Allan Wolman to The Press

“Enough is Enough” is the call by women throughout the country in the ugly face of femicide that has shaken the country and highlighted by President Ramaphosa. Every 13 minutes a woman is raped and murdered in South Africa, with more than 23,000 murders a year. But this is only South Africa. What about the women of the Arab world that our media chooses to ignore?

A woman’s status in most of the Arab world warrants less consideration than a goat. The despicable practice of over 90 million little girl pressed into forced marriages, having to endure a life of hell has seldom found its way in the general media, nor has genital mutilation of millions of women so prevalent in the Arab world or the amputation of limbs for theft or the stoning of women to death for being the victims of rape been highlighted. Honor killing accepted as a norm in Arab society. A woman in many parts of the Middle East is simply a commodity that can be bought or sold at her father or husband pleasure.

 

Why is our media so silent when what goes down in the Arab World is common knowledge but turn their wrath on the only democracy in the Middle East where women’s rights equal those of men and enjoy absolutely equality in the eyes of the law. Could it be that, that democracy is the only Jewish State on earth?

 

Ethnic cleansing of minority religious groups such as the Christians, Yazidis, Bahais and of course Jews is prolific in many Arab states. The ongoing slaughter of the civilian population in both Syria and Yemen where hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered including women and children seem to have escaped the pens of the biased media in South Africa

Apartheid practices are alive and well in most of these countries where Jews have been driven out, Christians and Bahais discriminated against, Yazidis and Rohingyas beaten and killed – interestingly such reports seldom find their way into the media.

Victor Gordon to the Cape Argus

CAPE ARGUS

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Re: “Israeli arms industry is world menace”

I find it incredible that Terry Crawford-Brown (TC-B) can believe that he carries one scintilla of credibility after years devoted to blatantly lying about, and demonising the Jewish state of Israel.

He denies the undisputable fact that Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East” despite a far more authoritative source, “Freedom House”, whose raison de’etre since 1945 has been the analysis of this very subject, listing Israel as the only free and democratic state in that region.  When C-B snidely comments that Israel’s democracy applies to “Jews only”, he reveals the extent of his woeful ignorance and bigotry. In fact, Israeli Arabs serve as Members of the Knesset with 5 Arab political parties serving their interests; serve as judges right up to Supreme Court level; go to the same schools, universities and hospitals as Jewish Israelis; use the same buses etc. If this isn’t democracy, what is?

In the face of this, C-B refers to Israel as a “militarist and gangster dictatorship”, a charge of such puerility that it fails to deserve a response.

C-B claims that Israel “blatantly” markets weapons to 130 countries as “battle-tested and proven on Palestinians”.  A search on the internet reveals just four sites that feature this inflammatory quotation, two of which are attributed to – guess who … Terry Crawford-Brown! The other two are Pro-Palestinian by nature and intent. None make any effort to attribute the source of this ridiculous statement which, with its crude and damaging connotation, is most unlikely to originate from any Israeli manufacturer or government agency. If this is the standard of Israel’s “hasbarah” (information) they still have much to learn.

The undeniable fact that, today, Israel’s weapons industry is one of the largest and most successful in the world, stems from her having to protect herself from the day of her birth in 1948, coupled with a USA embargo on the supply of weapons which remained in force for several years. This also applied to France which terminated its supply of weapons and spare parts immediately prior to the 1967 Six Day War.

While C-B protests that any accusation that he has an “inbred hatred for the Jewish state” is without substantiation, he seemingly fails to understand that the lengths he  adopts to slander and falsify  claims  against the self-same Jewish state clearly reveals his true intent and gross hypocrisy.

Allan Wolman to the Argus

The continued description of apartheid Israel is certainly running very thin and other than Naushad Omar and his ilk one would be stretched to find any more than that handful of bigots who buy into that hackneyed narrative.

 But if your readers are indeed looking for apartheid countries, they need look no further than the Palestine Authority and the territory administered by both that authority as well as Hamas in Gaza. In both territories Jews are “verboten” by official decree. But its not only Jews who are banned from living there but the Christina population of those two territories have shrunk to alarming numbers.

 In fact, the very last store selling Christmas decorations in Gaza was forcibly closed by the Hamas regime more than 5 years back. But one can name any number of Arab states where apartheid practices are part of their political landscape and are unapologetic in the face of those racist policies.

 I live in Israel where all religions are practiced, tolerated and thrive. Perhaps Omar would like to look at the plight of the Bahai faith who were persecuted beyond belief to the point that every last Bahai follower fled Iran for fear of death. Mr. Omar, no prizes for guessing where the world headquarters of the Bahai faith is situated – right in the heard of Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. Where else has those dwindling Christian communities for Palestine and Gaza relocated but in Israel where they are free not only to practice their faith but free to engage and participate in all political activity, as one can see every four years – something that has not happened in the territories they fled from for decades.

 Its time that Omar and his fellow travelers take of their bigoted and racist glasses and look at the Middle East with a more curious and critical lens to see facts and truths instead of burying their heads in the sands of hatred and religious intolerance.

Rodney Mazinter to The Business Times

Terry Crawford-Browne repeats, not for the first time, some of the appalling statements he has made in the press over the past years (Israelis The Perpetrators). Most of what what he writes that is demonstrably unsubstantiated by credible sources and he draws conclusions in total opposition to reality.

Crawford-Browne is aware that his statement that the Palestinians are living under apartheid similar to the South Africa’s unlamented system, is an egregious lie. Crawford-Browne’s aim is not to fight genuine oppression, but rather to revile Israel, the Middle East’s only liberal democracy and the only country among its neighbors designated as “free” by Freedom House, a non-partisan group that monitors the status of political, human and civil rights around the world.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that Israel, which he described as “one of great outposts of democracy in the world”, has an “incontestable right to exist.” Crawford-Browne’s push against King’s truth can only impede the dream of peace and justice in the Middle East.

 As for BDS, Crawford Browne’s main source of information; Prof. Norman Finkelstein, once one of the movement’s poster boys and its honoured guest in South Africa, had this to say: “BDS is nothing more than a cult. I think [its stance] is silliness, childish and just leftist posturing. It is legally correct to recognise that Israel is a state. The problem with these solidarity movements is that they are a mirror image of the so-called Palestinian Authority, whose means will never achieve their goal, which is the destruction of Israel… Step out of your little cult, your little ghetto, and you enter the real world. …That you focus on Israel’s minorities and not the plight of the 10-million other minorities throughout the Middle East and elsewhere is an indication of what hypocrites you are. Israel has a case and I am tired after so many years having to consider and answer these lies.”

Allan Wolman re Terry Crawford-Brown

Terry Crawford-Brown (C-B) a one- time activist targeting the infamous arms deal and all credit to his efforts in highlighting the malaise of that ill- fated deal, instead of graduating from such a noble cause he has stooped to the ranks of the bigots and racists exposing his anti-Semitic rants for many years now with no let- up of his fabrication and promotion of “fake news” that he well knows can’t be challenged.

He argues vehemently that he is not an anti-Semite! Indeed, anyone who has followed his writing and “ranting”, will know that he hates Israel with a passion that manifests itself in the fabrication and distortion of “facts” so far from the truth and reality, working on the axiom of telling a lie often enough that it morphs into truth. But this is his veiled language of hatred of the Jew, which manifests itself at every opportunity. Surely the editors of almost every newspaper in the country who have published C-B’s writing over many years must have realized what an anti-Semite he is as he has never changed the narrative of his submissions and has never once criticized any other country (or nation) blatantly guilty of the worst human rights abuse. It’s certainly time that editors take a hard look at the language that this racist continues to spew out!

As an ardent supporter of BDS, Palestine Solidarity Movement and other such causes whose mission statement ” from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” where every official Palestinian document, coat of arms, and emblem depict the map of Palestine “from the river to the sea” with no recognition of the legally established State of Israel as a member of the family of nations, clearly spells out his mission to destroy Israel. Unlike any opposition to apartheid S. Africa where the various movements were committed to regime change, C-B and his cohorts, sole agenda is the total demise of and destruction of the Jewish State (read Jewish nation).

Again instead of graduating from a noble cause, C-B lives in a Walter Mitty world thinking that he and those of his ilk can destroy a people that has withstood and outlasted every empire, power and dynasty throughout three thousand years of history, can succeed where they have all failed, can only be living a pipe dream. Dream on C-B!

Allan Wolman to The Argus

Writing in this newspaper Faiez Jacobs tells us about the pain suffered by Lindiwe Sisulu during the struggle years. He then goes on to liken this to the “acts of brutality meted out against Palestinian women” and of course plays on the hackneyed “apartheid” word mixed with “atrocities” against the Palestinian people.

 

It seems that Jacobs is totally oblivious of atrocities meted out by Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israeli civilians, atrocities like the slitting the throats of infants, like the suicide bombing of restaurants, like the firing of thousands of rockets at civilian targets, car ramming and stabbing of civilians by Palestinian children as young as 10 years.

 

No Mr. Jacobs this is not a one sided conflict, atrocities are visited on innocent Israeli civilians almost on a daily basis. And the struggle of the Palestinian people is not in isolation. There is the struggle for a peaceful Jewish State that hasn’t been allowed to live in peace for over 70 years. That’s notwithstanding numerous offers to the Palestinian peoples for a just, viable and peaceful state of their own.

 

Perhaps before putting pen to paper, Jacobs should do a bit of research and he may find that there are two side to this story notwithstanding his one eyed view.

Rodney Mazinter to The Cape Argus

It is extremely difficult for rational people who value personal freedom to understand the motivations of those who live comfortably in South Africa and yet embrace monstrous dictators, ideologies, and policies that leave only death and destruction in their wake. They seem to embrace toxic beliefs and contorted thought processes that represent the destruction of the very freedoms they espouse. They support totalitarian ideologies such as radical systems in the Middle East.

Equally notable and deplorable is the double standard applied by some journalists who avoid any use of the term racism with regard to bigoted invective and attacks leveled against Israel and Jews. I do not know of a single case in which any of these critics directly label Palestinians, racists notwithstanding the many documented examples of apartheid practices and bigoted statements from Arab sources.

It is sad to read in the Cape Argus’ opinion page of May 24 (Committed to ME Justice) just such an article by Faiez Jacobs. He freely bandies about such uninformed words like “apartheid” in relation to Israel and totally ignores true examples of apartheid in the surrounding countries and territories. The deligitimisation campaign being waged against Israel by inventing the Israel-apartheid analogy needs to be countered. Let us compare to see where apartheid really exists:

Voting rights, parliamentary representation, no racial classification, freedom of movement, laws guaranteeing rights for all citizens, facilities open to all citizens, freedom of religion, non-governmental control of schools and universities, no job reservation, strong trade unions, freedom protected by law, health care available to all, open sport, etc.: all available in Israel but in none of the surrounding countries and the PA.

Israel equals democracy and freedom; surrounding countries exemplify  apartheid: such is the true source of self-imposed Arab atrocities and their true nakbah.

 

Victor Gordon to The Pretoria News

43 prisoners convicted of terrorism were publically beheaded some days ago in Saudi Arabia. In the 4 months since the start of this year 129 have already been executed by either beheading or crucifixion.  These methods could not be more barbaric and the volume of victims plus the methods of execution have created an outcry throughout the civilized world …  except here in South Africa where our government is strangely mute.

But when a government is so preoccupied with downgrading its relations with the democratic state of Israel (because of its alleged intolerable abuse of human rights), who has time to protest against  so trivial a matter as the public, wanton, killing of some  anonymous citizens, some of whom were barely represented at their trials.

While keeping in mind that Israel  has no death penalty and upholds the rights of the LGBT community in all respects, Saudi punishments for the offence of homosexuality range from fines to floggings, to life in prison or torture or death. In Israel, the most stringent sentence metered out against terrorists found guilty of murder is life imprisonment together with the destruction of the perpetrator’s house – hardly comparable to beheading or crucifixion.

Amazingly, none of this makes the slightest impression on Minister Lindiwe Sisulu who clearly sees no reason to register a protest towards Saudi Arabia against so blatant an abuse of human rights. The only countries with execution tallies that exceed Saudi Arabia are China and Iran and, as we are fully aware, little chance exists of any critical comment from our otherwise impeccably moral government.

The hypocrisy is both mind-boggling and sickening.

Victor Gordon to Business Day

Re: “I’m a Palestinian – Meir”

When it comes to attacks aimed at Israel, context has never been Crawford-Brown’s (C-B)  strong point.  Couple that with a smidgen of myopic bias and we have another deliberately misleading quote attributed to one of Israel’s iconic Prime Ministers, Golda Meir.

Gleefully,  C-B  correctly has Meir saying,  “I’m a Palestinian. From 1921 until 1948 (Israel’s independence) I carried a Palestinian passport.”  This, according to C-B,  proves that even Golda admits that a sovereign state called Palestine existed during that period, thereby proving that Palestinians existed as an independent nation at least 100 years ago.

However, were C-B to place her words in their true context we the reader would understand that Golda Meir was referring to the period of the British Mandate where all the inhabitants of the region known internationally as “Palestine” were issued with “Mandatory Palestine Passports”. This applied to both Jews as and Arabs whom no one, at the time, regarded as constituting a Palestinian nation.

This is no mere question of semantics but a deliberate distortion of facts by Terry Crawford-Brown to give the impression that the so-called Palestinians, who turned their backs on the state offered to them by the UN in 1947 (and twice since by Israel), are in fact an existing nation with a sovereign state named “Palestine”. This is simply not true.

Allan Wolman to the Sunday Independent

With the emphasis on the UN Resolution 242 as the basis of South Africa’s strategic position on the Security Council to “lobby fellow members on issues that go to the heart of maintaining a rules-based international order and adherence to international law.” Shanon Ebrahim uses this as her basis to once again, in her not so subtle manner, vilify Israel. Something that she has consistently adopted in her mission to denigrate the Jewish State.

 By using this UN resolution, she is not only being disingenuous but manipulating the meaning of this motion. UN Resolution 242, adopted by the Security Council in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day war between Israel and 4 belligerent Arab States and not only calls for the withdrawal of Israel from land captured in that war, which Shanon leads her audience to believe. However, that very same resolution categorically reads: “Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” Something that Israel has been denied by its neighbors since its birth in 1948.

 Sadly, or with intent she does not tell her readers about the Khartoum Resolution of that same year, calling for “ a continued state of belligerency with Israel, what became known as the “Three No’s”: “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. Surely any honest scribe would detail such vital information unless the purpose of her piece is to manipulate fact from fiction. Much of her subtle attack on the Jewish State resolves around the recent US recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights.

Again what Ebrahim refrains from telling us, is this piece of land annexed by Israel was formally part of Syria, a country whose president is responsible for the brutal killing of over half a million innocent Syrian civilians. But to Shanon half a million dead Syrians are a mere statistic and not a tragedy, the tragedy in her book is the occupation and peaceful existence of the Golan’s ethnic population.

The most bizarre statement in her whole piece is that Israeli ‘occupation’ of the Golan will only create greater regional instability. Could returning this tract of land to Syria secure stability in the face of the genocide in that most instable region, while lauding S. Africa’s moral standing by her downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel. If morality had any meaning to South Africa’s foreign minister she certainly expresses that by her continued diplomatic relations with the Syrian regime.