MCCULLY FAILS TO CONDEMN ISRAEL - AGAIN

Israeli authorities regard Murray McCully as being 'sympathetic' to the interests of Israel and he's demonstrated that sympathy again in recent days by his failure to condemn Israel's military assault on the peace flotilla heading for Gaza.

McCully slapped the Israeli Ambassador Shemi Tzur with a wet bus ticket. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs 'he made the Government's concern clear.'

He also helpfully went on to say that 'Tzur had outlined the difficulties faced by Israel in relation to Gaza, and the importance of the blockade to the security of Israel and issues around Gaza.'

Israel sent helicopters, warships and smaller naval vessels against six civilian boats carrying aid supplies and killed up to nineteen peace activists. All this happened in international waters.

McCully though has, once again, refused to condemn the barbaric behaviour of Israel.

In Parliament yesterday, in response to a series of questions from the Green's Keith Locke, McCully merely called for everyone to 'wait' for the results of the investigation that has been called for by the UN Security Council.

Is McCully really not sure who is responsible for killing the unarmed peace activists?

In Parliament he condemned 'the violence' but was careful not to name Israel as being responsible for that violence.

He knows too well that the UN's 'investigation' will go nowhere and let Israel off the hook once again.

The call for an 'investigation' comes just a few days after Amnesty International released a report condemning Western powers for their record of blocking diplomatic action against Israel.

The Amnesty International Report 2010 says that in 2009 says: ' Many countries pushed for accountability only when politically expedient, and placed regional solidarity above the need to address the rights of victims of abuse. Thus, the USA and European states used their position in the UN Security Council to shield Israel from strong measures of accountability for alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in Gaza.'

The failure of the West to take strong and meaningful action against Israel has directly contributed to the death of the peace activists. The Israeli Government knows that it doesn't matter what it does, the West will still do nothing.

Murray McCully's 'inertia' this week mirrored his 'inertia' last year.

When Israel invaded Gaza in 2008-9 McCully again refused to condemned Israel and since then has not backed the calls for Israel to be held to account for war crimes committed in Gaza.

McCully's enthusiasm to effectively back Israel when the going gets tough was highlighted when Israeli military jets bombed a United Nations-run school in Gaza in January 2009, killing at least 30 men, women and children.

Even when confronted by this horrific brutality McCully merely repeated that the Government was not going to 'take sides' on the Gaza issue.

McCully is again demonstrating that when it comes to Israel he will do as little as possible just in case he upsets his friends.