They’re both New Zealanders! The All Blacks played Ireland in this morning’s Rugby World Cup game in Paris.
It’s now Monday October 9th, 2023. Kia ora!
This morning I am eager to hear (sensible) reaction to the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, where many Israelis have been taken hostage, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed revenge. The US commentators, usually so quick to rush into print/podcast when a new crisis occurs, are largely silent, still dealing with McCarthy’s ousting as Speaker of the US Congress, and Trump’s various legal woes. But what I want to know is how Congress will allocate yet more funding to Israel, without a Speaker? There are immediate consequences of this debacle. I guess they thought there would be a breathing space until the next government funding crisis in November. But no, life goes on, and stuff happens outside of the US. So they need a new speaker right now. It frustrates me that this consequence is recognised by me before I see it anywhere in the media. I must admit that their limited perspective is frustrating at times. This is something that JD and I share.
I am listening to a most interesting podcast from The Rest is History about the start of the Arabian Empire, called the Baghdad: The Forging of Islam.
It’s now Tuesday October 10th.
There are big repercussions for the attack in Israel; it’s being called a terrorist attack; hostages have been taken; and a music festival was attacked! As expected, there is lots of discussion; as expected, Israel’s Prime Minister vows enormous vengeance; there are also voices about the misery of the Palestinians who live in the Gaza strip. I won’t attempt to take sides; I’m sure that many innocent folk have been and will be victims. Already the death toll is over 1,100 I think; so far 11 American citizens are known to have been killed. This attack by Hamas achieved surprise (where were Israeli and American intelligence?), but I am likening it to a suicide bombing, where the perpetrators expect to achieve their reward in heaven.
It’s now been echoed several times so far on MSNBC: that the US Congress needs a Speaker! They are in recess for a week. Senator Tuberville still maintains that he will hold up military appointments. I thought that Republicans were amongst Israel’s biggest supporters? Oh dear, what a very sad state of affairs.
In local news, election fever continues. It will be a relief when this is over. Among interesting points: an ACT candidate has died; some are saying that ACT peaked too early; and that Winston Peters timed his re-entry perfectly. Judith Collins is nowhere to be seen; neither is former Prime Minister Ardern, although my Instagram feed tells me she voted early. National have wheeled out (Sir) John Key, and Labour Dame Helen Clark to assist their campaigns. I’m not particularly enamoured of either of them.
Last night there was (another) so-called debate between Grant Robertson and Nicola Willis about their financial policies. The front page of this morning’s paper highlights a saying by Cameron Bagrie, who, I understand, claims to be an economist: “And as an economist, there’s not a lot of confidence on either side”. What does this even mean? Bagrie is presumably an educated person. I know when I was marking, I would have taken issue with such a statement. Does he mean that he doesn’t have confidence in either plan? Or they don’t have confidence in their respective plans? Who doesn’t have confidence?
Hipkins is out of isolation (now 5 days) for covid 19, but another Labour MP has covid. There’s a report by Michael Baker that New Zealand’s pandemic policies saved 20,000 lives! And a great deal of fear and anxiety, I might add. Well done, New Zealand! I doubt if that will happen again.
It’s now Wednesday October 11th.
Yesterday afternoon two of my cousins came to visit. One of them brought an Apple and Rhubarb Shortcake that she had made. It was delicious! We had it with honey-flavoured Greek yoghurt.
This morning I went to a Te Reo Māori class at the Khandallah Town Hall. I’ve missed three classes, I think, but it seems to be making a lot more sense now and I enjoyed the session. We learnt about means of transport, and popular locations. There’s a lot of Māori versions of English words, so that makes things a bit easier. Afterwards I voted at the Khandallah Town Hall. That was fine, although the marker pens are a bit large and blunt for the tiny circles to tick the party and candidate you wish to vote for. Afterwards, there was no sticker, no exit poll. However I did get a robot call from Greg O’Connor last night. This morning’s newspaper has a full front page advertisement for Prime Minister Hipkins and Labour, so that’s nice.
With regard to the terrorist attack in Israel, despite Prime Minister Netanyahu’s vengeful response, the attack is shown to have been truly terrible, and is being seen an Isis-like attack in its brutality. So that is very scary indeed. It’s thought to be backed by Iran, and the US recently did a prisoner-swap with Iran for $6 million USD. Of course, somehow the attack is the Democrats’ fault. The fact that there are so many Jewish commentators in the US doesn’t help – it seems most of them are Jewish, or Catholic; one has to feel for the Palestinian people who seem to be very poorly served by – everyone, including their leaders. But it’s upsetting to see the Israelis being cruel by walling off the Gaza strip, and in effect doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them. Now, I don’t want to get into an argument about this, since it’s desperately sad to see any suffering and destruction of the means of livelihood. Of course conspiracy theories abound, but it seems that Putin was pleased to see the world’s attention focussed on Israel rather than Ukraine. What a desperately sad situation.
It’s now Thursday October 12th.
It’s becoming ever more evident that the attack by Hamas on Israel was cruel and brutal, as details emerge of the cruelty. There was surprise, that people weren’t rescued and didn’t know what to do. Prime Minister Netanyahu is being criticised for not looking after the Israeli people (about 10 million). There are stories of babies being decapitated, a man with his arm cut off, many deaths and then there are the hostages. The Gaza strip has been under siege and the humanitarian situation is desperate. Although people have been advised to leave, they cannot do so. As someone pointed out on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, there’s a difference between being militant and being a terrorist. The surprise attack by Hamas is being described as terrorism, whatever the provocations that may have led to it. The Israeli response is hopefully not terrorism. The Rest is Politics podcast had a special episode, where Rory Stewart tried to explain in ten minutes the situation in Israel:
https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-rest-is-politics/id1611374685
That was a very cautious and measured explanation, I think.
Among things that impressed me were Alastair Campbell talking about the Good Friday peace Agreement, which effectively put an end to terrorism waged by the IRA. Peace in Northern Ireland looked impossible, and there were very strong feelings on both sides, but it was achieved, and for the most part, the Peace Agreement has held firm. I doubt if many people realise just how significant it was. And so, perhaps there is hope for the Middle East.
Yesterday afternoon I got JD to drop me off at the Johnsonville Shopping Centre. I didn’t find the book I was looking for at Whitcoulls, but of course I managed to spend some money. When JD came to pick me, he voted, and sent me shopping at Countdown. That is frustrating, since I don’t know my way around that store.
This morning my Thursday morning singing resumed after a break for the school holidays. There was a great turnout! And some fantastic singing. It was nice to be back.
There are now 22 Americans confirmed dead, and several are among the hostages. 15 have not been accounted for.
It’s now Friday October 13th.
It’s said there are still at least 97 hostages held by Hamas. The situation in Gaza is dire indeed, with no power now. Some are wondering what the end game is, for Netanyahu’s war, What would success look like? I remember Americans Congresswoman Barbara Lee (I think it was ) after the 9/11 attack, and the start of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying something along the lines of be careful not to become the evil you seek to avenge.
Oh, and by the way, Trump praised Hezbollah, and President Xi of China, and criticised Netanyahu for not helping with the assassination of Sulemani.
Apparently 25 Americans have been confirmed killed in the current conflict.
It’s now Sunday October 15th
I guess by now everyone knows that National did far better than Labour in yesterday’s general election; still, Christopher Luxon will have to form a coalition government with ACT and probably N Z First. They failed to get 50% of the vote. Greg O’Connor retained his Ohariu seat, thankfully. This result is not really surprising, but I find it upsetting. It’s being called a bloodbath, but I think that is an exaggeration. What I find even more upsetting is that the Voice referendum in Australia failed to win, although it was thought to be a certainty a few weeks ago. What strange decisions people make! Still, it’s a privilege to be able to vote, peacefully, and to be able to vote early in many locations. And although I dislike the National Party and what it stands for, at least it’s not (at present) as far right-wing and crazy as in many countries. National and Act only have a slim majority of seats; one seat, at the moment, and that could well change with special votes and other mishaps.
This morning we got up early and went to watch the rugby match at my son’s house. The All Blacks were playing Ireland, in Paris, at the Stade de France, for a place in the quarter-finals. It was a very exciting game, which the All Blacks won by 28 – 24. There were some odd decisions by the referee, Wayne Barnes. There were two yellow cards! And yet the All Blacks won. That should cheer us up!
I have been listening to several podcasts about Hamas’ sudden attack in Israel, and watching some very good videos from BBC News and Channel 4 News. I have been learning more about the history of Israel and the Middle East this century. I have heard from many Jewish people who worked towards achieving peace in the region, only to find, as many have done, that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been a deeply divisive figure, plagued by scandal. Like his authoritarian counterparts, he continues to escape the sanctions of the law. He does not seek peace or unity, it seems. And there are several questions: why did he take so long to address the nation of Israel after the crisis? Why were the famed Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) not only unaware of the attack by Hamas, the I.D.F. (Israeli Defence Force) failed to act on it. It seems that there was little security at the music festival in the desert near Gaza, from where many hostages were taken. It seems that after the attack, there was no official guidance for hours and days.
The attack by Hamas was really well planned, and evaded the Iron Dome defence and Israel’s other technological defences. While there is no question that the massacre was extremely gruesome, and affected many, many Jewish families, there is also little doubt that the way Israelis have treated their supposed enemies has been and continues to be with Biblical, Old Testament rage and cruelty. The New Testament says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”. Now I don’t want to offend anyone, and I’m learning more and more about this situation, but it seems hard to defend Israel’s response in Gaza to “raze it to the ground”. Are any leaders of Hamas even there? It’s a huge humanitarian disaster, to evacuate 1.1 million Palestinian citizens, who have in all probability done nothing wrong. And where are they to go?
We are waiting now for Israel’s response, and one wonders how easy it will be for the US and other countries to defend this response. It’s been compared to the Japanese attack at pearl Harbour, and America’s 9/11, but it’s known that while the Japanese Ambassador tried to warn President Roosevelt, he was kept waiting; while the 9/11 attack came as a huge shock, there were many intelligence warnings that were ignored. I guess when an “unbelievable” attack occurs, the intelligence is even more unlikely to be believed.
Whatever the wrongs of the attack, one has to think very carefully about the response, whatever the desire for vengeance. The US response to 9/11 was pretty drastic, and it was under the Obama administration that Osama bin Laden was finally tracked down and killed. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour got America into the Second World War, which was probably a good thing, all things considered. But it’s so terribly sad that innocent people, who didn’t contribute to any division, who may have actively sought peace, must be made to suffer anyway; it’s as though their lives don’t matter. The response of President Zelensky, also Jewish, of Ukraine has been very different: he has rallied Ukrainians to fight for their country, and face unimaginable hardships in so doing. For a long time, Ukrainian forces resisted any attacks on Russia, although Putin had invaded without being threatened or invaded himself. The cruelty of the Russian attacks and subsequent kidnappings and torture are similar to the Hamas attack, although for Hamas they’re no doubt aware that they’re on a suicide mission, with their reward due to come in paradise. I’ve never been quite sure how that works, especially for the 40 virgins, but there we are.
And what might be the consequences of this attack, and retaliation? Was Iran involved, and, if so, to what extent? Are the Lebanese Hezbollah likely to get involved? Are the Russians involved? Will nations still be prepared to support and supply Ukraine, remembering that they are suffering on the democratic world’s behalf. Now there are two great conflicts – Ukraine and Israel, both with the potential to become greater. Meanwhile, in the US, Republican-dominated Congress still lacks a Speaker. Many are saying that there is chaos in American politics. It makes our issues in Australasia pale by comparison. There is danger in chaos, though. Some are saying that Israel was in a chaotic state before the sudden Hamas attacks, what with the huge protests against changes to the legal system, and the difficulties in forming a far-right coalition government. Still and all, we’re fortunate to live in Aotearoa.
That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.
Classic Barbarian 