With Israel fighting its most unsuccessful war ever, it’s heartening to read this from our close neighbour:
In the wake of recent attacks on a mosque in Lower Hutt and a synagogue in Christchurch, New Zealand Muslims and Jews stand together against racism and vandalism. The New Zealand Jewish Council and the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand issued the following joint statement today:
In the wake of recent attacks on a mosque in Lower Hutt and a synagogue in Christchurch, New Zealand Muslims and Jews stand together against racism and vandalism. We are all dismayed by the current turmoil in the Middle East, but we pray and work for a lasting peace daily. We have no desire to bring foreign hatred to New Zealand’s shores – we only want to live peaceably with our neighbours. The vandals and bigots are a tiny but vocal minority, and we know that our many friends are ashamed of such acts occuring in New
Zealand.
We call on all New Zealanders to work hard towards increasing understanding and supporting each other in times of trouble, as this is the best way to achieve peace.
Stephen Goodman
Chair, New Zealand Jewish Council
Javed Khan
President, Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand
Sadly, Sydney has experienced yet another anti-Semitic attack in the last 24 hours.
UPDATE: Israel’s claims about Qana now look decidedly shaky, at best.
Shaky all right. Meanwhile on the clueless right, Quana was all staged by Hezbollah (see, if you can stomach it http://michellemalkin.com/archives/2006_07.htm and http://americanprincess.mu.nu/), the former a favourite of a Captain , whose huge list of conservative links includes one called “The Moslem Question”. Unfortunate.
I wonder if he is a relative of our Captain.
Anyway so much for the left’s penchent for conspiracy theories- this one rivals the faked moon landing.
As yes, the bile swilling Michelle Malkin, who when the three Gunatanamo prisoners hung themselves (one who was abtou to be released) said “boo frakin hoo”.
It seem that the right is witnessing a trend for vitriolic pindits in mini skirts. The strange thing is that no matter how many times these people are wrong, they just pretend like it never happened and simply carry on as though they are the ultimate authority.
Similiar to Tim Blair’s interview last week, when he said he moved to the right becasue it was closer to the reality in the ground, yet this same guy also suports a war for whom all rationales ( pre and post invasion) have not onyl been completely debunked, but are now being ridiculed.
Lebanon is just the start to yet another Middle East re-shape plan. Every day we read and see reports indirectly attacking Syria and Iran. It will only take another 9/11 inside job within the illegal state of Israel to convince the US and UK to draw up more flawed accusations to bring Syria and Iran into battle. Syria and Iran may just be that surprise which the US, UK and Israel need to stop their world level bullying.
Addamo – you are spot on. The US have Malkin and Ann Coulter while, here in Australia, we have Miranda Devine. Maybe they should meet up on a heath somewhere and brew up some eye of newt.
Roonaldo,
Actually Miranda Devine isn’t in their league. I have had email convos with her and she’s pretty level headed.
You shoudl see that pasting she gets when she posts at Tim Blair’s blog. It’s like a pack rape.
I am not at all knowledgeable about politics but I’ve noticed a lot of people, both journos and bloggers like Riverbend, saying that there is no way that the US would ever attack Iran because they need Iran to help them exit from Iraq, considering it has a majority of its populace shia moslems? Does anyone know anything more about this?
Suze,
The issue is far from clear cut but in basic terms, there is a battle Royale taking place within the Bush Administration between the realists and the neocons.
The realists recognise that Iran is crucial to securing Iraq and that the US is in no position to start another war. They also recognise that a) occupying a country is futile, even for the world largest superpower and b) that regime change is like Russian roulette and that the outcome is far from predictable.
The neocons are ideologically driven and are convinced that Iran must be taken out as part fo their plan to redraw the Middle East. They have had their hearts set on overthrowing Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia for over a decade. They are not discouraged by the disaster in Iraq, insisting that all would have been flawless had Rumsfeld only listened to their advice.
Don’t buy any of th erubbish abtou nukes. Even if Iran had them, they would not be a threat to the US or Israel. Liek the WMD fiasco, it is just a pretext. The fact that the nuke argument wasn’t working is why Israel and the US are trying to draw Iran into the Lebanese conflict.
And on a related note, a new group has just formed over this side of the Tasman called Aotearoa Jews For Justice. We’re a bunch of anarchist & anti-Zionist Jews, and we’ll be making our presence felt for the first time on Friday in Wellington at a Palestine/Lebanon solidarity demonstration.
Website to come soon…
Brilliant Asher.