Victor Gordon to the Argus: Refers: “Anger at UCT SRC’s plan to visit Israel”

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Refers:  “Anger at UCT SRC’s plan to visit Israel”

The four University of Cape Town students who accepted an invitation to visit Israel are only doing what students should always be encouraged to do – expose themselves to all available facts; learn as much as possible about both sides of any story and make up their own minds, particularly when it applies to so highly charged a subject as the Israel/Palestinian conflict.

The problem with those who oppose their visit and who blindly pursue counter-productive policies aimed solely at Israel (such as BDS),  is that they represent only one side of the story and by doing so have little to offer the ongoing search for peace in the region.

As the four students quite clearly understand, proper education is never achieved by myopia. The need to find answers comes only from the adoption of an open mind and exposure to all true facts.

One hopes that they will visit the Palestinian territories as well and glean sufficient reliable information to make informed and proper judgements.

I would question whether any of those opposing their visit have ever  toured  this complex region and undergone a  similar exposure.  I guess not.

Allan Wolman to The Times

International terrorists using SA as a launching pad or hide-out as reported on the front page of The Times Friday (20 February) sent a chilling message that whilst we in this country think that those vile acts of terrorism that the world has witnesses very recently only happens far away from our shores is a sobering thought that terrorism could well raise its ugly head here on our doorstep.

 

This report states that Boko Haram “is far closer to home and as deadly as IS”. Al-Qaeda has had a presence here since 1997 and lists five Hezbollah camps operating in South Africa! Can this be true?

 

Given these terrifying reports one must wonder why this country had been spared the carnage that other countries have been plagued with given that these groups seem to operate freely in our country. There have been previous reports about these organizations operations here and one must wonder why our government has taken little action to stop this scourge. After all with security so high on their agenda that even cell phone signals are blocked during the SONO in Cape Town why do such lethal groups seem to operate freely in South Africa?

 

Only last week a government minister welcomed Leila Khalid on her arrival here, and invited her to the opening of our Parliament. Now this woman, a convicted terrorist and high-ranking official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization with ties to most terrorist groups around the world, is wined and dined by government must surely raise an eyebrow or two, as must the DBS group that hosted this terrorist during her visit to our shores and would it surprise anyone if this group has ties with terrorists groups given their calls for violence in the past?

Victor Gordon to The Star

THE STAR

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Clearly, major companies wishing to realise impressive growth should place Israeli-manufactured stock on their shelves and wait for the BDS movement to react.

After regularly demonstrating outside(and inside) many of  Woolies main branches and generally making a nuisance of themselves ( to the annoyance of the vast majority of shoppers), the retail giant posted a mammoth 24.3% profit growth in its BDS-targeted food sector and a more modest 3.4% in clothing. These figures exclude the positive contribution of the Australian David Jones acquisition and reflect local business only.

Quite obviously, Woolies shoppers  remain indifferent to the puerile and disruptive actions of BDS who have little more to contribute towards  finding solutions to the Israel/Palestine conflict other than behaving like buffoons.  Neither does chanting  “Kill the Jews” or their association with a convicted terrorist hijacker like Laela Khaled, help their cause.

The bottom line is, “keep it up fellas, its good for business!”  Perhaps you might consider promoting peace instead by encouraging the Palestinians to sensibly talk to the Jewish state instead of promoting a pointless policy in the interests nobody, least of all the Palestinians.

Allan Wolman to The Star

My Letter to The Star

 

There has been any number of repulsive race related incidents over the years that have made headline news whenever these ugly incidences occur
What immediately comes to mind was the Free State University incident some years back and more recently the racist incident at a private school both made headlines in most national newspapers with expressions of outrage and rightly so.
These past few weeks xenophobic racists attacks have occurred in various parts of the country and widely reported in the press. Xenophobia and racism is abhorrent in any society and must be exposed as loudly as possible and all credit to our national newspapers for headlining this awful scourge and keeping it in the public eye for as long as possible.
Unfortunately this does not apply to one religious group in this country when racist xenophobic incidents are voiced by so called intellectual university students The Star afforded this five lines on page two of today’s edition (12 Feb) – pretty well hidden from attention.
This insignificant article reported on a memorandum from the SRC of the Durban University of Technology together with the “Progressive” Youth Alliance, addressed to the Vice Chancellor calling for the deregistration of Jewish Students from that institution. To his credit the Vice Chancellor Prof. Ahmed C Bawa expressed his outrage at such a preposterous demand and added that this was a violation of every human rights principle.
Newspaper headlines exposing racism and xenophobia have now become selective. If it’s any other group it is boldly exposed but when aimed at Jews, tucked away on the inside pages.

Victor Gordon to the M&G: Refers: “Palestinians should qualify the nature of freedom they wish for”

After dutifully parroting  the usual anti-Israel  rhetoric  laced with uncontextualised  distortions, generalizations and accusations,  Irene Calis then poses some challenging questions. She asks:

“What would our [South African] emancipated future look like in Palestine? And what must be in that framework now to realise that future?” … “Statehood without radical structural and social changes will … ensure that those privileged in the previous order of things are free to continue living on the backs of the historically subordinated.” …  “What kind of existence will we accept [in Palestine]? How will we build what we need to support our preferred future?”

I believe that Calis understands what should be obvious to all – that this region needs peace between Israel and the Palestinians before any attempt can be made to launch the program of reconstruction and development that she envisages.  Attaining it will not come from the barrel of a gun but from a situation of peaceful co-existence, co-operation and mutual respect that would propel both parties into a stable, cooperative and prosperous future.

Obviously, realising this goal requires bold steps by all sides – Israel, the Palestinians and the surrounding Arab states who have unsuccessfully tried to annihilate the Jewish state since 1948. The pawns in this tragic game have been the Palestinians, millions of whom stagnate as moribund  refugees in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, devoid of hope or any meaningful future.

If Calis sincerely wishes to redefine a “preferred future for the Palestinians”,  she need look no further than the sensible and creative insights of Bassem Eid, the founder and former director of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG). He is a Palestinian, an advocate for peace with Israel, and a critic of terrorism.

Eid pulls no punches in facing up to the corrupt and inept leadership of the PA and Hamas as well as the wasted opportunities to forge a lasting peace that have been allowed to slip away over the decades. For those who wish to find a way out of the existing quagmire I suggest that Bassem Eid’s article, “We Palestinians hold the key to a better future” be read and digested. (see: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/we-palestinians-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future/#ixzz3Rc280ZmX)  What it reveals is that the solution to the Israeli/Palestinian impasse is actually deceptively simple. What is required is strength of will.

Victor Gordon to the Cape Argus: Refers: “Without justice for all, world peace will elude us”

Naushad Omar’s belief that “without justice for all, world peace will elude us” earns my unqualified support.  His summary of what lead to the 9/11 attacks which brought about the US-led coalition against Saddam Hussein also, by and large,  reflects  the sequence of history.

Where we part company is when he deviates from verified facts and states that “no coalition existed  in 1967 when  Israel invaded East Jerusalem, the West Bank and other areas … which Israel is still occupying illegally”.

Why can Naushad Omar simply stick to the truth, being that Israel’s “invasion” of East Jerusalem and the West Bank and other areas” was a direct reaction to the unprovoked attack launched by Egypt, Syria and Jordan resulting in Israel retaliating in a defensive war.  That is the actual context which places Omar’s claim in an entirely different light.

As for Israel’s “illegal occupation” of the West Bank, until this matter has been properly resolved  through open negotiation as stipulated in UN SC Resolution 242, there is nothing illegal about the occupation of this “disputed” territory by either party.

Why is it so hard to face up to and state the true facts?

Allan Wolman to The Star

If Yasser Arafat leader of the PLO was the father of modern day terrorism, then Leila Khalid was surely the mother of that scourge. Both perfected the art of aircraft hijacking and other atrocities that the world had never previously witnessed. The type of terror invented by the likes of these two has evolved to suicide bombing that we witness almost daily throughout the Arab world.

 

But terrorism has now taken a far more sinister and macabre form where today’s terrorists behead and burn innocent victims alive. Just this week ISIL a terrorist organization burnt to death a Jordanian air force pilot in the most monstrous and cruel manner taking the art of terrorism introduced to the world by the likes of those early terrorists to a new level of depravity. Not only do they sever the heads of their innocent victims but display those grotesque heads on poles, as a warning to all to obey their demented will.

 

The Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanction (BDS) movement in South Africa, well known for their cries of “kill the Jew, will be hosting Leila Khaled and have advised that she will be welcomed by government ministers as well as struggle icons on arrival. One must question what kind of a message this must send to peace loving South Africans?

 

Don Krausz to The Star – RE: ASTRID SHAPIRO’S “IT IS HIGH TIME THAT WE FIND SOLUTIONS”

Dear Sir,

 

RE: ASTRID SHAPIRO’S “IT IS HIGH TIME THAT WE FIND SOLUTIONS”

OF 29/01/2015.

 

Yes, after 67 years of strife solutions need to be found. But they will not be arrived at by ignoring historical facts in favour of one’s own blatant prejudices or use of untruthful descriptions in order to malign honourable and learned people with whom one differs.

 

Shapiro states that Felicia Levy’s “victim mentality is ridiculous.”

 

Yesterday was the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz, one of the 45,000 plus Death and Concentration camps in which six million Jewish men, women and children and millions of others were murdered during the Nazi period within living memory.

 

One place out of tens of thousands of unimaginable horror and suffering where the murder rate could average 15,000 per day, equal to the number of Jews that were limited yearly entry to Palestine under the British White Paper.

 

Israel repelled the Palestinian and Arab onslaught on the Jews of Palestine in 1948.

She then absorbed about 800,000 persecuted Jewish refugees, expelled, dispossessed, expropriated and deprived of their nationality by the Moslem rulers of the lands in which they had lived for up to 2,500 years.

 

Had it not been for the British restrictions on Jewish entry induced by Moslem hatred of Jews and the worldwide prohibition on accepting Jewish refugees as enumerated at the 1938 Evian World Conference, those refugees and many more could have been European Jews escaping massacre.

 

Jews had resided in Europe since the days of Alexander the Great. Despite their insignificant numbers their contribution to the welfare of that continent was considerable, from the highest positions in the lands that welcomed them to their incredible achievement of 22% of all Nobel prizes ever awarded despite their numbers of a fraction of one percent of the world’s population.

 

Yet when the Jewish persecution in Europe began, only to be followed by unbelievable slaughter, there were very few civilised countries in the world that opened their doors to the doomed refugees.

 

The surviving Jews in the blood-soaked lands of their birth then realised that only a land of their own, with their own government and army would provide refuge and if possible prevent a future Holocaust. Has Shapiro not learned of the rescue of the Jews of Yemen, of Ethiopia or at Entebbe by Israel? Was that also done “not in her name?”

 

To thinking, responsible and sensitive Jews, that is the role that Israel must play, any other consideration is secondary. Under the San Remo conference, Balfour Declaration

and subsequent UN partition plan, the 1948 territory and much more was granted to the Jews. Who have been instrumental and adamant in depriving them thereof?

 

Is Shapiro not aware of the endless genocidal threats made in the past and to this day by Moslems and others against Israel and world Jewry? The numerous wars and terrorist attacks that she has faced at considerable cost? Shapiro writes of “pipedream solutions behind the barrel of a gun.” How many of Israel’s Jewish men, women and children would have survived if it had not been for those guns?

 

Is she really incapable of understanding Jewish “fear of the unknown and having a victim mentality?”  How many more millions must be murdered before that penetrates, Astrid Shapiro?

Victor Gordon to the Star – Refers” “Astrid Shapiro’s letter, “It’s high time we find solutions”

THE STAR

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Refers”  “Astrid Shapiro’s letter, “It’s high time we find solutions”

As a member of what Astrid Shapiro calls “Felicia’s ilk”,  I am stunned at the lack of insight and honesty displayed in her letter, “It’s high time we find solutions”. Even the title of her piece displays her naiveté in assuming that only she has arrived at the realisation that 66 years of continual strife cannot be more desirable than peace between Israel and her Palestinian neighbours.

What nation would want every newborn since 1948 destined to exist through continual and seemingly inevitable war.

Her observation that Israel needs the intervention of a Mandela ignores the fact that equally, Palestine needs the reciprocal intervention of a de Klerk.  In that, it has never come even close. Their esteemed leader, Yasir Arafat was one of the most notorious terrorists in modern history and took the art of terrorism, deceit and evil diplomacy to new heights.

Neither is it to the credit of Yitzhak Rabin that, in his desperate quest for peace, he allowed himself to be duped by a man who, when speaking to his own people in Arabic told them that his signing of the Oslo Accords was only a temporary measure to bolster the Palestinian’s position for future confrontation.  This he repeated right here in Johannesburg during a subsequent visit.

Shapiro cynically suggests that Arafat was poisoned despite his exhumation and no evidence found to support that claim. Any guesses as to who might have “poisoned”  him?

Shapiro belongs to the delusional left that believes that by singing Kumbaya together, all will be well. All needed  is for Israel to sing off the same page. Nowhere does she make any demands on the Palestinians to play any meaningful part in that process.

While calling for genuine negotiations for reconciliation between the Israelis and their Arab neighbours, she fails to state which of these Arab neighbours Israel should talk with, considering that Hamas refuses to speak to Israel, Mahmud Abbas is essentially powerless and only exists because of Israel’s support and Hezbollah is Israel’s avowed enemy in the north.

While accusing Felicia Levy of living with “pipedreams” she fails to realize how her own fantasies fall under the same category – even more so,  being completely devoid from reality.

While Astrid Shapiro’s search for peace is commendable it will not be found in the realms of fantasy nor by trying to shield herself from the continual criticism and anti-Semitism levelled at her race by claiming “Not in my name”. In the end, as proven by our tragic past, we are all one.

Victor Gordon to the Mail & Guardian

MAIL & GUARDIAN

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Refers:  “Desmond Tutu”

How did I know when I started to read a short article by Desmond Tutu that I would be angry well before the end? The answer is simple – bitter experience. The ‘Arch’  is oh, so predictable.

After  bemoaning  the horrific excesses of mankind that witnessed the Holocaust, endured slavery, saw Irish Catholics “clobber” Irish Protestants,  stood by during the terrible genocide in Rwanda, the abduction of 200 girls by Boko Haram as well as the beheadings perpetrated by ISIS, Tutu specifically included the “Israeli airstrike which killed four children playing on a beach in Gaza”.

Ignoring the fact that this tragedy occurred in the heat of war, Tutu makes no attempt to include in his list of acts ‘unacceptable to God’  the thousands of rockets that Hamas have fired at Israeli civilians, the murders of Israeli families in their beds where mere babies had their throats cut or the random stabbings and targeted vehicle attacks on civilians perpetrated by individual Arabs.

Sadly, but obviously due to his advancing age, Tutu has developed selective memory  for which we must make allowances. But then, perhaps the time has arrived for him to hang up his collar and stop his one-sided pronouncements where a priestly lack of bias and hypocrisy should be his guiding principle.