Posted on by Pablo

Cowardice disguised as prudence.

Here is a short re-post from my other social media. It is a question about foreign policy incompetence, cowardice and coalition politics.

After much public hinting, 5 Eyes partners Australia, Canada and the UK delayed announcing recognition of the Palestinian right to Statehood in order for NZ join them against an intransigent US stance. NZ has not, so they have now gone ahead with the announcement before the UN General Assembly this week. That begs the question: What favour does NZ expect to curry from its supine obsequiousness to the US and Israel and from who, exactly? Or are internal NACTFIRST politics and/or interest group lobbying steering its approach (against the advice of the diplomatic corps)? Either way, the position is untenable as well as indefensible.

There is a tail-wags-the-dog aspect to this, with David Seymour being the tail. The NACTCFIRST leaders may have been waiting to see how the non-US 5 Eyes partners formally announced their stance (moral cowardice masquerading as pragmatism) , but Seymour’s loose talk about non-recognition (conflating Hamas with Palestine while doing so) undermined that. Now NZ looks gutless on the world stage even if Winston voices the eunuch’s lament about his DPM usurper. Real pragmatic logic would have been to read the global room (not hard), see the 5 Eyes non-US partner hints and UN condemnations of Israeli genocide as directional cues and go with the flow, ride the coattails, recognise the obvious and be on the right side of history.

But NACTFIRST did not. They are an omnishambles on their way to becoming a clown car dumpster fire that is now not only negatively impacting the material and spiritual lives of voters and residents on the domestic front, but, pragmatically, on NZ’s image abroad.

NZ has gone from being clean and green to ethically lean and mean.

17 Replies to “Cowardice disguised as prudence.”

  2. Thanks Nigel,
    But as shown your comment appears to be written by a (favorable) bot. Care to elaborate as to why you liked this particular post given that it is your first comment? No answer means delete

  3. I do wonder if Seymour’s electorate has anything to do with his stance. Epsom being one of a handful of electorates with a strong Jewish community.

  7. KR,

    Yes, one of your comments went to the spam folder but is now restored to its proper place.

    I am lucky to have progressive Jewish friends here in NZ as well as the US and Argentina, so am mindful of the fact that their voices are often subsumed to those of Zionists and sadly lumped in with the latter by those who act out of ignorance or malice.

  8. Amen to what you say Pablo.
    And an interesting point above about Seymour’s electorate. I was not aware of his constituent makeup.
    Like everyone I wonder about the CoC’s dithering – will they make some kind of a fence-sitting announcement at the UNGA? Having a bob each way through some kind of a clever speech ?
    Are we not to recognise the Palestinian state at all.
    After all, Palestine has been there forever – well, longer than the modern Israeli state as far as I am aware in some shape or form. (When you look it up on google it seems to have a long and complex history, geographically and politically. But the name was 1st used by Herodotus – to refer to a confederation of 5 cities in the same area – the Levant.)
    And as an aside, I often wonder why the other Arab states appear to say or do little to support Gaza, or Palestine, in the current ghastly holocaust (why should we not call it anything else?)

  9. Barbara:

    Apparently Winston wants to make the announcement during his speech to the UNGA (on Saturday, I think). Seymour’s conflation of Hamas with Palestine is a deliberate obfuscation and sop thrown to the NZ Israel lobby, while the constant references to hostages and Oct 7 are designed to frame the issue as a moral balance rather than an atrocity followed by a genocidal revenge. Many on the Right claim that its is all symbolic anyway, if not a reward to Hamas, but in truth symbolic gestures often pave the way or set the stage for genuine change. In this case it provides a foundation for returning to the two state solution project now abandoned by the Israeli government and Hamas and Islamic Jihad hardliners. It is these two groups that have to be marginalised on their respective home fronts by more moderate actors while the international community presses Israel in particular to return to the two state negotiating table. It may be unpalatable for the Israelis to do so and Netanyahu wants to use war as his get out of jail card, but with Hamas decimated as a fighting force and the international community supporting the Palestinian Authority (as corrupt and weak as it is) as the legitimate agent of the Palestinian people, then perhaps cooler heads will prevail.

    In the meantime Israeli extremists will do everything possible to deepen the genocide and derail any peace process, as current events in the West Bank clearly indicate.

  10. In view of what you say, esp about the Palestinian Authority (who truly seem to have dropped below the radar of all major news), what is the hope for Palestine ? Such an old and historically significant region.
    For me, Palestine as a geographical area has always been there. But Israel, Israel to me is a concept more than a country.
    (I stress that I am not denying the Jewish diaspora a homeland. I have read Chuck Schumer’s recent book on anti-Semitism where he describes the emotional impact of having a homeland – something we can all relate to. Its just that the word ‘Israel’ means different things to me, things beyond physical boundaries.)

  11. Peters has just announced ‘No’ to our govt recognising Palestine.
    I knew it. No courage, absolutely gutless.

    What a waste of space this govt is!

  12. Yes, Barbara, the misreading of history–not seeing a genocide for what it is and the right of the Palestinian people to a State–is truly appalling. I get the sense that the”fix” is in as a result of some backroom dealing and secret connections somewhere along the line. The question is with who and for what ends, be they domestic and/or international in nature.

  13. The 3 of them are pro-USA.
    Seymour always so given his background, Luxon lived there (and is just so eminently pliable – weak); while Peters came back from his 1st visit to the US as current Foreign Minister sounding like he’d had some kind of a Maga conversion.
    It disgusts me, given the level of support for Palestine in this country. Never mind the Israeli atrocities. And it does no good going against the trend and as you say, misreading history etc.
    It disgusts me and I am ashamed of my country. These 3 are not my people, they are not my leaders.
    Watch for the fallout.

  14. Another reason not to vote for this cowardly, no backbone coalition Government of NZ. Not proud to be New Zealander today.

    Chris

  15. Chris:

    This could be another nail in the NACTFIRST coalition’s election coffin. As Barbara said earlier, it seems that majority of Kiwis support the Palestinian right to Statehood, and that does support not mean support for Hamas or October 7 (even if the historical background to and circumstances of Hamas’s October 7 attacks are not as simplistic as is often presented in the media). I wish that there were investigative reporters who would delve into what I suspect are the backdoor channels linking this government’s decision and anti-Palestinian actors, because I do not think that the NZ public would approve of those linkages or the influence campaigns extending from them. It may be just conjecture at tis point, but it also seem like there is a smoke-fire connection.

  16. More on the generational divides within Jewish families…

    https://www.inquirer.com/life/israel-gaza-jewish-philadelphia-generational-divides-20231111.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/us/jewish-american-israel-gaza-generation-gap.html

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/starvation-gaza-divides-jewish-americans-israel-hamas-war-netanyahu-rcna223143

    https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/5/14/in-some-jewish-families-speaking-up-for-palestine-causes-discontent

    https://eeditionnytimes.pressreader.com/article/281814288638672

  17. Sorry about my late comment. Life away from my keyboard has kept me occupied.

    I wish to offer respectful disagreement to the underlying premise. The motivations behind left-wing governments’ recognising a Palestinian state are a political calculation. Those governments sought to avoid their supporter bases from splitting.

    However, discounting the “Trump Factor” would also be a mistake. Trump’s trade and foreign policies, as well as his flawed character, likely removed the remaining stumbling blocks to those unprincipled governments mentioned above.

    The elephant in the room is what these developments mean for other unrecognised states. When the people who back Palestinian statehood face calls from Taiwan and Somaliland for recognition, how will they act?

    On a hopefully less controversial note. I recently read Jean-Pierre Filiu’s A History of Gaza. That title covers Gaza’s postwar history in an informative and recommended manner.

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