Brendan O'Neill: Andy Burnham’s shameful pandering to anti-Israel bigots

His pompous, fact-lite sermon on Gaza is a transparent effort to win back Muslim voters and the keffiyeh classes.

Here he comes, pandering Andy Burnham. The King of the North throwing out the red meat of Israelophobia to keep certain voters sweet. The incoming PM yapping piously about Israel’s possible ‘war crimes’ in a bid to win back restive Muslim voters and the keffiyeh classes who’ve abandoned Labour for the crackpot Greens. That’s what I saw in Burnham’s staggeringly pompous digital sermon on Gaza – not an act of geopolitical conviction but a masterclass in demographic toadying.

Melanie Phillips: Amoral Andy sticks it to the Jews

Who cares that no-one knows how he'll govern Britain? He's passionate about Gaza

Well that didn’t take long, did it?

On the day that 322 politically bankrupt and panicky Labour MPs made it all but certain through their backing that Andy Burnham’s coup against Sir Keir Starmer had succeeded and he would replace him as prime minister, Burnham — whose only claim to fame is the common touch he brought to his role as mayor of Manchester — chose to celebrate by sticking it to the Jews.

Melanie Phillips: The West’s pragmatic fallacy

When people are called pragmatic, it’s meant to imply reasonableness, the ability to compromise, occupying the sensible middle ground.

That compliment may often be justified. However, as the obverse of principle, pragmatism has also been the West’s progressive undoing.

US President Donald Trump is an arch pragmatist. His “art of the deal” is based on beating down the other side through negotiations in which he plays a superior hand.

Bob Edlin: If Luxon wants to duck out of accepting his Board of Peace invitation.....

If Luxon wants to duck out of accepting his Board of Peace invitation, he should take his cue from Canada’s Carney…

Perhaps it will be announced some time soon, but at time of writing PoO could find no record of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s decision in response to the formal invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

No doubt he was chuffed to get the invitation, although permanent membership comes with a price tag.

Bob Edlin: Luxon is asked to join board for talks (which are bound to be boisterous) on rebuilding Gaza

What does Christopher Luxon have that Palestinian leaders do not have?

The answer – according to our reading of recent media reports – is an invitation to sit on the Trump-concocted “Board of Peace”.

Those appointed to this and the “Gaza Executive Board” will oversee the administration and reconstruction of Gaza,

DTNZ: Luxon invited to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been invited to take part in a new US-led initiative on Gaza, with President Donald Trump proposing the creation of a “board of peace” as Washington looks to move beyond the current ceasefire.

Bob Edlin: Middle East ceasefire is widely celebrated.....

Middle East ceasefire is widely celebrated – but Peters notes that the pro-Palestine protesters have been silent

Come in Chloe and your fellow champions of Palestinian statehood and tell us what you think of happenings in the Middle East in recent days.

There was widespread celebration – not only in Israel and Gaza but around the world – of news of a cease-fire and that the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists two years ago would be freed.

Matua Kahurangi: Winston Peters calls out the Left’s hypocrisy on Gaza

Winston Peters has hit the nail on the head again. His latest post calling out the hypocrisy of the left over Gaza isn’t just political theatre, it’s a reminder of how shallow and performative the outrage machine has become.

He was right to ask where the questions are in Parliament? Where’s the media coverage that actually demands answers from those who claim to care about peace?

Bob Edin: Kiwis in the Gaza protest flotilla might keep our diplomats busy....

Kiwis in the Gaza protest flotilla might keep our diplomats busy but the Luxon Govt is unlikely to send a gunboat

A press statement posted on the Scoop website yesterday prompted PoO to check on the deployment of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s fleet to see if our Government could respond positively to the request.

The headline read:

Brendan O'Neill, Trump’s peace plan is the Western left’s worst nightmare

By turning the screws on Hamas, Trump has exposed who’s really responsible for this dreadful war.

Has the prospect of peace ever been greeted with such gloom? No sooner had President Trump unveiled his peace plan for Israel-Gaza than the opinion-forming classes were frantically sowing cynicism. The possibility that the ghastly war in Gaza will be brought to a close gave rise not to optimism but to sarcasm, suspicion, even an eerie grumpiness unbecoming of a deal that might save thousands of lives. From the BBC to Sky News to the Israelophobic swamp of social media, the cry went up: ‘It’ll never work.’

Philip Crump: Trump and Netanyahu announce details of US peace plan for Gaza

After the theatrics of the UN, Trump announces an ambitious peace plan for Gaza.

At 7:30am this morning, one week before the second anniversary of October 7, President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu began a press conference at the White House to announce a plan for “peace in the Middle East” including a reconstruction and governance plan for Gaza and an expansion of Trump’s first term Abraham Accords.

The 20 point plan, which has had input from many nations, is focused on ending the war, returning the hostages and setting the conditions for enduring security for the Palestinians and Israel.

Matua Kahurangi: Priests chain themselves to Erica Stanfords office in political stunt

Three Anglican priests have chained themselves to the electorate office of Immigration Minister Erica Stanford in Browns Bay today, demanding New Zealand recognise Palestinian statehood.

The clerics described the action as an act of “Christian witness” and claimed they were standing in solidarity with the people of Gaza. They cited Jesus’s teachings on feeding the hungry and healing the sick as justification for their protest.

Mike's minute: NZ's Palestine call was logical and sensible

If you watched Winston Peters speech in New York late Saturday morning you can see why he did so well last week in the Herald's boardroom feedback.

For the bloke who has been the epitome of aggro and grumpiness, in his better moments he is as good a foreign minister as this country has ever had.

Bruce Logan: Palestinian State

In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, we were entertained in our childish way by watching movies featuring the Three Stooges, Moe, Larry, and Shemp. The farce and slapstick were frequently about one Stooge hitting one of the others on the head with a rubber hammer, which always seemed to be conveniently nearby. Well, I think it was rubber. Each bang on the head was accompanied by a resounding boing, apparently to emphasise the emptiness of the skull being struck. All nine or ten years of us laughed uproariously.

Bob Edlin: Politicians are chided for visiting Ukraine (Collins) and China (Clark and Key).....

Politicians are chided for visiting Ukraine (Collins) and China (Clark and Key) – but aren’t they free to choose where to go?

Three political big-wigs have drawn flak for their jet-setting.

Defence Minister Judith Collins has been denounced by Waikanae Watch for flying to Kyiv while former Prime Ministers Helen Clark and John Key have been criticised for flying to China.

Simon O'Connor: More biased voices wanted

Stuff is calling for kiwis to share views on what's happening in Israel and Gaza, but don't expect there to be any balance.

The Stuff headline (below) can be best described as a lie. To date, Stuff has shown little interest in presenting a range of views on this complicated conflict, and this call made at the start of the week will be no different. I would anticipate a careful selection of ‘voices’ that reinforce the single narrative Stuff has been pushing for months now. More worryingly, it will probably enable the usual tropes, slurs, and half-truths to be repeated. What we are witnessing is not reporting but propaganda.

Brendan O'Neill, How the West’s Israelophobia has made life hell for Palestinians

The human catastrophe in Gaza is a product of the delirious moralism of our anti-Israel elites.

A question haunts me: why are there still women and children in Gaza? This is a strip of land 25 miles long and seven miles wide. It’s a quarter the size of London. And for nearly two years it has been engulfed by war. An army of anti-Semites is fighting one of the dirtiest wars humanity has ever witnessed, hiding in civilian infrastructure to plot its murder of Jews. Israel is dropping bombs. There are gunfights. And there are all the horrors that attend war: death, hunger, sickness. And yet there they are, the women and children, fleeing the fighting and scrabbling for food alongside men.

Professor Ananish Chaudhuri: Death and displacement in Gaza are heart-breaking but

I see progressives, both in New Zealand and overseas, routinely excoriate Israel for carrying out “genocide” in Gaza. In fact, accusing Israel of “genocide” has become a rite of passage in establishing one’s bona fides as a progressive. Except, as with many other contemporary progressive shibboleths, there is little factual basis to this claim.

How is genocide defined?

DTNZ: Israel plans to move Gaza population to single ‘humanitarian city’

The Palestinians will not be allowed to leave the camp except for “voluntarily” emigrating to other countries, Israel Katz says.

Israel is preparing to establish a so-called “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian enclave’s entire population is to be moved, the country’s defense minister, Israel Katz, has announced. Critics of the initiative promptly branded the “city” an internment camp and warned of potentially widespread human rights abuse.

Point of Order: A bad day for America’s enemies

The American strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities may end up being a bad day for a lot of people – but with luck, mainly for the autocrats, appeasers and anti-democrats.

There is a smidgen of sympathy for the Iranian regime. Every child with a stick eventually learns it’s not a good idea to keep provoking. But who would have thought that Donald Trump – the great peace president – would be the one to accept the informal declaration of war issued by the Iranian regime’s precursors on 4 November 1979.