The Kiwi that roared

From Jerusalem Post Sep. 5, 2005 21:52 Updated Sep. 5, 2005 23:24 By AVI HOFFMAN ...

New Zealand is a ...an idyllic, civilized spot. Apart from rugby, mutton and butter, it's off the map as far as world news is concerned.

Last year it decided to flex its diplomatic muscles and create a major diplomatic incident out of a fraudulent attempt to obtain one New Zealand passport.

...Wellington related to the episode as a major espionage case, and slapped sanctions on Jerusalem.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark, a card-carrying Israel-basher of the Ken Livingstone mold, played tough and declared: "New Zealand condemns without reservation these actions by agencies of the Israeli government."

This was a win-win situation for Clark. Israel is a soft target. New Zealand suffered neither domestic nor international fallout, nor material losses as a result of freezing relations with Israel. Diplomatic observers noted that it suited the socialist ideology of her administration to shift New Zealand's foreign policy further away from that of neighboring Australia.
Domestically she gained political points. Lauding Clark's stand, the New Zealand Herald headlined its editorial "Israel given a message to remember."

...Only after Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom issued an abject apology in June, promising that "similar acts" would not recur, was Clark somewhat mollified. Last week, Wellington finally condescended to accept the credentials of Israel's new ambassador, Naftali Tamir.

...The Kelman-Cara case was not the first attempt by supposed foreign agents to obtain New Zealand passports.
In 1991, a Soviet citizen, Anvar Kadyrov, was caught fraudulently attempting to obtain one. Under suspicion that he was a member of a Soviet intelligence service, Kadyrov was deported. He was not tried, nor were diplomatic relations with the USSR (which collapsed in August that year) broken off.

New Zealand's reaction to the Rainbow Warrior affair throws some light on just how disproportionate was Clark's response to the Kelman-Cara passport case. The Rainbow Warrior was a Greenpeace ship protesting against French nuclear testing in the south Pacific. It was sabotaged and sunk in New Zealand's Matauri Bay just over 20 years ago by French intelligence operatives. A Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira, was killed.

A more blatant infringement of New Zealand sovereignty could hardly be imagined, but Wellington's reaction to France's provocation was described by Greenpeace as "spineless." Only two of the six bombers were found and arrested. A year later, in a political deal, France agreed to pay compensation of $6.5 million to New Zealand and apologize. In return the convicted bombers were transferred to a French military base.

Because of intense French pressure, aimed at crippling New Zealand exports, Wellington dropped attempts to seek the extradition of more of the bombers.

The writer is a former managing editor of The Jerusalem Post.