Connect the dots

Connecting the dots is as easy as putting various facts and clues together in order to see the whole picture or to understand something globally.

On 9 November, Jews worldwide commemorated the anniversary of Kristallnacht when, in 1938, Jewish businesses, synagogues, communal buildings and homes were vandalised and destroyed. At the same time, Jews were assaulted and systematically brutalised, rounded up and deported to Dachau. This pogrom against Germany and Austria’s Jews signalled the inevitable doom of European Jewry. Significantly, it also demonstrated to the Nazis that they could literally get away with murder as the democracies refused to take any meaningful steps in defence of the Jewish victims.

Today, in 2023, history repeats itself as latter-day Nazis slaughter Israelis while Jews in the Diaspora face increasingly toxic hate. There is a direct line between Kristallnacht and its aftermath and the scenes we are witnessing in cities everywhere these days. A reluctance to connect the dots proves that large swathes of humanity seem incapable and unwilling to acknowledge reality even when it hits them full force in their face.

 One would think after the most horrendous slaughter of Israeli civilians by Hamas it would be logical for anyone with any sort of intelligence to recognize that this group is in fact a terrorist organization. Yet, amazing as it may seem, there are millions who as a result of their own ignorance and prejudices, cannot actually arrive at this logical conclusion.

What about those countries which, despite all evidence, still cannot bring themselves to designate Hamas as terrorists?

I am not thinking of the usual suspects where democracy and human rights are fictions of the imagination. Neither am I speaking of nations where endemic hatred of Jews is so embedded that it has become a natural feature of the political landscape.

The fact that these countries are members of the United Nations and can sit in judgment and condemn Israel every Monday and Thursday is irrelevant. In fact the UN is irrelevant because by its very condoning of members who swear to eradicate the Jewish State, it demonstrates its hypocrisy. Iran has just assumed the chairmanship of the UN Human Rights Council. What further proof is needed?

It may come as a shock to realise that the one democracy and fellow member of the corrupt UN, which does not recognise all of Hamas as a terrorist group, is none other than New Zealand.

Unbelievably, and despite all logical proof to the contrary, no NZ Government has managed to do so. Yes, they have designated the “military wing” of Hamas as terrorists, but for some inexplicable reason, they maintain that the “political wing” of Hamas is somehow a champion of the oppressed and downtrodden and, therefore, have no connection to the murderers carrying out jihad.

Refusing past pleas to recognise reality, both National and Labor-led Governments persist in living in la la land.

What makes their stance so untenable is the fact that overwhelming evidence exists to prove that there is, in fact, no difference between the alleged two “wings” of this murderous group.

In an effort to help the incoming Government make a belated decision, I offer some clues which might enlighten those in Wellington still stuck in some time warp of unreality.

First and foremost, it is important to realise that Hamas is one unified group regardless of whether its followers are actively murdering Jews and Israelis or trying to bamboozle gullible millions with politically duplicitous rhetoric. This simple fact seems to have escaped the befuddled minds in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

This recent declaration by a senior Hamas “political” official is unambiguous.

As recorded by MEMRI, a senior Hamas official, Ghazi Hamad, told Lebanon TV on 24 October: “Hamas will continue to carry out massacres until the Jewish State is destroyed. Israel is a country that has no place in our land. We must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation and must be finished. We are not ashamed to say this with full force. Israel’s existence is illogical.”  

This is not something new because the Hamas political charter clearly calls for the disappearance of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants. It is crystal clear that Hamas, whether political or military, is committed to genocidal and terrorist aims. They have never hidden their agenda.

It is, therefore, astounding and inexplicable, given all the available evidence, that no New Zealand Government, whether of the left or right, has ever designated all of Hamas as a banned terror group.

What further proof is needed, especially after the massacres of 7 October?

Some naively believe that now the knee-jerk anti-Israel MPs of the left and their associates are in opposition, sanity will prevail and this travesty will be rectified. Unfortunately, I do not believe that just because a more conservative coalition is in power, common sense will prevail. Far too many conveniently forget the fact that it was a previous National Government with a Jewish Prime Minister as its leader which co-sponsored the infamous UN 2334 Resolution. This travesty of a resolution denies the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the historical heartland of Judea and Samaria. It is a permanent and slanderous indictment of international hypocrisy and a continuing disgraceful scandal.

Will the incoming NZ coalition officially apologise and openly declare that it distances itself from this past stab in the back?

Based on past and current rhetoric, I doubt it.

What is stopping New Zealand from joining Australia and most other democracies in classifying Hamas in its entirety as a terror organisation? When one of his senior colleagues equated the pogrom of 7 October with the Holocaust, the incoming PM reprimanded him for his “excessively strong” language. If speaking the truth is deserving of censure, then how likely is it that the country’s leader will actually grasp the nettle and act accordingly.

New Zealand’s new Parliament will have at least twenty-one MP’s who are openly hostile to Israel. They cannot bring themselves to condemn terror without trying to create some moral equivalence between a democracy protecting its citizens and terror groups bent on murdering Israelis and instigating violence against Jews elsewhere. The 15 Greens and 6 Maori Party members, plus assorted Labor Party cheerleaders are indicative of which way the wind is blowing in Aotearoa.

Will the incoming coalition belatedly take a firm stand against Hamas, or will it hide yet again in some sort of wishy-washy doublespeak?

When politicians wish to avoid hard decisions, they inevitably hide, trying to cover the field and appease all sides. Thus, instead of seriously dealing with Islamic jihadist demonstrations and cries of “gas the Jews” and “from the river to the sea” they instead pivot to condemning “Islamaphobia.”

Has anyone by any chance noticed mass mobs of Jews and their supporters rampaging through the streets of any city anywhere shouting death threats against Muslims? Have Muslim homes and Mosques been defaced with hate symbols and graffiti?  Are Muslims warned not to wear clothes or jewellery which might identify them and target them? In other words, are Muslims being targeted in the same way that Jews are being threatened?

Avoiding tackling clear expressions of jihadist intentions by scattering red herrings needs to be called out for what it really is. Political correctness combined with political moral cowardice makes a lethal combination.

Earlier this year, the city council of New Zealand’s Capital, Wellington, decided to enter into a “sisterly” relationship with Ramallah. At the time, proponents of this move waxed eloquently about the similarities between both cities and extolled the virtues of such a marriage. I am not sure whether this relationship was ever consummated, but the very idea demonstrates how warped and clueless the idea was from the very beginning.

Last week, over ten thousand Ramallah residents roared their wholehearted approval as the leader of Hezbollah, a fraternal partner of Hamas, threatened to join in efforts to murder Israelis.

Ramallah is also the headquarters of the PA, whose leader Mahmoud Abbas, facilitates the payment of stipends to the murderers of Jews.

A sisterly relationship, therefore, between Ramallah and Wellington would be a marriage in hell. Given current circumstances, that represents an appropriate shidduch (match).

In 1948, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, declared his intention “to stand four-square for justice for the ancient home of the Jewish People and the return of Jews and creation of the Jewish State.”  What a contrast with today.

In 1948, the Arab predecessors of Hamas and Hezbollah (Palestinians not yet having been invented) declared their intention to thwart and abort the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty. At the same time they rejected a country of their own because they wanted all or nothing.

 In November 1938, Jews were the targets of pogroms in Germany and Austria. In London, they were threatened by the Mosley fascist black shirts.

In 2023, Jews are still being targeted. Connect the dots.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.