Allan Wolman to The Star

The headline in The Star’s international page (25 April) read “Israeli hurt, 6 Palestinians shot in West Bank” illustrates just how manipulative newspaper headlines can influence their readers. For the vast majority of this newspapers readers the Israeli Palestinian issue is of no interest whatsoever, but when reading a newspaper one glances at the headlines which are designed to tell the story without reading the entire piece.

This is not the first time this paper has been guilty of using “subliminal” headlines to invert facts designed to tell a different tale. On reading the article further we learn that an Israeli was “lightly” injured in a stabbing attack, the fifth such attack in 24 hours. The six Palestinians shot alluded to in the headline, had nothing to do with the attack that on the Israeli’s and were a totally different issue.

However, the story The Star tells in its headline is that six Palestinians were shot due to an Israeli getting “hurt”. Oh, yes that Israeli tripped over his shoelace and got hurt but those brutal Israelis shot six Palestinian in retaliation.

Victor Gordon: Ref: “Israel and Palestine – understanding a tale of two jubilees”

In war there are winners and losers making it perfectly understandable that the former, in victory, will experience euphoria while the latter will wallow in misery. Nowhere in modern history has this been more prevalent following the long list of defeats suffered by the Palestinians from 1948 until the present.

While these unfortunate victims of their stupid and corrupt leaders indeed have little to celebrate, they can reflect on the wasted years and opportunities that have followed their steady regression into poverty and ignorance while those at the helm live off the fat of the land. Sound familiar?

In stark contrast, the “evil” Israel, which treats over 180,000 Palestinian patients annually in her hospitals (including hundreds seeking urgent treatment from Syria), has utilized the past 50 years to develop one of the most powerful economies in the world; launch over 5000 Start-up enterprises; lead the world in the field of Hi-Tech and IT and discover cutting edge treatments and pharmaceuticals for a host of ailments and diseases. Nowadays, one sixth of the world’s generic drugs are manufactured in Israel.

The “euphoria” referred to by Iqbal Jassat and Gideon Levy of “Haaretz”, (the least-read newspaper in Israel @ 4%) celebrates Israel’s incredible victory in the 1967 Six Day War fought against the combined might of  Egypt, Syria and Jordan that she was never expected to survive. As with the 1948 War of Independence, she was heavily outnumbered and out-gunned. In anticipation of mass casualties, 25,000 graves were dug in public parks.  Even her sole arms supplier, France, deserted her immediately following her victory in the interests of cozying up to the Arabs.

The euphoria emerges directly from her surviving a war designed to emulate the Holocaust. Faced with similar circumstances what would Jassat and Levy do? Would they mourn their survival and laud those bent on their annihilation?  I think not. Amongst Palestinians, euphoria erupts following  the murder of Israeli children.

The “Nakba” (disaster) mourned by the Palestinians is of their own making. Israel offered to return the captured territory almost immediate following the Six Day War only to be spurned by the Arab League with the infamous “3-No’s” … No Peace, No recognition, No negotiation. Since then nothing has changed and three further offers of an independent Palestinian state on 98% of the West Bank were ignored. Gaza was returned to the Palestinians in 2005.

As for Gideon Levy, his regular anti-Israel columns in the Ultra-Left “Haartez”, are well known. In any  Arab/Muslim state, Levy would be occupying a prison cell for his continual calls for sedition. Only in Israel is he saved by the existence of a truly free press.

Don Krausz reponds: Let’s pray for the world, humanity. By Samaoen Osman – 31/3/2017.

The Letters Editor,

 Re: Let’s pray for the world, humanity. By Samaoen Osman – 31/3/2017.

 It is high time that someone wrote such a positive letter on the subject of the daily terrorism that we encounter in our press.

 Osman entreats us to “make all places beloved, to pray for the world. He/she points out that prayers for the unfortunates in Paris and London are essential, but that we have to pray that there will not be more such victims.

 One can only agree with Osman and give thanks for bringing the research listing the bloody atrocities that occurred only recently to our attention, as abhorrent as they may be.

 Osman refers to the suicide bombing attack in Beirut last Thursday, in which 43 people died and 239 were wounded. Now suicide bombers are usually religiously indoctrinated.

I was going to write “inspired” but that word is hardly suitable.

 These atrocities may well emanate from the pulpits. If so, then there are clergy who know about them, perhaps even in advance. Do they advocate such bloodshed of men, women and children? Where is the religious condemnation of such desperate acts?

 

If we subscribe to the belief that we are all part of God’s Creation then how can we advance the theory of the Infidel, whom God allegedly commands us to destroy?

 Osman lists five countries that have been victimised in these inhuman outrages against humanity. He entreats us to pray for all victims.

 I noted an absence of Israel in this list. A country that suffered the unprovoked killing of at least one percent of its Jewish population at the hands of Palestinians and Arabs in 1948. Equivalent to SA losing a minimum of 500,000 of its citizens on the battlefield.

 Its victimisation through terrorism since 1920 has amounted to at least 24,861 deaths and 35,356 wounded. The casualties of the major wars of 1956, 67 and 73 or 1982 are not included in the aforementioned figures.