Rire Norman: Wrestling with War, Truth, and the Future of the Middle East

War is brutal and grotesque. My heart aches for everyone caught in this horrific web of conflict, division, and suffering — on all sides, in all lands.

And right now, social media is flooded with anti-war, anti-Israel sentiment.

People are quick to name, blame, and shame — without thought or critical thinking.

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.

Brendan O'Neill: Who really wants ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Middle East?

A new definition of chutzpah just dropped. It’s people thinking they can spend 16 months crying ‘Crush the Zionist entity!’ and then wring their hands over the threat of ‘ethnic cleansing’. It’s protesters thinking they can wail ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ – shorter version: erase Israel – and then accuse others of wanting to ‘cleanse’ the Middle East of ‘problematic’ people. It’s an activist class that is consumed by a burning hatred for the very idea of a Jewish homeland thinking it can lecture its opponents on the importance of respecting other people’s homelands.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Damien O'Connor must apologise

Labour’s going to have to sort itself out over this Middle East situation. 

This is about Damien O'Connor's tweet. I was really surprised yesterday when I was listening to Carmel Sepuloni being interviewed on this, as the deputy leader of the Labour Party. 

She was asked if he should apologise for his tweet and instead of saying yes, which is the only answer to give, she made excuses for him, saying he feels strongly about the situation as if that makes it OK. 

David Seymour: Ministry for Regulation, NZ's position on the Middle East and the Treaty Principles bill.

David Seymour talks with Jack Tame on Q+A about a variety of issues including the Ministry for Regulation, NZ's position on the Middle East and the Treaty Principles bill.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 29/7/24

PM says suffering in the Middle East can’t continue – but it can and probably it will

The Government has again appealed for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering his retaliatory options after hurrying home from the US and issuing a stern warning to Hezbollah.

Dane Giraud: Eygpt: between Scylla and Charybdis

Egypt, under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, finds itself ensnared in a profound dilemma, reminiscent of the legendary Scylla and Charybdis.

On one side lies the threat of internal upheaval, fuelled by a populace incensed over perceived government complicity with Israel; on the other, the complex web of international relations and economic dependencies that tether Egypt to Western powers. This conundrum, emblematic of the broader Middle Eastern quagmire, is a stark reminder of the delicate balancing act required in navigating the modern geopolitical landscape.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/5/24

Hurrah for coal – Shane Jones welcomes Genesis Energy’s import plans as natural gas production shrinks

A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal.

For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 29/2/24

ETS review will be good news (we think) for the forest sector but govt gets tough with Hamas and Israeli extremists

When the Luxon government took office last year, forest owners and investors were among the myriads of interest groups who pressed incoming ministers with pleadings, urgings and advice – typically self-serving – for change.

The forestry bunch hoped the new government would give clearer direction on the Emissions Trading Scheme as investment in the sector threatened to dry up in response to policy uncertainty.

Clive Bibby: We won’t achieve what the main players don’t want.

Recent reports of progress towards a solution in the Middle East appears to be based on the “two state” model imposed by all the world governing bodies except the two warring factions who don’t want a bar of it. 

On the one hand, the Palestinians appear fixated on eliminating Israel from all the land it currently occupies either legally or illegally - “from the river to the sea” while, for its part, Israel is committed to destroying Hamas’s ability to launch unprovoked attacks from Gaza and the West Bank - in other words, a Palestinian enclave that never again threatens Israel’s sovereign territory or its people. 

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 16/2/24

Luxon is one of three prime ministers pressing for a ceasefire in Gaza – but the two-state solution they push looks fanciful

Two days after hundreds of people rallied outside the New Zealand parliament and the US embassy in Wellington to protest against what they maintain is genocide in Gaza, Prime Minister Chris Luxon joined with the Prime Ministers of Australia and Canada to express their concerns that Israel seems to be planning a ground offensive into Rafah.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 15/1/24

Economics underpin Govt’s derailing of Labour transport project and its support for military strikes in Yemen

The coalition Government has announced (on the domestic front) the cancellation of the Auckland Light Rail project and (on the international front) its support for Western military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

It has also got around to posting two press statements released on New Year’s Day, presumably when the people who administer the government’s official website were on holiday.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 18/11/23

Government announces $5m. more humanitarian support for war-ravaged Middle East – but will the aid get through to Gaza?

The first statement posted on the government’s official website for more than a week – announcing a further $5 million in humanitarian support for Gaza, the West Bank and Israel – was released in the names of Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson.

Melanie Phillips: The real lessons for Israel from the Good Friday Agreement

Biden's Irish tour demonstrates yet more US arrogance, hubris and magical thinking

People often wonder whether the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which has brought a 25-year respite from Irish sectarian bombings in Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, provides lessons for the war between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

The visit to Ireland by US President Joe Biden suggests, however, that the comparison is far more baleful than many suppose.

Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s Middle East strategy, 20 years after the Iraq War

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War.

While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003.

With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed further, in 2004.

However, New Zealand re-entered Iraq in 2015 as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

The emergence and growth of ISIS was one of many unintended consequences of the Iraq War’s disastrous and bloody aftermath.

Geoffrey Miller: Is it time for Jacinda Ardern to head to the Middle East?

In her victorious election campaign in 2017, Jacinda Ardern famously called climate change ‘my generation’s nuclear-free moment’.

But perhaps surprisingly, Ardern has not attended a UN climate change conference since she became New Zealand’s Prime Minister in 2017.

Had New Zealand’s Covid-19 situation allowed for it, Ardern would have almost certainly joined the many other world leaders who went to COP26 in Glasgow last year.

Geoffrey Miller: Joe Biden’s controversial trip to Saudi Arabia could help New Zealand reset its own relationship with the Middle East

Joe Biden’s controversial fist-bump with Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Saudi crown prince, may help New Zealand to forge its own new direction in the Middle East.

The US president’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia showed that despite real concerns over human rights, the Middle East’s strategic importance in the current global geopolitical jigsaw puzzle cannot be ignored.

Melanie Phillips: The new administration's words fit awkwardly with its roll-call of Obama retreads

Can leopards change their spots? Or to be more pertinent, can those who put Israel, the west and the world in such danger through the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with the Iranian regime now accept that what they did was catastrophically wrong?

Can such people, who at best never understood what Israel needed to ensure its security or, at worst, actually supported those bent on its annihilation, stop speaking simultaneously out of both sides of their mouths, accept the need to treat Israel as a valuable ally and finally do what is actually needed to keep it safe?

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: The start of a new era in the Middle East?

2019 has been a good year for Vladimir Putin with Donald Trump effectively handing over the reins as chief powerbroker in the Middle East, or at least a substantial part thereof, to him.

Putin did not need any further prompting once the US army units began their withdrawal from northern Syria. Within a fortnight he was in direct talks with Erdogan and a ceasefire was put in place. Days later, Turkey announced that it had ended its military operation against the Kurds. Russian and Turkish units began to patrol the 20-mile strip of land adjoining the Turkish border. (Trump claimed a great American diplomatic victory – he had threatened to annihilate the Turkish economy should they try to wipe out the Kurds. A BBC news report fittingly showed a line of Russian armoured vehicles on patrol as they presented this dubious announcement.)

Melanie Phillips: Who Are the Real Isolationists in America?

Ever since President Donald Trump astounded the world by announcing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, commentators have been trying to work out the significance of this decision.

Among those conservatives who believe America should make alliances against the enemies of the West and then stand by those allies, there has been shock and consternation. A number of Israeli analysts have expressed similar dismay.

The cause of the concern is obvious. By withdrawing the 2,000 or so U.S. troops stationed in the border area between Iraq, Syria and Jordan, Trump seems be removing a buffer against Iran’s aim to establish a land bridge from Iran to Syria and Lebanon via Iraq.