Sitiveni Rabuka has upended decades of even-handedness in Fiji’s foreign policy by siding resolutely with Israel as it shocks the world by bombing Qatar for the first time and prepares for a full invasion of Gaza.
What happened to our policy of being “friends to all and enemies to none”? Flushed down the toilet as the Prime Minister prepares to head a 17-member delegation to Israel and appear in public with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the opening of Fiji’s new embassy in Jerusalem.
Even Donald Trump has condemned the Israeli attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar, a friend of America and bulwark of the democracies in the Middle East. What is Sitiveni Rabuka going to say? And how can he possibly justify standing shoulder to shoulder with an Israeli leader who has been branded a war criminal and is waging war on his neighbours?
As things stand, the Fijian delegation to Israel – including the Defence Minister, Pio Tikoduadua, the Commander of the RFMF, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai and the “Minister for Bullsh*t, Bonking and Weed”, er, that woman – will be seen shaking hands with Netanyahu as Israel mounts a full-blown invasion of Gaza and continues to kill innocent civilians clambering for food who are being deliberately starved and shot.*
How can this visit possibly be justified? The Jerusalem trip must be called off, not only because the timing is shocking but because our UN peacekeepers in the Middle East are axiomatically at increased risk of attack as “friends to all and enemies to none” becomes “friend to Israel” no matter how much outrage Netanyahu triggers in civilised nations everywhere.
Who gave the Coalition a mandate to make Fijian citizens less safe in the world when we have always stayed out of other people’s fights? How can we be honest brokers in the world of diplomacy and bring people together when we are seen to side so decisively with an aggressor?
Fijians didn’t vote for establishing an embassy in Jerusalem, which is seen as a hostile act in the rest of the Arab world. It was a grubby deal done by Sitiveni Rabuka to secure the support of the religious extremists in SODELPA to enable him to assume control of the nation by the “power of one”.
Now, again without a mandate, Rabuka is dispensing with the cornerstone of Fiji’s foreign policy since Independence. It is unacceptable and it is time for Fijians to take a firm stand against this madness to protect our position in the world and the safety of our peacekeepers.
As Victor Lal reminds us, it was the Qataris who helped Fiji secure the release of our peacekeepers in 2014 when they were taken hostage by the Al Nusra terrorist group. And how do we thank them? By aligning ourselves with the very people who have bombed them.
And why isn’t Donald Trump happy? Apart from this being a disaster for his peace plans in the Middle East, the American President is so close to the Qataris that they’ve gifted him a Boeing 747 as a replacement for Air Force One.
NOTE TO MY READERS:
Grubsheet is neither anti-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian. We stand on the side of innocent civilians on both sides and for a just settlement to this seemingly intractable conflict, which involves a two-state solution embraced by most democracies.
This article is to urge the Fijian government not to take sides in the manner that it is clearly doing and to preserve the integrity of our foreign policy for the past half century.
* Evidence is mounting of civilians in Gaza being deliberately targeted, including this investigative piece that has just appeared in The Guardian and makes for very sobering reading.
Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted for genocide by International Criminal Court (ICC). Any country that sides with Netanyahu in terms of funding or supporting aides and abets genocide. The news is unfolding that mass murder is planned for Gaza city in coming days as Israel prepares for ground assaults in which children and women will not be spared on the pretext of hunting HAMAS.
So why on earth Fiji is supporting Israel when this country has killed millions of innocent people with one objective which is to wipe out Palestine people from Gaza, the very land that rightfully belongs to Palestine.
The ICC is a joke. Who they sending to arrest Bibi in Tel Aviv or Putin in Moscow. Its a paper tiger. BTW the chief prosecutor is under investigation for sexual assault.
Fiji is not supporting Israel in the war in Gaza.
Setting up an Embassy in Jerusalem facilitates dialogue with Israel and strengthens Fiji’s position to obtain peace in the region.
You have no idea what you are talking about. If we are to have an embassy in Israel, it should be in Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem. That’s where the Australian and New Zealand embassies are and those of most of the rest of the world as well.
Why? Because setting up an embassy in Jerusalem is a provocation when the overwhelming majority of other nations don’t recognise Israel’s claim to be its capital. Palestine also claims it as its capital and it is a holy city for other religions.
It does NOT “strengthen Fiji’s position to obtain peace in the region”. The Arab nations are bitterly opposed to the notion and only a small number of countries led by the US recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Here’s Wikipedia on the result of the formal UN vote on the issue:
“United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES‑10/19 is an emergency session resolution declaring the status of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as “null and void”.[1] It was adopted by the 37th Plenary meeting of the tenth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly[2] during the tenure of the seventy-second session of the United Nations General Assembly on 21 December 2017. The resolution was drafted by Yemen and Turkey.[3] Though strongly contested by the United States, it passed by 128 votes to 9 against with 21 absentees and 35 abstentions”
The parties have replica ideologies – vindictive, focused on vengeance, complete greed.
Yes. It’s a fight to the death.
Hamas wants the state of Israel destroyed.
Israel is entitled to respond in kind.
Well said Graham Davis .
The Palestinian nation will fight to the end, for their right to their land. Death to the occupation and an end to the genocide. The world recognises Palestine and condemns the Nazis of the Middle East.
The “Nazi” reference is grossly offensive and uncalled for. The Nazis killed 6-million Jews and we are ultimately where we are because of that. Just as we need to remember that the Israelis are also responding to the events of October 7 2023 and the massacre of more than a thousand of their people by Hamas.
The replica ideologies, the current Fiji government and the Nazis of the 21 century.
Are we looking at another charter back for the PM as war has again broken out with the bombing at Dhoa. Fiji airways should be on its toes.
No war has broken out in Qatar. The Israelis conducted a ‘bulk elimination’ of the Hamas hostage takers. It was a clinical decapitation strike.
The Hamas leadership died as martyrs. In the Afterlife, they are entitled to 72 virgins, 10 young boys, and 5 goats.
They will be well cared for in paradise.
Prime Minister Rabuka must immediately cancel his planned visit to Israel.
What sense does it make to visit a country that is relentlessly bombing its neighbours, killing innocent people, and leaving behind mass destruction — the latest being the attack on Doha?
Rabuka’s excuse that opening an embassy does not mean supporting a country’s policies is nothing short of an insult to the intelligence of Fijians. How reckless can a leader be?
Israel’s actions are not only devastating its neighbours but also hurting Christians. Is Rabuka blind to this reality, or is his obsession with Jerusalem clouding his judgment? Or worse — is he trying to use Jerusalem as a political tool to justify turning Fiji into a Christian state through constitutional amendment?
Instead of chasing narrow symbolic gestures, Rabuka must open his eyes and confront the urgent crises at home. His government has already failed the people of Fiji — wasting resources on this visit and embassy plan only compounds that failure. The Prime Minister must abandon this ill-conceived idea and restore some sanity to his leadership.
Release the hostages…. that’s all it requires to ward off the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Wrong. Isreal has no compassion nor compunction to stop the killing. Their rogue war criminal pm has himself ordered IDF to kill their own citizen-hostages and have, in fact, killed more than Hamas.
Hostages are no longer a priority for war criminal who must continue the killing to save his own ass from imprisonment for corruption involving billions of dollars.
Now, it is purely a land grab for settlers. Think before you reveal yourself to be the fool that you’ve been born as.
What kind of “christian” are you? Innocent starving children, women, elderly did not take hostages.
Terrorists Hamas did the unthinkalbe atrocious killing October 7 and took hostages.
Not the entire 3m Palestinians living already in poverty in the world’s largest outdoors prison for nigh 70 years. All their lands have been stolen from them. They’ve lived through war and under seige all their lives. Think. Dunderhead.
Think, man. Do you have no brains? No compassion? Or are you just a plain stupid christian? Dopey? Moron?
Or all of the above?
How do you think Israel should have responded after the horrific events of 7 October 2023 ?
Think man. Do you have any brains? No compassion? Or are you just a plain stupid Islamist? Dopey? Moron?
Do you live on another planet, simpleton sod?
The lost tribe has a modern day Moses, PM Rabuka. Only this lost tribe can lead the Jews ie Israel out of this wilderness by being pariahs of the world. So, Jerusalem is chosen to be the embassy cum temple for this lost tribe in the heart of Christian sacredness. The lost tribe also see Islam as cause of evil from the days of Ismail who defected from his holy family.
At least now the lost tribe, all the way from the South Pacific, has found its purpose as true liberators of Jews and converting Judaism followers to true Christians in the Middle East.
Israel the only country in the world that has killed 33,000 innocent children in its defence, must be a proud moment for Sitiveni to shake hands with a child murderer and war criminal.
First we establish a democratic deficit in the recent the supreme court opinion, and now a intellectual and moral deficit.
We can certainly expect trade and other sanctions including sporting bans.
@Anonymous 21 says.
Wake up mate and open your eyes. Israel itself has killed most of the hostages and doesn’t really want the remainder released as it gives them an excuse to totally destroy Gaza and annihilate the Palestinians. There is another agenda at play and most people that keep saying release the hostages and it’ll all be over have been hoodwinked into believing that by the sophisticated Israeli propaganda which they learnt from the Nazis and are doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews. They just haven’t had the opportunity to gas them all ! So stop believing all the bullshit and open your eyes!
When someone makes a comment as such: Open your eyes and stop believing all the bushit.
There is a tacit expectation that the writer has applied that same condition to themselves as well. Or else it authorises the writer to allow themselves to be intentionally or selectively duped into what they want to believe as the objective status quo.
But then maybe there is no self realization nor understanding of the self refuting principle…and all this is futile.
All Rabuka cares about on this trip is that he packed enough Viagra.
I wonder why bumbling Gavoka is not on the list to travel to Isreal. Wasn’t this his brilliant idea to open an embassy there and putting Fiji in danger.
I seem to recall that Gavoka went as far as Singapore with the group, but somehow returned for no reason?
Perhaps he saw a vision of his son-in-law moving wife n kids to Iran if he set foot in Israel?
1- In almost every scenario a friendly host to thieves, who harbours criminals and sustains them will be considered fair game accomplices for criminal prosecution by police and law enforcement. If cross border then Interpol or extradition treaties will be explored to bring those criminals and those who give refuge to criminals to account. Except when it is a rich Emirates state harbouring Hamas terrorist leaders then it is ok. And except when it is a nice civilized country like Russia – forget about Putin giving up his mercenary thugs for prosecution by eternal jurisdictions.
2-A multiple award winning journalist as host of this blog, who gives balanced and unbiased commentary, I look forward to at least one investigative article on Hamas deliberate acts of terrorism against civilians. I suspect it would not be a monumental task like finding a needle in a haystack for such evidence. To further authenticate the source to eliminate bias and instead of using credible sources like the Guardian, the most credible evidence supplied by Hamas itself could be safely relied on. The resistance fighters of Hamas went to some lengths to record their proud activity on Oct 7th.
3- I get it. There is a double standard in place. Hamas and it’s friends can do anything within or outside international law, or inhumane or immoral behavior and we should look the other way. Every Israeli action comes under microscopic scrutiny for compliance with humanitarian expectations. And the Barbarians aren’t judged as harshly. With an international spectator community expecting both to live as nice neighbors sharing their Rewa butter or Bushels tea when one ran out..just like we do in the civilized friendly multicultural settlements of Toorak, Namaka or Seaqaqa.
4-Yes it is a mad mad world…an attempt at unemotional discourse to deconstruct a very tragic and futile situation will immediately have the imbeciles throwing such thoughts under the bus, and overlooking terrorist actions that jump on a bus and shoot civilians.
A valiant effort to muddy the waters. But you have failed.
The attack on Qatar is unacceptable and so far not only the Americans have said so, the British, most Europeans, the Australians (and presumably the Kiwis) and most other nations who believe in respecting international law.
Israel is out of control and is alienating world opinion to its considerable detriment. And apologist like you aren’t going to make a jot of difference.
I clearly laid out my own personal position on all of this but that hasn’t stopped you from trying to lump me in with left-wing opinion and the anti Israel lobby. It isn’t going to work. Because Blind Freddy can see the disproportionate response of the Israelis to the horrific events of October 7 2023.
GD
What would be a proportionate response by the Israelis to the horrific events of October 7 2023.
Yes. What should be a proportionate response?
Both of you bumbling idiots please look up what the “proportionality principle”entails, then use the grey matter between your big ears to work out what kind of the details might be consistent with that principle.
Is the israeli military might so lacking in collective intelligence that their sledge-hammer response to the hamas militia, the only option to CLEAR OUT Gaza quickly and effectively, once and for all??
Or was genocide their intent all along, hence, their “intelligence” allowed Oct 7 to happen as the basis to make a clean sweep of the southern territory they always considered as theirs.
Oops, shud read: … CLEAR OUT Gaza of Hamas….
I can read and comprehend. You write you are neither anti Israeli nor pro Palestine. I take you word for it. No reason for me not to accept that, as what you say corresponds generally to being a fair and decent human being.
What I would hope I am is Anti Stupidity. And what I am crystal clear is this: Based on my attempts to think and evaluate rationally the world around me – I would rather be friends with Israel than their declared adversaries who want to wipe them off the face of the earth. And those who would mete out the same to me given a chance. Yes the Israelis are not completely angels, but they are a far preferable ally than friendship and complicity with the other side who have polar opposite values to me. I prefer life and 21 st century humanity where life is celebrated and valued , not 7th century barbarism nor a value system which glorifies and rewards self destruction and death to its neighbours.
And I would hope that I battle progressively on the right side of this frontline even if it is with a pen.
I expect myself to apply the same rational thinking in all matters: If Rabuka was an angel politician and had policies for the betterment of all inhabitants of Fiji and walked his talk – I would expect myself to support him and join in nation building. Irrespective of my race or his. Or any other irrelevant shared commonality like same school or same province. If the Israelis were a death cult bent on their own aspirational deaths for heavenly reward and would celebrate my torture and death on the streets of their settlements I certainly would not be supporting them. I am not Stupid. But a self inflicted paradox may be that stupidity could also be engaging rationally with stupid people and expecting a rational reciprication.
Each to our own calibration of the stupidity detector tester of our thoughts and actions I guess.
I stand with Israel and for all the goodness it is representative of. I wish I could figuratively stand in front of every innocent child, mother, father and deflect the death coming their way. Arab or Jew, i-taukei or Vulagi, for that is noble and not requiring debate.
But I will not stand for stupidity that depreciates my rights to expect life and liberty over the rights of any neighbour of mine that single mindedly wants to end my rights. All the gloves and proportionality are off then. I am not interested in corrective action after the event, that is for lazy thinkers. Read the situation. Take preemptive and proactive action. Any stupid fool can react retrospectively, but only if they are alive, and if there is anything left to salvage.
Israel is not just fighting for its survival. It’s fighting for the survival of the entire western and non Muslim. The useful idiots for Islam are totally clueless about Islam and its intentions. The funny thing is that the Islamists don’t even try to their agenda,
Oh puhleeeze, save the lament and handwringing over our opposition to Israel’s supposedly “world saviour-complex” on behalf of the non-Muslim world.
GD is correct, opening a useless embassy in Israel couldn’t have come at a worse time.
I understand perfectly what political Islam is but do not need Israel fighting for us non-Muslims, or even defending a faith like Christianity that they do not understand, much less appreciate.
Fiji govt and ruling parties should just focus on bolstering the so-called Christian faith of their own people given the rising crime rate, breakdown of families and moral standards that we’re witnessing in our midst.
OR else we are sadly going to see a repeat of Al Nusra’s 2014 “b!tches” in complete submission to the men in PJs when push comes to shove!😳
The only reasons for Fiji wanting to open an embassy in Israel are:
1. Israel practices apartheid and this is in line with iTaukei Christian thinking;
2. The iTaukei Christians are racists just like the Israelis;
3. The iTaukei Christians have no idea that Israel detests Christians;
4. The PM and his deputy Gavoka are first rate dickheads as well as the entourage;
5. They are totally oblivious to the differences between Christianity and Judaism;
6. All the iTaukei Christians bigots love the hatred against the Palestinians
7. By shaking the blood soaked hands of a mass murderer and one with an arrest warrant for genocide over his head, the Fiji delegation is showing the world how stupid Fijians really are.
Deepest condolences to the people of Qatar for being bombed. According to the headline lead photo used [Israel Bombs Qatar ].
The actual targets were Hamas terrorists in a building inside Qatar. Quite different to the headline. And perhaps the hosts posted on FB their guest list…just a thought and maybe a memo to Fijian Min of Information.
Accepted that media need to use whatever means to grab attention, to influence the audience vs reporting events. Especially those audience who don’t scroll past the headlines and mobilise immediately for another adventure to Free Palestine or Free Qatar.
On the matter of International Law and International Conventions:
All for it. There needs to be order not anarchy. All for it – Except when my compliance and adherence is not reciprocated by my enemies. I will not be stupidly handcuffed and rendered defenceless when those who wish me and other good people harm have blatant disregard for humanity let alone compliance with international law, and disregard for moral or ethical considerations. These unconscionable terrorists have to be dealt with on terms they operate on and relate with. Survival of the fittest. Civil law is for civil people.
And if anyone disagrees , let them take down their own burglar bars , security cameras, electric gates and other security measures ( German shepherd) to protect their person and property from intruders because the country’s deterent and punitive laws and enforcement will protect them. Try this in Nabua, or rural Navua or wherever high value kava plants are stolen. The unfortunate pragmatism is that when it is beyond simply the loss of replaceable groceries, or electronics or income from farm beasts stolen from private property – when it’s an existential threat to your life and your targeted ethnicity – you have to take your own measures for self preservation, especially when International Law unintentionally becomes an impotent behaviour moderator for terror groups or when Brussels or the Hague blindly refuses to pursue selected terrorists. Netanyahu is pursued by the ICC as a criminal. What about Hamas leaders. Or have I somehow missed this. But perhaps that matter has been settled quickly and pragmatically ” out of court ” . Without ongoing protracted legal theatre.
I repeat – I refrain from personal attack on Mr Davis or any contributor in this forum. I expect. Rather the objective is to counter vices like human stupidity, hypocrisy, selective bias in a world of increasing social entropy.
And as Mr Rabuka told a journalist in Suva Golf Club many many years ago – something to the effect that his life perspective altered when he started considering the kind of world he was leaving for his grandkids…I ask the same question. I wonder today how he would revisit this introspection he provided the journalist Mr Te Radar a few decades ago. The madness in Fiji is no different but perhaps not as damaging as the geopolitical state further afield. I hope a campaign against stupidity and lack of critical thinking can address the overwhelming and tragic entropy we face.
I accept I can have an inherent bias. That is preferable to having a perfectly neutral bias by status of being dead or being an AI robot. It is also preferable my bias is oriented towards good, rather than not having the wherewithal to know good from bad and gravitating to the latter. Enough said.
Indeed.
Moral decay in Fiji is truly heartbreaking.
Cannot wait to see the pics of the PM and his delegation with a group selfie with a mass-murderer and a man with an international arrest warrant for committing genocide and mass starvation.
It will be a proud and momentous occasion with a grinning PM and his 16 member delegation. The Christian bigots from Fiji have absolutely no idea, they have been blinded by the free ride and a sense of false and fake religious bigotry over common sense.
Surely, nowhere else can a group of people be found than those in this delegation- and so proud to be such stupid Christians. I hope the world condemns the Fiji PM and the delegation world wide.
Tourists should boycott Fiji. I advise them to go to Bali, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Sri Lanka, India, North Africa and South America are also ideal places to go instead of to stupid Fiji.
One important area, perhaps THE most important in the bombing of Qatar, is violating the sovereignty of Qatar.
Israel can not claim to be bombing Hamas in Qatar when bombing another country, NOT is nor in or a party to Israel’s war with Hamas.
It is important too to keep in mind that the Qatari government was hosting negotiations for the release of remaining hostages and for PEACE – as in the end of hostilities.
The discussions were/are being brokered in the United States and several European countries to find a way towards a cessation of war and work towards peace.
Israel however, is deliberately sabotaging efforts to stop the killing because Israeli war criminal pm wants to steal more land for his rabid, violent, fundamentalist extremists right wing Meir Kahane followers, and continue with impunity the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.