KEY POINTS:
How good it is to see a New Zealand government with so little to say about events in the Middle East.
How pleasant it is to be free of the tut-tutting and self-righteous finger-wagging that characterised the Clark administration.
Israel and its neighbours are, after all, on the
other side of the world, and I doubt whether one Kiwi in 100 gives a damn about what goes on there, let alone takes sides.
Nor should the Government. It has enough on its plate in dealing with pressing domestic issues, and the last thing it needs is to be distracted by what is, after all, just another bit of biff in an eternal hotspot.
There will always be those, like John Minto and Keith Locke, who scramble to the defence of those they see as underdogs, irrespective of where wars and conflict occur.
New Zealand's Arab and Jewish populations will naturally take an interest and will be concerned, perhaps, for relatives and friends who still live in Israel and/or Gaza.
There will be a handful of Christians delving into their Bibles, as they do every time anyone as much as farts in the Middle East, looking in Israeli affairs for clues that might cast some light on what they call the "end times".
Some will develop new "prophetic messages" during this latest scuffle and deliver them sonorously, often for money.
And some people will believe them, in spite of their previous prognostications remaining unproven.
God no doubt has plans for the remnant of his chosen people who inhabit what's left of their promised land, but he is unlikely to let anyone know what those plans are.
They will, as they always do, unfold in his own time and, in general, take everybody by surprise. Trying to predict what God is up to has always been a futile - and dangerous - exercise. It has cost a lot of people their lives over the
millennia.
For those with even a cursory knowledge of history, and for those of us who've been around since the state of Israel was established in 1948, "Middle East peace" is an oxymoron.
There has been no lasting peace in that part of the world for something like 1400 years and it has changed hands more times over the centuries than probably any other part.
The British took over the territory once known as "Israel and Judah" during World War I and soon declared that it would be made into a homeland for Jews and Palestinians.
So they did as they were wont to do - along with all the other colonial powers - and drew arbitrary lines in the sand.
They did the same thing throughout the Middle East and Africa, and the consequences of these ignorant and arbitrary decisions are still being felt today on both continents where brutal and murderous tribal conflicts erupt with monotonous regularity.
The day after Israel was declared a state it was invaded by its four Arab neighbours - Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. The new nation blew them all off and added 50 per cent to its land area in the process.
And ever since then, in conflicts major and minor, Arab states have tried to overcome Israel with little success. This latest skirmish, for that is what it is in a historical context, is just another in a long line.
Along the way, Egypt and Jordan accepted that Israel was there to stay and made peace, but others - including the ignorant barbarians who cleave to Hamas remain determined to eliminate Israel from the map of the world.
They have a snowball's show in hell of ever succeeding, but have not the intelligence to understand that.
Thus the Israel-Gaza conflict should be of little concern to us at the bottom of the world, particularly since the Government shows no inclination to strut the world stage trying to give New Zealand (and its politicians) an aura of importance far beyond our true insignificance.
So John Key and his team can get on with those things that really concern us, such as the economic situation and the need to rein in an arrogant, disobedient and prodigal bureaucracy.
I had to laugh at those who criticised Key and his ministers for taking a holiday, in Key's case in far-off Hawaii (lucky him).
It was particularly rich coming from Helen Clark, who was noted for trekking all over the world, climbing mountains, or skiing or whatever. She was on many of those holidays far from these shores but no doubt electronically available - as,
I'm sure, was Key. Take it for granted that he used today's instant communications, cellphone and email in particular, to stay in touch with events day by day.
Like all those who work long and hard during the year, he and his team thoroughly deserved a good holiday.
