Helen Houghton
Conservative Party leader
We are often asked our position on the current conflicts involving the state of Israel, which is not a subject I normally discuss, because I’m focused on the problems directly affecting our people in New Zealand, here and now. Our priority as a party is standing up for the traditional values that built our society: without a strong conservative voice in parliament, we will continue to be subjected to policies that undermine families, rob us of our freedoms and put ideology before reality, while the government grows ever bigger and more intrusive.
Having said that, we do believe that there is a conservative position on these issues.
One of the primary responsibilities of any government is to defend its people – this includes our government and the government of Israel. The sad reality is that many around the world believe this does not apply to Israel. New Zealand’s leaders talk like this – jumping on the woke bandwagon and rushing to condemn Israel at every opportunity. The double standards and selective morality on display are deeply hypocritical.
Israel is a free, democratic and diverse society – Jews, Arabs, Christians, Muslims, Druze – and we support their government’s responsibility to protect them. This does not mean we support everything about Israel – as conservatives, we oppose many things we see in Israel – after all, it is very liberal in many respects.
Many on the left are screaming hysterically that the Israeli (and now US) attack on Iran is ‘illegal’. Without getting you tied up into the details of international law, of which I have recently studied through my law degree, the fact is that Iran has been ruled by an aggressive (and highly repressive) regime, which has menaced its neighbours and promised to destroy Israel, following through on its promise by funding decades of attacks through terrorist proxies, including more than 60,000 rockets, missiles and drones fired at Israel over the last 20 years.
Last year, Iran launched two direct attacks of its own, firing 500 missiles and long-range drones – so contrary to the narrative, the action by Israel was not at all ‘unprovoked’. If our own country were subjected to the attacks Israel has been, we would expect our government to respond appropriately.
Furthermore, although we don’t know all the details, the IAEA recently estimated that Iran had succeeded in enriching enough uranium for nine nuclear weapons, which would make it an even greater danger, not just to Israel but to all its neighbours and potentially further afield. It seemed that the politics of appeasement – branded as diplomacy – had failed. I don’t need to remind you of what appeasement looked like in Nazi Germany. It turns out after all that you can’t negotiate with fanatics who prefer to die than to let you live!
People of goodwill will always seek peace, but we know that sometimes decisive military action is the only way to secure it. This is why nations need a military, and it is presumptuous for us to sit unmolested in an ivory tower at the ends of the earth and lecture other nations when they take action to defend themselves. We don’t know what the future will bring to that part of the world, but let’s always pray for peace.
