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Dr Simon Smelt
Israel Institute NZ
Dr Simon Smelt is a retired economist. In response to NZ’s Labour Party spokespeople calling “for an immediate and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza, Smelt asks Labour the following pertinent questions:
Why are you against peace?
There was a ceasefire in place on Oct 7. If Hamas hadn’t committed massacre and outrages, there would be no war. To demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire (no mention of any return of hostages) fits beautifully with what Hamas wants and therefore encourages them. Such a move would be seen as a huge triumph for Hamas, strengthening them enormously. Their future grip on Gaza would be assured. They are already more popular than the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, so would become unstoppable there also.
Hamas publicly state that they will repeat Oct 7 “again and again”[1]. As they have zero interest in anything short of the elimination of the state of Israel and all its Jewish citizens[2], this means no peace short of their “Final Solution” to the Jews. Rules based international order is irrelevant wherever Iran’s proxies rule. Or do you intend that the West undertake a permanent intervention in any Palestinian state: i.e., a heavy, colonial hand?
Why are you against the Palestinians?
Hamas has committed countless atrocities against its own people in Gaza. It is Hamas who uses their own civilians as shields and place their military installations in and under schools, hospitals, universities, mosques and UNRWA Headquarters. It is Hamas who shell aid assembly points and repair work on the water supply system from Israel into Gaza (which Hamas left in disrepair, using water pipes as rocket casings). It is Hamas who have spent the highest aid per capita in the world on military material and tunnels, not on civilians. It is Hamas who refuse to shelter civilians in their tunnels. It is Hamas who recognise no rights for women in marriage and murder gays and non-binary people. It is Hamas who assassinated Gaza clan leaders who moved to assist with aid distribution.
Alas, a majority of the population of Gaza and the West Bank continue to support Hamas, having been subject to fierce indoctrination and hate toward Israel and all Jews – no shortage of stomach turning examples from children’s TV and school books[3]. The oppression will only strengthen if Hamas is rewarded by your favoured policy.
And what of the two million Arabs in Israel, who have full rights as citizens – far more rights than in any Arab state? From surveys, the majority identify as Israeli or Israeli Arab and have drawn closer in the present war[4]: their people also were murdered and kidnapped on Oct 7; their people also fight – and die – in the IDF. But they complicate the narrative and so are ignored.
Why are you against the Jews?
Labour’s outrage is focussed against Israel. The hostages merit no mention; no demands for their release; their long agony and that of their families not in the equation. The survival of Israel – the Middle East’s only working democracy and the world’s only Jewish state – passed over; the explicit policy of Hamas to kill all Jews everywhere[5] of no concern. In the rush to cast Israel as the villain, you effectively give Hamas a free pass and – whatever your intentions – appear utterly contemptuous towards their victims, towards Israel, and, indeed, towards Jewish people in general.
In consequence, your position marginalizes and greenlights antipathy toward Jews and will encourage the haters here, too – regardless of any formulaic statements against racism by politicians.
Why do you serve the interests of Iran?
Your statements align with, and thus support and encourage, the policies of Iran who aim to eliminate Israel and who stand against Western values and Christian morals.
What is your motivation?
If you take Hamas and Al Jazeera as your trusted news source, you may well see Israel as committing genocide against the Palestinians. Yet, their reports of hospital bombings and starvation have time and again proved false[6]. It is Hamas who wish to carry out genocide and Hamas who say they need the blood of their own women, children and old people for the cause[7]. I don’t deny that there have been serious excesses by IDF troops. However, it is Hamas who seek – and gain from – their own civilians’ deaths and Israel who seek (sometimes inadequately) to minimise such deaths and do not benefit from them. You ignore the efforts of COGAT. Aim your rage at Hamas – and their backers, Iran – who repeatedly glorify in the suffering and mayhem.
Perhaps you are moved by compassion. But silencing the guns today in Gaza cannot provide a lasting peace when Hamas says it is in a permanent state of war. The suffering of civilians is awful, yet you do not advocate a ceasefire on Russian terms to end civilian suffering in the Ukraine. The ferocious 2023 civil war in Ethiopia/Eritrea cost hundreds of thousands of lives yet drew no public concern from you. Over 10 million are at severe risk of famine in Sudan; again your compassion lies dormant. Of course, Ethiopia and the Sudan gain minimal attention from the mainstream media or the Twitterati.
Perhaps you are committed to fight “colonialism”. However, beyond a boo word, the Marxist based model of colonialism does not fit Zionism or the history of Jewish settlement at all. The model does fit New Zealand however, so in validating violent extremism over there you will fall into hypocrisy if you act against it here.
I fear that in seeking peace – maybe in indulging in a little righteous, moral outrage – you have become mere followers of the mob. Is it asking too much for you to proceed with some knowledge of the facts and complexities, to consider the consequences of favoured policies, to stand up for the hostages or Israel or the Jewish people or the non-extremist Arabs living there?
Please show leadership, clarity of thought, courage, and a measure of prudence, rather than running before the latest TikTok memes like chaff before the wind.
1 Gazi Hamad: https://nypost.com/2023/11/01/news/hamas-official-vows-to-repeat-israel-attacks-again-and-again-until-its-destroyed/
2 Article 13 of Hamas charter warns Palestinians that peace negotiations, peaceful solutions, and normalization of the Jews are forbidden and that anyone who engages in them is a traitor destined for hell.
3 Article 18 of Hamas’s charter instructs Palestinians to raise children to wage jihad against the Jews.
4 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/only-7-percent-of-israeli-arabs-define-themselves-as-palestinian-625285 and https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-over-half-of-arab-israelis-feel-sense-of-shared-destiny-with-jews/
5 Fathi Hammad: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14575/hamas-iran-eliminate-israel
6 See https://x.com/hashtag/TheGazaYouDontSee?src=hashtag_click for a different picture of life in Gaza both now and before Oct 7.
7 Isamil Haniyeh: https://www.memri.org/reports/hamas-leader-ismail-haniyeh-we-need-blood-women-children-and-elderly-gaza-%E2%80%93-so-it-awakens
This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.
