Victor Gordon to The Pretoria News

PRETORIA NEWS

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Refers:  “Youths take flack after study trip”

For an organization like BDS to take morality-based judgements after openly chanting “Shoot the Jew” at a recital at Wits by an Israeli-born pianist, is patently absurd. This hate-filled movement is not only anti-Israel but clearly anti-Semitic.

It’s blatant hypocrisy is demonstrated by a show of indignation following a recent fact-finding visit by 16 South African youth leaders  to Israel and the West Bank where they enjoyed unfettered access to  representatives of both sides.  The purpose of the visit was to see all elements of the conflict for themselves and make up their own minds. None left our shores as friends of Israel.

Whereas BDS and other pro-Palestinian NGO’s tout only one point of view – Israeli intransigence and Palestinian victimhood –  these future leaders representing  the ANC Youth League, the Progressive Youth Alliance and the SA Student Congress  were afforded the opportunity to question, inspect and discuss all aspects of the situation from every standpoint. Generally, they came away with a clearer understanding of the complexities.

This is not what happens when other so-called “fact-finding missions” visit the Palestinian territories and simply ignore the Israeli point of view concurring with Left-wing Jews alone who share their beliefs. Had Blade Nzimande  expressed a desire to visit Israel as well as Ramallah there is every likelihood that his visa would have been granted as it was to former Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad (and a team) in 2014 despite the latter’s criticism of Israeli policy.

Sensibly,  ANC tour attendees Klaas Mokgomole and Sasco Wits chairman Nthabiseng Molefe said,  “We wanted to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the ground for ourselves. You can’t be a good leader without seeing two sides of the situation”. How refreshing compared to the blinkered stance of some of our senior leaders who castigate Israel for defending itself and ignore the 14,000 missiles that that country endured before finally retaliating.

According to Mokgomole and Nthabiseng, BDS offered to pay them R40,000 each (being the waiver fee they had agreed to ) provided they pulled out. This offer was subsequently denied by BDS spokeswoman Kwara Kekana. The obvious question is, why would the two travellers lie?  What would they gain from doing so?

As the two pointed out, there is no resolution banning South Africans from travelling to Israel or Palestine. Why therefore should they be the exception?  Could it be the fear harboured by BDS of their exposure to the realities of the situation in Israel/Palestine?  Self-inspection is obviously a situation where BDS’s propaganda simply falls flat.

Thank goodness that the future of this country lies in the hands of the Mokgomoles and Nthabisengs of this world and not the Kekanas.

Don Krausz to The Cape Times

The Letters Editor,

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

RE: GHAIRO DANIELS – Shift of focus needed on how we respond to conflict.

 

Daniels writes: “There is no such thing as someone or something trying to destroy you.”

That depends on how one defines YOU. If “You” means some spiritual entity then he may be right. If one considers history, especially recent history, then his notion is difficult to accept. He thinks that war “calls upon the inner powers of victims to strengthen, stand upright and recreate themselves” Spiritually perhaps, if not, then would he apply this dictum to the millions of innocent children that perish in war?

 

He quotes Gandhi as an example. Gandhi taught the principle of Ahimsa, non-violence and Satyagraha, non-violent resistance. He refused to justify the war against Nazism, possibly because it demonstrated the impracticality of his noble ideas. People such as Hitler and Stalin were impervious to such elevated notions. When it was pointed out to Stalin that the Pope would be averse to some of the dictator’s actions, he replied: “How many divisions has the Pope?” i.e, Might was right.

 

Daniels asks whether the Jewish people would have accessed their deep creativities had the Holocaust not happened. Before, during and after that horrific event the Jews demonstrated the enormous contributions that they made to Mankind. The Torah and the Talmud gave Man the foundation of Mercy and Compassion that is so essential.

Hillel taught from 30 BC to 10 AD and his dictum: “What is hateful unto thee, do it not to thy fellow man.” THIS IS THE WHOLE TORAH!  The rest is commentary, is still unsurpassed, as are the 10 Commandments.  

 

The Jews consist of a fraction of one percent of the human race and yet have contributed to all human endeavours to the extent of being awarded 22% of all Nobel prizes. Before the Holocaust and after it.

 

Daniels asks whether the German nation would have risen to the technological, innovative, etc. levels that they have without Hitler. Is he including gas chambers and concentration camps in this analysis? He uses the same reasoning in relation to Hiroshima. I cannot answer this but have lectured on the Holocaust in Japanese schools.

The teachers were eager to learn of the Nazi atrocities without ever admitting to their own.

 

If war and destruction “call upon the inner powers of victims to recreate themselves”, then why do we still experience anti-Semitism, hatred, xenophobia and neo Nazism in those lands that suffered war?

 

The Palestinian Question is brought up but no mention made of its most powerful impetus: Religion. There are at least seven billion human beings on this planet, including about one and a half billion Moslems. Yet doctrinaire fanaticism motivates the destruction of the Infidel who is in the vast majority. If one subscribes to the belief that Man was made by God, then how to accept the notion that the Deity demands and rewards the utter elimination of the bulk of his creation?

 

And until that one is sorted out there will not be a solution to the Palestine Question.

Allan Wolman to The Cape Times

Siyavuya Mzantsi writing in The Cape Times (15 July) about Sasco’s fury that some of its members had the temerity to join a fact-finding mission to Israel.

 

And so Sasco, BDS, ANC and Dennis Goldberg should be hopping mad that some young students, and one must assume that they are students being members of that student body, sought to embark on a journey of discovery.

 

Those history students of Sasco will no doubt have studied how during the Dark Ages, voyages of discovery were discouraged for fear of falling off the edge of the earth, only to learn that Columbus survived that fall and discovered the New World. But that was history and students today shouldn’t learn from history, especially not European history.  Students should stay true to the cause that others have deemed to be the right and true way in the world and who would argue with such enlightened folk?

 

If only our students and future leaders would confine travel to the only countries where the values that their current leaders hold so dear, such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, Russia or Cuba they might then discover the path forward for South Africa being the only way such as communism, nepotism, cronyism, tenderism and corruption. And we as civil society have a duty to censure any student who would want to learn how certain countries create a society where education, healthcare, productivity and democracy form the backbone of such countries

 

More power to Sasco for prohibiting further contamination and distortion of young minds.

Don Krausz to The Daily News

Dear Sir / Madam,

RE: FOUR YEARS FOR 300,000 LIVES.

 

Yes, Oskar Groening is 94 years old. A German court has found him complicit in the murder of 300.000 human beings over 48 days during 1944. That is 6,250 people per day. He has been sentenced to 7 MINUTES IMPRISONMENT for each child, woman and man that was forcibly asphyxiated in those Auschwitz/Birkenau gas chambers while he was there wearing his SS uniform.

Now a question arises of whether there is any point in jailing him at all. He is 94 years old and did not throw those Zyclon B pellets into those gas chambers. How many  women and men of that age was he complicit in murdering?

More than one million people perished in that camp, one of many. Everyone there was aware of the chimneys of the crematoria that belched flame and smoke day and night.  He too must have smelled the stench of 300,000 burning corpses that permeated the surroundings.

How did he feel seeing those children and adults arriving every 24 hours after having been confined in cattle trucks without food, toilets, windows or lights, all the way from Hungary? He knew the fate that awaited them. He says that he seldom met those 140 trains. And he never questioned what their purpose was, or what had happened to those hundreds of thousands of people?

He claims that he requested transfer to a fighting unit which seems to have been denied.

Yet any thinking compassionate person would have said: THIS I DO NOT DO! The worst punishment for German soldiers who refused to become monsters was to be sent to the Russian front.

Cases exist of Germans who refused to dishonour their humanity and heritage. After the war, when films were shown on German TV and in their schools on what was found when the concentration camps were liberated, there were school children as well as adults who did not want to feel ashamed of being German and who rejected their perpetrator family members.

To this day Germany has outlawed public manifestations of Nazism.

A survivor writes that putting Groening on trial was very important because every generation has to learn what happened. Groening now admits to moral guilt. But if so then he did not have to wait until hauled before a court, he could have stood up much earlier and provided evidence. There were 7,000 guards in Auschwitz. There were 172,000 of these alleged SS criminals and murderers during WW2 who were investigated and of whom a mere 6,500 had been sentenced, .04% Why so few? Because people like Groening who were implicated were not prepared to stand up and give evidence? To ensure that the murder of those little children that he knew were on those trains did not go unpunished! If for no other effect than that the world and his fellow Germans would know about it. If only to ease his conscience?

Allan Wolman to The Star Mercury

One must agree with Shannon Ebrahim writing in the Star and other publications (17 July) that the Iranian deal is a compromise. Whether it’s a good compromise depends on how one views it but a compromise is a compromise.

 

However instead of fabricating the threat’s of the West “All options are on the table” she well knows that there was absolutely no chance of the US and her partners embarking on another war in the region so anything from Edrahim without those little innuendoes about the US and her allies would be incomplete.

 

But her continuous attacks on Israel are a little less subtle as we have come to expect. And here she continues to spit out her lies that Israel is an apartheid state – she obviously did not live through apartheid here to get the true understanding of that canard. Of course it’s the “Zionist lobby” that controls the US – was she not listening to what Obama said about his veto in congress?

 

What however is the most audacious comment is accusing Israel of fear mongering – really? Who she may ask is behind Assad of Syria with a tally of over 240000 deaths to date – If she were living in the region wouldn’t she be sh… scared? But more ludicrous is the quoting of Mohammad Marandi of Teheran University is that “Israel is upset as the deal lessens tensions in the region”

Ms. Ebrahim perhaps you can tell us when Israel last threatened any country with annihilation? But perhaps she does not get it – if Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map and continues with such threats is it Israel maintaining an unstable region? Perhaps in her one eyed view, yes! 

Don Krausz to the Mail & Guardian

THE LETTERS EDITOR,

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: GAZA AND ISRAEL.

Last night I watched a BBC programme on Gaza and Israel, with Lysse Doucet of the BBC as the interviewer. The video showed the relative destruction of Gaza and civilian areas of Israel within missile range of Gaza. The former has borne the brunt of the damage and the casualties.

Lysse confined her interviews to two families with children, one Palestinian and the other Israeli. She showed empathy for the human suffering on both sides, while eliciting comments.

The Palestinian family had lost a young son and his closest brother was heartbroken.

His main playmate was gone. He had to undergo psychotherapy and wished that God would destroy the Israelis.

The Israeli family’s house had been hit by a missile but the family was intact. When they viewed the desolation in Gaza through binoculars they expressed horror at what they saw and sympathised with the Gazans.

When viewing the video, so could I. I had lived in Rotterdam, Holland, when the Luftwaffe destroyed the medieval centre in 1940 including our home and business and had caused a great many casualties. Rotterdam was the largest port in the world and the Germans made good use of it. That resulted in regular air raids from the RAF and later the USAAF. I learned a great deal about bombings from the age of nine.

But a few years ago I visited the Israeli village of Sderot, within sight of Gaza. I was there at noon. There was hardly a person in the streets, every housing block had an air raid shelter in front of it, the schools had double roofs to minimise impact while the only bomb proof building was the crèche.

I spoke to the infants and observed the trauma on their little faces, and the adults.

Apparently the missiles were launched mainly during times when the children were either going to school or leaving.

Nowhere in this programme was there any mention of the fact that the Israeli children, women and men in civilian settlements and rocket range of Gaza had been subjected to such bombardments, fear and anguish not during three wars consisting of from eight days to fifty days, but for nine consecutive years.

But the whole world and United Nations condemn Israel.

Rodney Mazinter to the Mail & Guardian

Dear Sir

Your report (Peter Beaumont the Guardian 10 july – War  scars minds of Gaza’s children) highlights most probably the worst byproduct of war: traumatisation and death of innocents, especially children. One’s heart goes out not only to the children who suffer directly, but to the parents and families.  As Beaumont’s article suggests, it is really time for this to stop. 

Finding peace, and if not formal peace, a cessation of fighting seems within the belligerents’ grasp. Israel has already declared its intention to seek a peaceful solution. Hold the country to its word. It’s time to turn the world’s attention to the other side and ask the Palestinians, ISIS and Iran, among others to come to the party. Here are a few simple actions that will help:

Stop the practice of kidnapping and the murder of Israeli children.

Stop firing another 4,400 rockets into Israel scarring the minds of children 

Stop digging dozens of terror tunnels into Israeli border communities traumatising children and their parents

Stop forcing Gaza civilians to being used as human shields causing deaths and scarring.

Stop using hospitals, schools and mosques from being turned into missile launching sites

 

If someone (perhaps Mr. Beaumont can help) can bring this about and make it the status quo there can well be a climate where peace can break out. The auguries are promising, Israel has already declared that if the Palestinians were to lay down their arms there WILL be peace. Why not give it a try?

Don Krausz to the Business Day RE: GLARING HISTORICAL BIAS by Robert Stone. 7-7-2015.

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: GLARING HISTORICAL BIAS by Robert Stone.  7-7-2015.

Mr. Stone, to those of us who have followed the history of the State of Israel from its very beginning you have not revealed anything except that your article is an exercise in understatement.

You describe the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 as “involving the loss of rights by some Arabic people in the area.” Are the 6,373 Jews that died in that unprovoked aggression not worthy of mention, 1% of Israel’s Jewish population, or their 30,000 wounded? Or the creation of about 700,000 Arab refugees to be retained as pawns on the political chessboard by those who pull the strings? Or the equal number of Jews living in Moslem lands who were attacked, expropriated, had their citizenship revoked and were expelled after some had lived in those areas for 2,500 years?

One very significant factor that went unmentioned is the importance of religion in this dispute. The Hamas Charter is not equal to the Islamic scriptures, but draws heavily upon them. And so we find that Article Fifteen of that Charter states that: “The Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine is an Individual Obligation…and becomes duty binding on all Muslims…in order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews.”

The Hamas of Gaza have been found to be responsible for the launching of more than 14,000 missiles at civilian residential areas in Israel proper and for the excavation of more than 32 underground tunnels into Israel for purposes of attack.

And don’t write that these missiles have not done a great deal of damage. Every single one was fired with the intention to maim and kill. I have visited Sderot, a civilian village in Israel proper that at the time of my being there had been impacted by 4,000 such explosives. It was noon on a working day and hardly a person to be seen in the streets. Every housing block had an air raid shelter in front of it, the schools had double roofing to minimise impact while the time taken from launch to impact was fifteen seconds. 15 seconds to collect your spouse, children and pets and dive into a shelter.

The only bomb proof building there at the time was the children’s crèche. I saw the signs of trauma on their little faces.

These facts have led to the last three retaliatory attacks by Israel against Gaza.

Rolene Marks to The Business Day re UN Report

To the Editor

Mia Swart’s op-ed “Israel’s lack of co-operation leaves gaps in UN war report” refers.

I write this response from my home in Modiin, in the centre of Israel. Over the past two weeks, we have had 5 incidents of rocket attacks from Gaza that have sent 300 000 civilians scrambling for safety. I am ten minutes away from Ashdod, which is in direct range of the rocket fire.

Why, you may ask, do I mention this?  Primarily because Swart offers a scathing indictment of Israel – not surprising because we have been proven to be one of her favourite targets.  She writes of the recently published UN Human Rights Commission report on Operation Protective Edge last year. She also brings up the incident of the shelling of four boys on the beach in Gaza. After investigation by the Israeli Military Advocate General, who has investigated over 120 claims, it has been found that the IDF did not kill these four youths. That was made public, but Swart chose to ignore the findings. Israel is a democracy and the IDF is bound by laws of transparency and investigation.

The UNHRC did not accept testimony from a number of international and high-ranking generals who commented that not only did Israel go to extraordinary lengths to prevent civilians casualties – and yes, most of the dead in Gaza were Hamas fighters – but also blatantly ignored the evidence presented by Hamas in their handbook.  This book was discovered after the battle of Shujaiya and included irrefutable evidence stating how important it was to Hamas to use civilians as human shields. If Swart had read testimony from these military experts, she would have been made aware that the conundrum created by the IDF concerns a level of civilian protection combat zone which is so high that it poses a problem for other armies in a similar situation. Had she bothered to investigate further, and even try and make contact with the Military Advocate General, her opinion would have been distinctly different, but that would allow for balance, and balance is not something Swart even pretends to practise.

It is summer in Israel and we are bracing ourselves for yet another conflagration. I am no longer surprised when my “Code Red” alert sounds on my phone, warning me of impending rockets. I am traumatised and saddened that once again both the civilians of Gaza and Israel are held hostage by terrorists. I am saddened that once again we will be sanctioned for opprobrium for defending ourselves and protecting Gazan civilians from conflict. I am saddened that journalism has sunk to a level so low that balance, and truth, have been thrown out the window.

Allan Wolman to the Business Day

Mia Swart’s column on the Gaza war report was not unexpected and those who have read her previous comments about what seems to be her pet subject will certainly take her words with more than a pinch of salt.

 

Swart admonishes Israel for its criticism of this UN report, all one needs to do is tally up the number of resolutions against Israel in the UN Human Rights Council compared with the worst violators of human rights in the likes of Syria, and most of the Arab world its no wonder that Israel views this report with the contempt it deserves.

 

Israel is accused of not conducting a credible investigation into the war of last summer, and here clearly Swart has her head buried in the sand – she obviously failed to read a very much more factual and expert account of the conduct of Israel’s armed forces by a panel of high ranking military officers from the U.S., U.K., Australia and the EU who all have a far better insight into matters of military conduct than the authors of this report, a report that Swart clearly has not read in detail given the slant of her piece.

 

The writer is replete with contradictions – in one breath she quotes the Goldstone reports recommendations where she has no problem yet a few lines later she mentions Goldstone “infamous” retraction. But her contradictions don’t stop with Goldstone.

 

Swart quotes an article by Amira Hass in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper at length that sharply criticizes Israel’s actions during the war – so what is she saying that even in Israel there is harsh criticism which indeed there is but she then goes on to tell us how Israel blocks “dissemination of information” – so which is it Ms. Swart – does Israel permit dissent and information or not – after all you read it in Haaretz?

 

To tell half the truth is as good as not telling the truth at all. The writer complains that “Gazans are trapped and imprisoned by a wall separating Israel from the Gaza Strip” but why doesn’t she tell her readers that there is also a wall separating Gaza from Egypt? She glibly quotes the number of civilian deaths resulting from the war. As the military group of international Generals clearly reported that militants in Gaza were not identifiable as they wore civilian clothes so how accurate are the stats provided by the Palestinian Department of Health situated in Ramallah many miles for the action? 

 

Again half-truths hardly tell the truth where Swart claims that the UN inspectors were prohibited from entering Gaza – there is a common border with Egypt, did Egypt also prohibit the UN team from entering Gaza? Oh yes Swart also remembers how she spent last Christmas in Gaza – wonder how she entered and was she able to buy and Christmas decorations or attend Mass there?