Posted on 05/26/2003 7:12:25 PM PDT by shaggy eel
New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff's plans to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat this week have brought stinging criticism from the Israeli Government.
Politicians who visited Mr Arafat undermined the peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's press officer, Ra'anan Gissin, said.
Last week Israel moved to block visits by overseas politicians to Mr Arafat, who is besieged by Israeli forces in Ramallah. It is allowing Mr Goff access as his visit was arranged before the block was put in place.
Mr Goff is tentatively scheduled to call on Israel's President Moshe Katsav and finance minister tomorrow. These appointments have not been confirmed but a meeting with Mr Sharon is understood to have been ruled out because of Mr Goff's plan to see Mr Arafat.
Mr Goff is scheduled to meet Mr Arafat and newly elected Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.
Israel and the United States are trying to marginalise Mr Arafat, who was described yesterday by Mr Gissin as an expert on hijacking.
He had hijacked planes, ships, buses and classrooms full of children and he was now trying to hijack his own government from moving toward peace.
"When Europeans come and cater to him and support him, they are undermining Abbas' position and not helping anything, because Arafat is against the peace process and the road map for peace," Mr Gissin said.
The peace plan was conditionally approved by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday.
Asked if Mr Goff was doing the same as the Europeans, Mr Gissin said those who sincerely wanted peace should support Mr Abbas and not encourage Mr Arafat by continuing to cater to him.
As for Mr Goff's plan to see both the Palestinian leaders, Mr Gissin said: "That's like on the one hand supporting terrorism and on the other supporting those who fight terrorism. So what does he accomplish? Nil.
"We are not dictating to foreign leaders and dignitaries who they should meet, but if they have meetings with Arafat, they have no business with us."
Mr Goff was on his way to Israel from Greece last night and could not be contacted but a spokeswoman for acting Foreign Affairs Minister Jim Sutton said New Zealand had a sovereign government and ministers could meet whoever its policy dictated.
"Mr Goff has been looking forward to getting the full range of views on the situation in that part of the Middle East and it would be unfortunate to miss out on the Israeli government's point of view," she said.
Last year New Zealand Cabinet ministers upset Israel by boycotting its Independence Day celebrations in Wellington because of Israel's refusal to comply with United Nations resolutions calling for its forces to withdraw from the West Bank.
Then Israeli ambassador Ruth Kahanoff said the boycott could "encourage the Palestinians to continue with terror and violence".
Mr Goff attended this year's celebrations.
Dennis, Sharon has accepted the Bush "Road Map" What do you think?
,,, enough of them have had Cuban training - the time could come.
,,, NZ's fragmented right wing Parties are starting to see merit in joining forces during Parliamentary question times. Let's hope this is just the start of stronger pressures for Klark and her sisterhood.
,,, cut from the same cloth, the world over.
Interesting. I never knew that. Good to see you, BTW.
Hope all is well = J
,,, circa 1970s.
Prebble has provided superb defacto opposition while the NATIONAL Party has been in disintegration mode since Labour took the reigns, the election before last. The problem with Prebble is the baggage he carries from the economic reform era of the mid 1980s on. ACT needs a new leader - Saint Rodney Hide, in my opinion and if Prebble took a back seat, still helping to steer, they would be ahead of where they are now. Not a criticism of Prebble, just what any switched on company would do if there was a brand repositioning exercise to be carried out.
Winston Peters, unbeknown to the average Maori, may just hold their collective interests more dearly than any other Party. The reason I say this is because the largest threat to Maori is actually immigration. They're only about 15% of New Zealand's population, but their interests are grossly over-represented for the effort they put into anything that's measured economically, which hasn't been given to them by the government - e.g. Sealord Fisheries.
As more immigrants arrive here, the Maori population will become more diluted. Demographics change over time. Peters is aware of this. Klark's bunch of Marxists are too. Peters is regarded as racist because he jumps up and down about Asians settling here en masse. The Asians coming here, generally, don't make demands on our welfare and health systems. Maori are over-represented in terms of unemployment, jail terms served and welfare benefits. Although Peters doesn't condone the welfare state, he knows that the rights of Maori will be eroded as immigration continues. He is actually acting in the interests of Maori more credibly than the present Labour government who are buying votes via welfare and by making political capital out of the Treaty of Waitangi, whilst allowing the immigration process he's fighting to continue. A textbook example of what he's on about is the coups in Fiji. Indians, over generations have swamped Fiji. They're the ones who have built commerce and worked hard, but a number of Fijians now feel marginalised and some of the more militant ones are now mentioned in the island group's history. I guess he's thinking along those lines. He's big on law and order as well as immigration, so he appeals to Tauranga's blue rinse set and most right wing voters too, to some extent.
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