want to see genocide? Let the Islamist barbarians loose in Israel. Then you will all see what genocide really looks like. From the river to the sea.
Shame on you, Anonymous at 10.31am, and shame on the New Zealand Government.
You have all fallen for the propaganda and the new world socialist agenda to take over the world by causing chaos.
Israel is fighting for its very existence, while Hama is dedicated to killing every Jew in the World - and won't stop until they have. What should Israel do?
And I have also found that the newspapers will not publish any letters going against their left-wing, woke views - it is not worth reading the 'Letters to the Editor' now as they are all so biased (and full of untruths).
'one would think a bit of balance would be welcome'. Oh my, your naivety is showing. Stuff would turn to dust if it had any semblance of balance.
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