Allan Wolman to the Saturday star

The Saturday Star (26 Aug) headlined the anti-Semitic tweets from Andile Mngxitama, a stupid ignoramus who shouldn’t warrant any response as it is blatantly obvious that he is being fed a narrative from hatemongers of which there is no shortage given the constant maligning of Israel or the “Zionist entity” (meaning Jew) that the Independent News Group publish in one or another of their publications almost daily.

What is most interesting about the Saturday Star report is that at the foot of the lead story there is a report from the chairman of the Independent Media who was “horrified” by the Mngxitama tweets. Only a few weeks back Dr Surve chairman on the Independent Media said the following: “Using their surrogate, their untruths were spread and shared until they appeared to be the truth”. “Their fake news attacks became increasingly vicious and spurious….” This in reference to a dispute he has with another media company

 This however is exactly what the Independent Media group are doing by their almost daily coverage on Israel –  “untruths spread and shared until they appear to be the truth” and “fake news that become increasingly vicious and spurious” The constant one side view, the constant untruths and constant maligning Israel as the villain and the Palestinians as the only victims is far from Surve’s claim in that same article saying: “But we are a media company that presents news accurately, without bias and gives everyone a fair voice” – That same ‘fair voice’ seems only to apply to the groups selected hostile journalists and a more hostile lobby group called Media Review Network.

 

Don’t be “horrified” Dr Surve when your own newspapers are guilty of doing no less than what Mngxitama tweets ,your journos and editors simply disguise this words but their meanings are crystal clear

Allan Wolman to The Star

Kwara Kekana in her reply to the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) published in The Star (24 Aug.) expresses glee that she believes the recent visit by some Israeli MP’s was a dismal failure. That’s one opinion and no doubt there are many more, but there are also many who would beg to differ given the reasons that Kekana’s response to the SAJBD letter she refers to.

Kekana writes “ We may not agree on much with the SAJBD but do agree South Africa bears a great responsibility to teach Israel to respect International law and human rights”. Now this is rich indeed given that she wants South Africa to teach Israel to respect international law but seems to have no problem with South Africa violating international law just this very week when Grace Mugabe was granted diplomatic immunity. Of course, South Africa’s respect for international law must also extend to hosting Omar al-Bashir and then in defiance of international law and a high court order lets him slip out the county.  

The writer who seems to be an official of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) then writes about human rights and again this is rich coming from someone whose organization is guilty of violence as well as their infamous call “Dubula iJuda – shoot the Jew”. Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?

Victor Gordon to The Star re Andile tweet

Re: “Anti-Jewish BLF leader rages on”

My initial anger on reading the anti-Semitic tweets from one of our intellectual giants, Andile Mngxitama quickly morphed into sadness at the realisation that our future as a nation could well be in the hands of cretins such as he. After all, Mngxitama appears to hobnob with other current and potential leaders on whom we depend to take us forward as a nation.

It’s pointless lecturing Mngxitama on the significance of the Holocaust. It, together with other Genocides as that in Rwanda, are pivotal events in modern history, incomparable to anything else, including colonialism which, arguably, at least left something behind for the use and advancement of the countries involved. In contrast, the Holocaust robbed humanity of an incalculable number of intellectuals, artists, musicians, scientists etc whose potential contribution to mankind can never be determined. Leaving nothing behind was Hitlers’ ultimate aim.

The Holocaust was mass murder by every possible means available to man, including beatings, shooting, hanging, starvation and gas, whereas the Rwandan Genocide required the individual slaughter of 800,000 men, women and children by machete, knife or club. Both are too enormous for the human brain to even begin to comprehend and can only be the subject of humour or ridicule to someone with seriously warped powers of reasoning.

Certainly, an individual as limited as Andile Mngxitama, could not be expected to understand nor come to grips with these concepts. For that he should be pitied. Our only concern is having him seeming to speak for the organization he represents and whether he’ll ever earn the condemnation of those in higher authority.

Having just read George Bizos’ fascinating auto-biography, I was conscious of the number of Jews that peppered the pages, fighting the Struggle side by side with those who sought a free and decent society for everyone. The contribution of these Jews far outweighed their numbers in proportion to the overall population – as it still does.

One can only wonder whether Andile has the slightest knowledge of this history while asking oneself why he has chosen to target one of the smallest ethnic groups in the country – or whether the reason goes no further than their Jewishness?

All thinking members of our nation should condemn Andile Mngxitama for what he is – a disgraceful, ignorant, bigot. As it is, we are currently overwhelmed by actions and reasoning  far removed from the positive ideology gifted to us by the unique band of pioneers who steered this nation to freedom and democracy. Further polarisation is the very last thing we need.

Rodney Mazinter to The Mercury

Dear Sir

One of the primary obstacles to peacemaking efforts in the Middle East has been the issue of division and control of Jerusalem. Continued Palestinian denial of Judaism’s historical and religious ties to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the Waqf’s illegal construction there, and the engagement of international bodies to pass resolutions negating Jewish claims to the area, present seemingly insurmountable barriers.

The battle cry, “Defend Muslim Holy Sites” by any means — a misleading, false anti-Jewish call that has been used repeatedly since 1929 as a call to violent jihad and which has resulted in brutal murders and violent insurrection across the country — stirs up Muslim fury and incites anti-Israeli violence, including claims of a Palestinian Holocaust, with dishonest, deliberate and willful falsehoods.

The attempt to influence world opinion against Jewish rights to its holiest sites intensifies as Palestinians and Arab states have turned to international bodies like UNESCO to pass resolutions that distort history, verbally erase the Temple Mount, and block Israel from monitoring or carrying out excavations for fear that such actions will expose the truth about Jewish history and expose the hypocrisy that drives the Palestinian invective.

Claims of a Palestinian Holocaust perpetrated by Israel without presenting a shred of evidence to back them up are particularly offensive and shameful. They add fuel to the fire of hatred, whereas the truth is that the closest thing to a Holocaust in the area is what is happening in Syria, which has nothing to do with Israel. Israeli technology, medicine and humanitarian concern have saved thousands of Palestinian lives. Far from a Holocaust, the Palestinian population and life spans in Israel and the West Bank have increased at a greater rate than anywhere else in the Middle East.

In short, the promotion of this vilification has stripped away the curtain of this being anti-Israel and has revealed itself for what it has always has been: blatant anti-Semitism.

Allan Wolman to The Pretoria News

Reading Naazneen Motala’s letter to this newspaper it seems that she has been living in Israel given her in depth knowledge of how Ethiopian Jews are treated in that country. Not only the Ethiopians but her knowledge of the largest immigration detention facility in the world, being in Israel, really? Naaz have you visited Spain, France or Slovakia lately all of which together with a host of other countries have such and larger facilities to deal with their influx of refugees. Perhaps Motala would be surprised to hear that such facilities exist right here in her own back yard.

 

Naazneem writes about these refugees fleeing for their safety – why then flee to a country with the largest detention facility – surely those fleeing persecution would have prior knowledge of how bad things are in Israel. Then she tells her readers about the Palestinian body count – yes indeed there is only one victim in this conflict only the poor Palestinian – No Israeli body count!

 

Naaz goes on to write that Palestinians have been drowned out by the sounds of F16s… I bet that the  F16s sound a whole lot better than the sounds of Russian Mig’s bombing the schools and hospitals of Aleppo and Homs where to date over 300000 people have been killed by their demented president – of course such facts are unknown to Motala as the only victims in that part of the troubled world are the Palestinians – who cares about those Syrians or Yemenis that body count is merely a statistic

Victor Gordon to The Mercury : “The Holocaust is no longer Jewish, it is Palestinian”

THE MERCURY

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Refers:  “The Holocaust is no longer Jewish, it is Palestinian”

 “The Holocaust is no longer Jewish, it is Palestinian” –  this headline to a letter by Ismail Moolla has given me enormous satisfaction.

In one fell swoop Moolla confirmed everything many recognise and accept about the Palestinian view of history – feel free to make it up as you go along. Just repeat it often enough and it will inevitably become the new, irrevocable truth. The only obstacle is the intelligence of those to whom one preaches and whether they are open to being treated as fools.

But what delighted me was the following:  By making one outrageous claim after the other – all designed to prove the non-existence of a Jewish nation, (particularly in the region commonly defined as Palestine which includes modern-day Israel), those Palestinians and their supporters who proffer these claims have literally reached rock bottom.

In a matter of a few short years Yasir Arafat, followed by Machmud Abbas, have made every effort to strip Jews of the very corner-stone of their heritage via their 3000 year connection with the Temple Mount and the existence (and subsequence destruction) of both the Temples of Solomon and Herod.

Despite over 650 Biblical references to the 3 millennia Jewish connection to Jerusalem, which, in many cases, has been substantiated by expert archaeology; despite that period of history faithfully witnessed and recorded by Josephus (being the earliest known independent account of the destruction of the 2^nd Temple);  despite  Machmud Abbas , the current PA President outrageously claiming that Jesus himself was not  a Jew – but a Palestinian;  besides the Muslim dominated UNESCO unashamedly adopting Resolution 2334, effectively stripping Israel and Jews of any further historical connection to East Jerusalem, the absurdities not only never end, but become more and more outrageous and fanciful  as the Palestinians reveal to what ridiculous depths they are prepared to sink to discredit Israel.

What they appeared to overlook with the UNESCO resolution was that it effectively stripped Jesus himself of any further validity, rendering Christianity as a faith without a cornerstone. If Jews were without relevance in the region of Judea and Samaria, Jesus Christ (a Jew) could be no more than a myth. This earth-shattering denial of Christianity did not appear to faze Islam in the slightest.

All this explains my delight at the headline of the article in question for once the Holocaust becomes the property of the Palestinians, there are no further depths to plumb. This is indeed the point of no return and an unambiguous indication of the utmost desperation.

With this claim of Palestinian “ownership” of The Holocaust,  the Palestinians have finally scraped the very bottom of the barrel. The supposed irrelevance of the true historical positioning of the Holocaust has reached a new level of frustration that must be recognised for what it is.

The so-called “Palestinian  Holocaust” has entered the endless pantheon of lies and propaganda that is the hallmark of their unending campaign against the Jewish State and Jews in general.

Allan Wolman to The Star

Dr. Iabal Surve’ in The Star (31 July) accuses Naspers Media24 and Biznews of all kinds of wrongdoings. Not having followed this dispute between I cannot comment on the subject however I find some of Dr Surve’ statements contradictory and bizarre in the extreme.

Some time back Dr Surve’ made claims of absolute impartiality by his news group in an article published in the South Africa Jewish Report refuting any bias when reporting on Israel. Given the coverage that Independent Media has given the recent unrest in Jerusalem one could seriously challenge this claim of impartiality.

The Independent group has been carrying out a constant vendetta against Israel almost on a daily basis in one or more of their publications for years now. Yet Dr. Surve accuses Naspers of:

“Using their surrogate, their untruths were spread and shared until they appeared to be the truth”.

“Their fake news attacks became increasingly vicious and spurious….” 

This is exactly what the Independent Media group are doing by their coverage on Israel –  “untruths spread and shared until they appear to be the truth” and “fake news that become increasingly vicious and spurious” 

The constant one side view, the constant untruths and constant maligning Israel as the villain and the Palestinians as the only victims is far from Surve’s claim of “But we are a media company that presents news accurately, without bias and gives everyone a fair voice” – Oh yes a fair voice by allowing rebuttals of some of the untruths to be published in the letter pages very occasionally.

Surve’ ends by writing: “readers have been led down the garden path by media houses intent on destroying ……” there is no doubt that Independent Group is intent on destroying Israel given the only journalists who write on this topic in Independent newspapers are pro-Palestinian and vehemently anti-Israel. Carte blanche is given in the columns of these newspapers to members of The Media Review Network – a well-known anti-Israel organization. Dr. Surve’ in your words “give everyone a fair voice.”!

Allan Wolman to The Mercury

“The Holocaust is no longer Jewish…” reads the headline of Ismail Moolla (The Mercury 2 Aug) and should be treated with the contempt it deserves as it is an obscenity to compare anything to the enormity of what the Holocaust was. In more than one hundred years of the Israeli Arab conflict the number of casualties of both sides amount to a mere one week’s work at Auschwitz.

Moola like so many of his ilk make wild claims of indiscriminate killings of Palestinian civilians a claim so easy to make but never substantiated – let’s hear some specifics Mr.Moolla. As the chairman of the independent News Group said only this week “Using their surrogate, their untruths were spread and shared until they appeared to be the truth” – referring to a dispute with another news group, but the same must be said about the kind of “untruths” spread by wild claims of indiscriminate killings and disregard for the sanctity of life which printed often enough “appear to be the truth.” 

To justify suicide bombings is obviously acceptable in Arab (and Moolla’s) culture – other cultures find this absolutely abhorrent. But then don’t we read daily of how many people are killed throughout the Arab world by suicide bombers often in their own Mosques – totally acceptable by Moolla yet in his very first sentence of his letter he writes about “disregard for the sanctity of life”.

So what is it Mr. Moolla? Do you value the sanctity of life or condone suicide bombings? – well suicide bombings of innocent Jewish women and children seems ok in your book

Monessa Shapiro to The Saturday Star

How does one refute the eye-witness account of an eleven year old little girl?  A beautiful, endearing child.   You don’t.  You can’t.  For children have an innocence about them and are known for their integrity and honesty.   And this was my very real problem when reading Sameer Naik’s full page op-ed/ interview with Janna Syyad Jihad who has come to South Africa together with two others to promote a documentary.

However, good journalism requires integrity. It is apparent that, despite all the quoting and lauding, Sameer Naik’s interview is completely absent of any integrity at all. A five minute internet search will reveal that Janna  has grown up in a home and an environment so filled with hate that her words have to be questioned.   From birth she has had ingrained in her the need to murder Jews and the sanctity of this action.   For years, she and other children from Nabi Saleh have been compelled, as part of their indoctrination, to take part in weekly protests, throwing stones, taunting and provoking soldiers.

Janna is part of the Tamimi clan.   In an interview for German TV Janna told the interviewer, Sharon Glass, that “here we get resistance implanted in us right from birth.”  Her uncle Bassam is the instigator of the weekly, supposed, peaceful protests against the Israelis.   He is quoted on the Electronic Intifada as having said that he hopes that these protests ignite the third Intifada. Bassam does not perceive the West Bank as occupied territory but rather the entire land of Israel.  “Israel is a big settlement” he is quoted as saying on a US speaking tour. He has stated that Halamish, the Israeli settlement referred to in Naik’s interview, is in actual fact a ruse.  “So if the American consul came to us and said, “I am superwoman; I can immediately remove Halamish, I would say, “fine but we want to end the whole occupation.” (How a Family became a Propaganda Machine , The Tower Nov 2015.)   Her aunt, Ahlam Tamimi, was the mastermind behind the notorious Sbarro pizzeria bombing in 2001 in Jerusalem that killed 15 civilians (including 7 children and a pregnant woman) and wounded 130 others.  Nariman, Bassam Tamimi’s wife has stated that the Sbarro massacre was a necessary part of the struggle.  Bassam has proudly said that Janna is a “product of the Nabi Saleh school to create a generation of freedom fighters to liberate Palestine.” (Janna Jihad – the innocent face of the Tamimi clan’s support for terror and Jew-hatred. Times of Israel October 2016).

Naik does not question the parents that put their children in the forefront of  the protests. He seems completely comfortable with adults subjecting children to such obvious danger.  Child abuse takes many forms.  To wittingly put one’s child in the firing line must be one of the highest forms.  But as nefarious, is to inculcate into those same children, such hatred and loathing that they see their own death as righteous and glorified.

Monessa Shapiro to The Star

“The problem with the metal detectors is that they are Jewish” writes Fred Maroun, a Palestinian living in Canada, in the Times of Israel on 23 July.  And that, Mr Essa, says it all.

 Language is a wonderful tool.  Choose your words correctly and you tell a completely different story.   The policemen were not ‘shot and killed by 3 Palestinians’, as this would have it seem that there was some skirmish with a certain amount of shooting from both sides.   Watch the video of the event – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYwew-xMMbw&feature=youtu.be – The Palestinian terrorists entered the Temple Mount compound, carrying a bag of weapons, changed and hid the weapons on their clothing, and then walked out with the intention of murdering as many Israelis (preferably Jews) as possible.  They murdered the 2 policemen, and wounded a third sitting just outside the gate in cold blood.   Post the attack, a stock –pile of weapons was found hidden in Al Aqsa.   So much for the sanctity of the place.   But the problem with the detectors is not only that they are Jewish, but that they prevent the murder of more Israelis.  Harsh to live with, because Palestinians grow up on a diet of hatred and are fed from birth on the need to murder Jews.

 Omit context and you obfuscate the truth.  When Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, (after they begged Jordan not to enter the war), all Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were offered full Israeli citizenship. Some accepted and those who refused were given full Jerusalem residency.   And that is why today they are “not citizens”.

 Essad says that Israel sees the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem as “an intractable problem”.   Possibly because Israel never learnt from Jordan, nor is she willing to learn from Abbas.   In 1948, when Jordan captured East Jerusalem, it exiled every Jew living there (and Jews were a majority in Jerusalem).  In fact for 19 years Jews were forbidden to enter East Jerusalem and to pray at the Western Wall.    Abbas has stated quite categorically that in a future Palestinian state no Jew will be allowed.  Why?  Why should Jews not be able to live in Palestine as Arabs live in Israel?

 Because that is but a dream, Mr Essad.  A dream that cannot become a reality until you and the Arabs accept that Israel is no more ‘self-styled as a Jewish state’ than Saudi Arabia is as a Moslem State;  likewise for all the other 50 Moslem states in the world.   A dream that cannot become reality until you concede that Jews are entitled to their one tiny state, 1/6^th of 1 percent the land mass of the Arab world.  And until you stop teaching your children that to kill Jews is the ultimate glory.

 Monessa Shapiro