Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on New Zealand joining the list of countries calling for a Gaza ceasefire

The Government believes only a negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has signed New Zealand on to a long and growing list of nations calling for a permanent end to the conflict.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper speculates about the impact of this statement.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Sober, Senior political correspondence with me right now.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hay Barry, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Okay, what's going to happen as a result of this
joint statement?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ah well, nothing really, let's face it. I mean, I
had to lock up through the UN, that greater morphous
body that I've discussed on this program. Before the UN
General Assembly, they passed seventeen resolutions condemning Israel. Last year,
the whole of the rest of the world combined, there

(00:27):
were six resolutions passed against countries, so seventeen on Israel.
And of course we know that much of Gaza has
been reduced to rubble, and the killing has been terrible there,
to the tune that a lot of people won't even
look at it. And I know you're probably one of them, Heather,
that doesn't like to see what's going on there. It's

(00:49):
just so bad. Winston Peters outlined the gist of the
twenty eight Western nations demanding Israel ends the war, and
he was followed later in the bit which went on
for the best part of half an hour, by the
Maori Party co leader Rowery White.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
A team, this war must end now that this suffering
is intolerable. In that joint stamn, we condemned Hama's continued
detention of hostages and call for their immediate and unconditional release.
And we condemned Israel's policies which are leading to untold
and unimaginable suffering and death among Palestinian civilians, and we
call for it to comply with its obligations undternational humanitarian law.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
We must end this human crisis. Sanction Israel, sanction everyone
supporting them, and again we demand Israel open the bloody
gates and stop the genocide. We need strong sanctions, explosion
of the Israel ambassador, as we have called in the past.
We don't need five fight p host solutions, which means
following the fratulance of others like the US. Why does

(01:52):
this ministerial statement not call for an immediate and unconditional
cease fire by Israel.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Well, perhaps because one of the conditions has yet to
be met, like giving back the hostages.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, and that's a fair point. I mean, you can
argue this thing every which way. I mean, it's absolutely
horrible and the point that Peter's made in Parliament this afternoon,
it's been going on for decades and let's hope finally
it comes to a head, but comes to a head
at the expense of the whole Gaza strip is basically

(02:27):
ninety one percent has been flattened and fifty nine thousand
people killed. It's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
You're a big fan of this Harmony accord, are you?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes? I am, And I think the right person who
actually initiated it was Mark Mitchell. Now Mitch's he worked
in the Middle East for several years and he knows
the area well, and he got together leaders of the
Muslim and Jewish communities and they signed this accord. Because

(02:59):
why I think it's important is that we all have
views on what's going on in the Middle East, and
whenever you have a discussion around the dinner table, people
get very heated about this all over the place. But
the thing is that what Mitch wants to do is
probably dampen it down a bit in this country. And

(03:20):
there's been so so many anti Semitic statements and anti
Islam Islamophobia in this country, and this accord, he hopes
from the leaders of these communities will speak to those
that listen to them and say, listen, you can't dislike
the Jewish population, just as the Jewish population because of

(03:43):
what's happening there we live in New zeald.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Credit to him for that, But where it misses the
point slightly is I'm not entirely sure it's always the
Muslim community having a crack at the Jewish community over
what's going on, and vice versa. It's randoms who belong
to the Green Party seem to be the on for example,
and various other outfits who get the most worked up
about the situation point. And I'm not sure they're going

(04:08):
to take the lead of the Jewish and the Muslim
leaders here, just.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Like they're not going to take the lead of the
twenty eight countries that signed up to the said variation.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Nor do we have a massive problem like they do
in Melbourne.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Right, No, no, we don't, we do not, thankfully. Yeah.
So you know, it's one of those things though that
people get very charged and rightly so about, because they
said on the television screens night after night after night.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yep, Barry, thanks very much, Barriso, Senior political correspondent.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,