Israel, U.S. governments show terrible leadership on terror

Progressive MP Matt Robson says the governments of Israel and the United States are undermining the efforts of democratic nations to combat terrorism from fundamentalist organizations. Matt Robson is also chair of the New Zealand – Palestine Authority friendship group of MPs.

"The Israeli government's decision to murder the Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and the U.S. government's failure to strongly condemn this extra-judicial murder, will bolster fundamentalist terrorist organizations' recruitment drive for new recruits.

"Anything that bolsters the fundamentalist terrorist networks is bad news for democratic nations that have a genuine interest in opposing terrorism," Matt Robson said.

The Progressive Party believes the best guarantee of winning the battle against the challenge posed by fundamentalist terrorist networks requires much more than military, police and counter-intelligence work alone.

"Democratic developed nations need to show leadership in resolving long-festering social and political injustices which plague parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

"Problems such as poverty, statelessness and inequality are the injustices that the terrorist networks exploit as they look for new recruits in their terrorist campaign. In the Palestinian case all these issues are present plus the dispossession of a whole people in a process which began over half a century ago. Any solution to terrorism in the Middle East has to include righting the injustice to the Palestinian people,” said Matt Robson.

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