Mike's Minute: NZ's response on the war changes nothing

If it's any help to those chained to Nicola Willis' office, there is a decent piece I read yesterday asking whether Israel was heading towards a South Africa moment. 

In an interview this week, Netanyahu seemed to accept some sort of isolation was a price his country was, and is, paying for as a result of the war. 

But none of that has been brought about by people chaining themselves to door handles. 

Nor would the cause have been advanced in any way, shape, or form by Nicola taking communion with them. Nor indeed by the march that wandered through parts of Auckland over the weekend. 

What has led the war to the point it is, is severalfold. 

Firstly, Hamas started it. That is an indisputable fact. The raid of two years ago was entirely on them. 

What happened next has happened numerous times in one form or another. 

Hamas starts it, Israel responds. They have responded the way they have this time, once again, for a couple of reasons. 

1) It was a particularly brazen attack. 

2) America has a president that doesn’t mind the sort of retaliation that has taken place. 

Never before have we seen drawings of a new Middle East, with millions of Gazans living in a Trump-like Floridian Eutopia. 

Now, it's fair to suggest events of the last few days i.e. the attack in Qatar, has pushed the Americans to the limit, if not beyond. 

But you will note that Rubio is currently in the Middle East and still shaking hands with Netanyahu and still happy to be in the photo. 

In the meantime, back here, nuns are chained to door handles, people wave flags and the angst in the media over whether we will recognise Palestine next month in New York is palpable. 

But to reiterate, at no point do any of our actions make a jot of difference. Once this particular chapter is over, in whatever form that takes, we will go back to a relatively stable period of co-existence. 

Until someone does something stupid all over again, which of course they will. 

This story has been told many, many times over. When hate drives the narrative nothing ever really changes. 

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