Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: novità tra Israele e Nuova Zelanda

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733162256&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The 'Key' to Better Ties Jan. 4, 2009
Ziv Hellman Auckland , THE JERUSALEM POST
Extract from a story in Issue 20, January 19, 2009 of The Jerusalem
Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Report click here.
New Zealand is about as far from Israel as one can get. So, perhaps it
is not surprising that the land of kiwis, breathtaking Lord of the
Rings vistas and what sounds like the ultimate oxymoron - the
Christchurch Jewish Synagogue - has had only a distant relationship
with the Jewish state over the years.
But those ties, marked by meager trade relations and strained by a
diplomatic scandal in 2004, seem to be strengthening lately, buoyed by
an increase in bilateral trade and the election of a new Jewish prime
minister, who has pledged to nurture ties with Israel and pay an
official visit to the country.
New Zealand's Jewish community numbers less than 10,000 and is
centered in Auckland, the country's largest city and business capital.
The community dates back to the the 1830s, when Jewish traders from
Europe joined the earliest groups of British settlers just beginning
to move into their newest colony.
It was one of the first countries in the world to elect a Jewish prime
minister - Sir Julius Vogel headed its government in the 1870s. (Sir
Francis Henry Dillon Bell, who later converted to Christianity, was
prime minister for a fortnight in 1925.) In late November 2008, John
Key, a 47-year-old self-made multimillionaire who rose from a
childhood of poverty to a prominent foreign currency trading position
in London and then to the leadership of the conservative National
Party of New Zealand, took office as the third Jewish prime minister
in the country's history.
Key has stressed domestic issues, such as tax cuts and pro-business
policies, which contrast with those of his Labor Party predecessor
Helen Clark. He has not made foreign policy a priority. But many
regarded his willingness to grant an interview to Israel Radio on his
first day in office, during which he expressed interest in nurturing
ties with Israel and even in paying an official visit to Jerusalem, as
signaling the beginning of a new phase of diplomatic relations that
comes in the wake of several difficult years that have also had a
deleterious effect on business between the two countries.
New Zealand's trade ties with Israel, totaling NZ$107 million (US$57
million) per year, are minor relative to Israel's annual imports and
exports to the European Union and the United States, but they have
been quietly expanding in recent years.
The trade patterns are heavily lopsided in favor of Israeli exports to
New Zealand: while Israel imports NZ$16.85 million (US$9 million) of
goods from New Zealand, it exports about five times as much, NZ$91.65
($49 million). The main Israeli exports are machinery parts, steam
turbines, water heaters, telecommunications equipment and irrigation
systems.
Israeli imports from New Zealand include aluminum, sugar, radar
apparatus, electronic circuit boards, milk products and mutton. Sheep
products are, of course, a huge component of New Zealand's economy -
local newspapers in New Zealand typically include sections detailing
farming statistics and articles on the latest world prices for bales
of wool - but very little of New Zealand's famed sheep (or beef or
even deer) meat makes its way to Israeli supermarkets, because they
restrict their sales to kosher meat. (Several years ago, New Zealand
successfully found a way to expand its meat exports to Muslim
countries through the construction of halal-certified abattoirs.) New
Zealand has also complained in the past that Israeli protective
barriers have prevented significant trade in agricultural products.
One of the most prominent Israeli-New Zealand ventures in recent years
has been led by Ormat, an Israeli company specializing in geothermal
energy, which operates plants in the United States, the Philippines,
Kenya and Nicaragua, in addition to ten electricity generating plants
in New Zealand. The total capacity of Ormat's power plants in New
Zealand exceeds 200 megawatts, mainly produced by converting
geothermal steam and brine from geothermal wells into electric power.
New Zealand is one of the world's leading countries in its commitment
to generating electricity from non-fossil fuel sources.
Since 2001, Israel's dairy giant Tnuva and New Zealand's Fonterra
cooperative, the sixth-largest dairy company in the world, have been
jointly operating a whey processing plant near Mt. Tabor in the north
of Israel.
A New Zealand Israel Trade Association (NZITA) was established in
1994, the same year an official Israeli trade office was opened in
Auckland in order to boost business opportunities and help Israeli
businesses seeking contacts in New Zealand. The NZITA publishes
newsletters and economic updates, hosts trade delegations and other
events to promote bilateral trade, and assists visiting Israelis in
opening doors. It maintains good relations with New Zealand officials
for promoting trade with Israel, but prefers to work "discreetly." In
this, says Mike Nathan, one of the founders of NZITA and its current
CEO, it is much like the New Zealand Jewish community itself.
"New Zealand Jews are not given to making a loud fuss," says Nathan.
"We blend more into the background, working quietly to look after our
interests." Nathan routinely drops the names of high-ranking New
Zealand officials, from the prime minister down, on a first-name basis
in conversations, a testimony to the years of "low-key, behind-the-
scenes" contacts he has forged since his student days at Auckland
University. Born in Auckland in 1949, Nathan joined a group of New
Zealand Jews who rushed to volunteer in Israel during the initial
hours of the Six-Day War, "getting on the first available flight," as
he puts it.
Enamored of the country in its euphoric post-victory period in 1967,
he returned to Israel for several years after completing a law degree
in New Zealand in 1972. He eventually went back "down under" to take
up an executive position in marketing at Kraft Foodservices'
Australian office. His success there led to his being tapped to
establish the Kraft Foodservice office in his native New Zealand,
where today he is the director of Pop Tech Media, a digital electronic
media advertising company, in addition to running NZITA.
His work at NZITA frequently involves hosting missions from Israel and
leading New Zealand missions visiting Israel to match up with
successful Israeli companies and venture capital funds. He is already
speaking of leading a similar mission of businessmen to accompany
Prime Minister John Key on his expected visit to Israel and the Middle
East. That trip might also include visits to Gallipoli, Turkey and
locations in Israel, where New Zealand armed forces saw action in
World War I, to underscore New Zealand's deep involvement in the
region.
"New Zealand voted in favor of establishing Israel [in the 1947 United
Nations vote on partition]," notes Nathan, "and there was even a
proposal prior to Israel's founding for the creation of a Jewish
homeland on Stewart Island [the southernmost of New Zealand's three
islands]. Who knows what might have happened if that proposal had been
taken seriously."
An affable and genial man, Nathan proudly shows off the Auckland
Jewish community center, a modern, beautifully constructed complex
that includes a synagogue, kosher deli and Hebrew day school for pre-
secondary school education. The community is largely liberal in its
religious observance, with few ultra-Orthodox families.
"You don't come to New Zealand if you are looking for an intensive
Jewish experience - in that case you'd be more likely to find it in
Sydney or Melbourne," says Nathan, reaching for comparison to
Australia, the neighboring continent with which it seems New
Zealanders perpetually feel themselves to be in competition. While the
Jewish community in Australia, numbering 120,000, is the largest in
the Asian-Pacific region, the Jewish population of New Zealand is less
than 10,000, comprising perhaps a fifth of a percent of the total
population of the country.
But it is well-organized. An official New Zealand Jewish Council
serves as an umbrella organization for synagogues, Jewish
organizations and two Zionist youth movements. According to Wendy
Ross, former president of the Council, it is often called upon to
serve as a "public affairs committee" and expected to speak as the
voice of the Jewish community to the general public and guard against
expressions of anti-Semitism. "What we have managed to do is actually
amazing given our small numbers," she says, noting that there is high
demand for enrolment in Auckland's Hebrew Day School even among non-
Jews, who admire its small classes, structured environment and high-
quality teaching.
---
"Vorrei smentire l'errata impressione che io abbia mai cessato di
usare il mio nome per intervenire sui newsgroup. E' capitato" (Luca
Logi / rodewalder / Golda Meir, gennaio 2009)
http://raionim.blogspot.com/2009/01/il-nome-e-il-come.html

 Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Report click here.
[ cut the whole crap Zanardo ]
#_Chissa`a quando risale la stesura de 'sto 
articolo-lingua-in-bocca-e-dito-in-culo, pubblicato addirittura il 19 
Gennaio di quest'anno (manco le date sai falsare...COGLIONE!!!)
_Beh! Dopo la *mattanza*e le cannonate al convoglio ONU, della posizione 
della lingua la NZITA e soprattutto tu, ve la potete dimenticare; per quella 
del dito, facci e fateci pure, conto assoluto.

 articolo-lingua-in-bocca-e-dito-in-culo,
ti vedo nervosetto, bifaccia. Hai per caso ricevuto notizie da
Bergamo?
----
"Ashkelon è più sicura" (Luca Logi / rodewalder / Golda Meir, febbraio
2008)
http://raionim.blogspot.com/2009/01/certo-che-i-qassam-sono-pericolosi_05.html

 articolo-lingua-in-bocca-e-dito-in-culo,
ti vedo nervosetto, bifaccia. Hai per caso ricevuto notizie da
Bergamo?
#_E`la terza volta che tiri fuori 'sto Bergamo. Cos'e`che ti avvince 
cosi`tanto, scemo-de-mamma!? ...C'e`una novita`dito-in-culo anche nei 
rapporti IL- BG ?