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Kalius
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Kriegsgewitter
Aug 2002
time: 16:34
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quote:
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Vandals have smashed headstones and gouged swastikas and Nazi slogans in a Jewish cemetery in
New Zealand, a day after Wellington froze ties with Israel over two suspected Israeli spies jailed for trying to obtain a passport by
fraud.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said it was not known whether the attacks were linked to the court case and condemned the
desecration.
She said Israel's offer of an informal apology for the passport affair was not enough to revive relations.
Vandals attacked 16 graves in the Jewish part of a cemetery in Wellington that dates to the 1880s, a day after Uriel Zoshe
Kelman and Eli Cara were jailed for six months for trying to obtain fraudulently a New Zealand passport by assuming the identity of a
wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy victim.
"Someone's used some sort of stick or tool to gouge swastikas into the grass around the graves. Words like 'Sieg Heil' have
been scratched into the footpath," a city council spokesman said.
Sieg Heil was a common Nazi salutation.
Clark expressed outrage. "But we condemn those actions without reservation," she told New Zealand radio on Friday.
The head of the New Zealand Jewish Council said the desecration of the graves was linked to the passport case and the
diplomatic sanctions against Israel.
"I think there is a direct connection between the very strong expressions against Israel and people here feeling they can take it out
on Jews," David Zwartz told National Radio.
"It seems to me Israel-bashing one day, Jew-bashing the next day."
NO RAPID APOLOGY
New Zealand frozen all high-level contact between the two countries on Thursday and said the two men were linked to Israeli
intelligence service Mossad.
New Zealand has small Jewish communities but no history of anti-Semitic behaviour, with only occasional acts of vandalism of
Jewish buildings.
Clark said it was possible Israel would wait until the two men had served their sentences before offering any apology.
Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Thursday Israel was sorry about the incident and would seek to restore relations.
"The ball is in Israel's court as to where it wants to move from here," Clark told the radio. "Three months ago we asked for an
apology and an explanation. That has not been forthcoming."
Australia would consider helping New Zealand and Israel to patch up relations, Prime Minister John Howard said.
Howard told Australian radio that he did not want interfere in the affairs of other countries, but added that he had good relations
with Clark and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon |
Exactly what we need...
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Eli
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Israel
Jul 2000
time: 07:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Kalius
Israel thought they could catch us with our pants down and payed dearly for it, not only because they were wrong about the first instance but were wrong that they thought in the event of faliure we would keep quiet and fear them.
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Payed dearly? Come on. NZ cancelled an unplanned trip and delayed the meetings of a non-existing ambassador.
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Eli
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Israel
Jul 2000
time: 07:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Kalius
Not taking the faliure of the operation (whatever it was) and international relations into account. Being a tad narrow minded... |
Well, yes. But that doesnt really have anything to do with NZ itself.
Btw, why do everyone assume that they are agents? Did they admit? Did Israel admit? Israeli criminals are pretty active internationally and they could also have some use of NZ passports.
Though the Israeli refusal to apologize is pretty weird. I'm certain that if they were drug smugglers or something Israel would've expressed regret for the actions of it's citizens. The current silence is indicative that they do have connection to the security establishment, but again, does anyone knows for certain?
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MrWhereItsAt
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New Year's Resolution: 2005 is the year of Where It's At - come get some.
Nov 2001
time: 17:34
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Azazel, I was actually specifically thinking of the grave desecration incident when I wrote what I wrote. The acts of those vandals are hideous and if anyone is caught doing this they should be prosecuted with the full force of the law. My point was that it was just property that was attacked. There is a quantum leap between desecrating graves and physically attacking a person for their race, nationality or religion. My point was that there would not just be anti-Semitic seeming attacks in many other countries, but there would be attacks ON Jews and Israelis. Look at France, where such attacks happen quite often. I am not excusing the defacement, but I am saying that the reaction here is not as bad as it would be if this had happened in almost any other nation.
The NZ passport's reputation and NZ citizens WOULD have been harmed had these guys got away with it and started using real NZ passports. If you know agents of a foreign and possibly unfriendly nation (for most Muslim nations) are using NZ passports, you will no longer trust people with those passports as much. This is the start of the sort of suspicion NZ has avoided until now at least, carefully built up based on government policies for decades and it no doubt aids in protecting NZers in less Western-friendly places all over the world. Endanger that trust and you are potentially endangering every NZer who leaves the country, and in fact you make NZ more attractive for a terrorist strike! This is, in this time of cultural clash and extremist attacks, about the greatest danger that can be inflicted upon a nation short of a direct physical attack.
quote:
Btw, why do everyone assume that they are agents? Did they admit? Did Israel admit? Israeli criminals are pretty active internationally and they could also have some use of NZ passports.
Though the Israeli refusal to apologize is pretty weird. I'm certain that if they were drug smugglers or something Israel would've expressed regret for the actions of it's citizens. The current silence is indicative that they do have connection to the security establishment, but again, does anyone knows for certain?
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This is a good point to consider, Eli.  So far all that has been said is that our PM has some evidence pointing towards them being Israeli security men in some capacity. ALthough no evidence has been provided publically that I know about (and I would not take it as writ that they ARE Mossad agents without some good evidence), I know that the NZ government does not mess with their international issues lightly. If a stand is taken it is a well-considered stand and well-supported. I do trust our current PM (and in fact every NZ PM I have been aware of during my life), and it is this reason I am so firm on my views here. The NZ government has a policy and sticks to it, consistently. We fell out of favour with the US somewhat due to proclaiming ourselves nuclear-free, but have recently regained some of that trust with providing troops for rooting out terrorists in Afghanistan, and providing reconstruction personnel (only) and money to help repair Iraq. We didn't choose to suck up to the US, but to follow our principles and to do what was going to help the situation, rather than providing combat troops for a war our government did not support.
It is indeed perhaps a little suspicious the Israeli government is taking its time. I think they are probably making sure that these guys are not Mossad agents or there is no obtainable proof they are such agents before saying anything. They have likely screwed up, and are now being a lot more cautious than they were.
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17-07-2004 06:23
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