Audrey Young’s piece in today’s New Zealand Herald is typical of the partisan posturing we have come to expect from the New Zealand media class in relation to the conflict in Israel/Palestine (and other issues). She assumes an artificial high ground from which she announces New Zealand must instantly repent for failing to join the “morally correct” grand gesture of recognising Palestinian statehood. She treats statehood recognition as an absolutely unassailable right, a meaningful virtue signal, delivered in the name of justice. But New Zealand’s role is not to play moral extras on the world stage. It is to navigate realpolitik, international law, and the messy realities of a fraught conflict and represent our people in measured and responsible ways.
