Allan Wolman to The Sunday Tribune

The proposed take -over of Clover Dairies by an Israeli bottling company has really gotten up the noses of some people. Threats of boycotts by these few motley objectors would probably fall on deaf ears given the potential of employment benefit that would flow from such a takeover. While South Africa depended on boycotts to force a change due to the evil of apartheid how can one even begin to draw a parallel with Israel?

Yunus Soomar writes in this newspaper that BDS is a just and moral campaign and the only “peaceful” way of forcing the aggressor to stop racist and apartheid practices. Firstly, BDS is far from a “peaceful” and moral organization, and if Soomar were a little perceptive he would well know of the calls by BDS of “Dubula iJuda – meaning shoot the Jews” and physically attacking Jews at a concert in Johannesburg. But twisting facts and truth so conveniently escape those filled with hatred of the Jews.

Has Soomar just for a brief moment asked why the current status quo exists? Has he any idea of the numerous offers made to the Palestinian leadership for a just and viable state. What astounds is his accusation of Israel being a promoter of terrorism – indeed like suicide bombing of woman and children in restaurants, of suicide bombing in loaded buses filled with civilians, of cutting the throats of infants in terror attacks of civilian families, and who invented aircraft hijacking and modern- day terrorism?

Throughout history one people has been the target of destruction. From the Egyptians, the Persians, the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Spanish Inquisition and more recently the German Reich have all tried to destroy the Jews yet none have succeeded, how then does Mr. Soomar think that a bunch of pseudo liberals from BDS, who profess equality and tolerance will manage to destroy what these great empires failed at so dismally, if it weren’t so pathetic it would be laughable.  

Allan Wolman to The Sunday Tribune

Taking DIRCO to task together with a warning to our President, Saber Ahmed Jazbha heaps criticism on the proposed commercial deal with an Israeli company and Clover Dairies, for putting profits before human rights. One must wonder if creating jobs for the unemployed isn’t a human right?

The writer tells us about those who gave their lives in the fight against apartheid. The difference in his comparison between the fight against apartheid in South Africa and the Jewish State is that apartheid was an evil that could not be defended and was eventually defeated as good will always triumph over evil.

However the formation and continued survival of the vibrant State of Israel – the only Jewish State in the midst of how many Islamic States is a just and noble endeavor, and endeavor despite 75 years of trying to destroy her including the military might of the Arab world together with a host of other initiatives, Israel survives, flourishes and continues to contribute, out of all proportion, to the  betterment of man by its innovation in science, medicine, agriculture and technology. But goes further by sharing its innovations with its enemies.

While Jazbha has the temerity to accuse Israel if human rights abuse, he seems oblivious of the real human tragedies in the Arab world where over half a million lives have been lost in Syria, Yemen and other Arab countries, He fails to talk about the real human rights abuse of his Rohingya brothers being slaughtered and persecuted in Myanmar. Why? – Could it be his hatred of the Jew? 

Allan Wolman to The Mail & Guardian

 According to the organization Save The Children over 100,000 infants die annually as a result of various conflicts around the globe. Where are these major “conflicts”? – no prizes for guessing – Syria and Yemen who lead the field by ‘miles’, where according to the U.N. over 85,000 children killed Yemen this past year and which has been labeled as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. This report from Save The Children appeared on the same day that this newspaper published a letter written by Yunus Soomar who ignores the real tragedies of the world but can only focus on Israel.

 Soomar’s letter comments on the commercial deal of an Israeli company’s proposed takeover of Clover dairies – a deal that would have ensure the continued employment of scores of workers, at a time when unemployment is one of the major issues facing out economy. Soomar tells us that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement works towards a just and peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

 He tells us that BDS wages a non-violent campaign! – indeed when calls to “Dubula iJuda = shoot the Jews” and physically attacking Jews at a concert in Johannesburg is “non-violent”. Where recent reports have substantiated links between BDS and terrorist organizations have surfaced, is Soomar delusional?

 Surely even he knows that Israeli dairy production is amongst the highest in the world as well as leads the world in dairy technology and how that could benefit out local industry that our malnourished rural infants need so desperately as well as lead to substantial employment.

Surely even he knows of the number of botched circumcisions that have led to the suffering and death of hundreds of initiates that could be saved by the use of a painless Israeli device call Pre-Plex, but no rather let them suffer and die than use anything associated with Israel.

 

For Mr. Soomar’s information the Clover deal is a minuscule deal for an Israel company and the real looser if the deal falls through is not Israel but South Africa at a time when rating agencies are all posting negative reports turning investors from our country, at time when that investment is so desperately needed. Its time for the likes of Soomar and his BDS friends to focus on the real issues facing our country and put the needs of South Africans above their pathetic focus of the destruction of Israel which they will one day come to realize is simply a pipe dream.

Victor Gordon to The Star

Ref: “Iran at 40, a salute to steadfastness”

One day after The Star published a letter by Iqbal Jassat of the pro-Palestinian propaganda machine, The Media Review Network,  the Gatestone Institute, a British-based International Policy Council published an op-ed by Denis MacEoin PhD,  a former academic in Arabic, Persian, and Islamic Studies and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at New York’s Gatestone Institute.

The topic of both offerings was Iran which Jassat salutes for its steadfastness under the 40-year reign of the Mullahs.

While Jassat lost no time in homing in on Israel and America as the main reasons why Iran is unfairly targeted as a danger to world peace, MacEoin listed endless examples of why indeed, the latter qualifies as such. Any country that openly threatens the total destruction of another (as Iran does vis-à-vis Israel) is a pariah that should be recognised as such and banished from every civilized international forum.

While Jassat sings the praises of Iran and the Mullahs who rule it, he ignores the litany of negatives that reflect the barbaric values of the Khomeini regime.  While Israel has no death penalty; includes its Arab population in every aspect of its internationally recognised democracy (Google “Freedom House”); protects the rights of the LGBTQ community and safeguards the freedom of all religions, the press and association, Iran publically hangs gays from cranes; barbarically stones women to death; whips women who fall foul of the “dress police” and hangs women accused of murder with neither legal representation or investigation of their psychological state (See the case of Zaynab Sekanvand).

Iran executes per capita more prisoners than China, the world leader in that respect and funds recognised terrorist organizations, notably Hamas and Hezbollah.  Further, Iran has an abysmal human rights record regarding religious minorities with the open persecution of the Bahai, Christians and others. Ironically, it is in Israel that the Bahai enjoy complete freedom of worship and house their world headquarters

Arabs serve on the Israeli Supreme Court, vote freely in elections and are represented in parliament by 5 parties and 12 MP’s.  Israel is the only nation in the Middle East where civil rights exist for racial minorities, homosexuals and women.

For Iqbal Jassat to speak of Israel’s and Iran’s moral standing in the same breath is an insult to the former which has just been rated as the 5^th most innovative country in the world. The second best placed regional country was the UAE at 46.

While Israel is on the verge of presenting the world with a major breakthrough in the fight against cancer, Iran offers and supports terrorism, death and destruction. Is this the sort of country with which Iqbal Jassat wishes to be associated?

Allan Wolman to The Star

Writing in this newspaper (6 Feb) Iqbal Jassat of the Media Review Network a well-known hate filled organization who have little tolerance for anything Western and even less for anything to do with Israel lauds the progress of Iran these past 40 years and “salutes” its steadfastness.

He writers how the Sha’s dictatorship was replaced by a theocratical Islamic movement led by Ayatollah Khomeini under whose rule that population was subject to a strict religious based society forcing certain dress and other religious codes and policed by the brutal Guidance Patrol so called religious police. Judging by all reports one reads – this theocratical regime was simply another form of dictatorship or even worse

However, how can Jassat sing the praises of this demented regime and at the same time launch his usual attacks on the West and more importantly Israel in the face of what is going down in that corner of the globe. According the U.N. the greatest humanitarian disaster facing the world today is in Yemen where 10 million of Jassat’s brothers are facing unemployment, starvation, and worse together with the slaughter of over 85,000 children brutally killed in that conflict. Simple answer – Hatred of Israel (read Jews) blurs the reality of the Arab and African world.

How dare this bigoted writer salute a regime that secretly and openly develops weapons of mass destruction including nuclear and chemical weapons? How dare he salute the only country in the world that openly threatens another country with annihilation? How dare he salute the very country responsible for the carnage of over half a million-innocent people in Syria? Simple answer – Hatred of Israel (read Jews) blurs the reality of the Arab world.

Jassat has the temerity to talk about Israel’s “well-oiled propaganda outfit” rich indeed coming from the propagandist outfit that call themselves The Media Review Network

Don Krausz to The Star

Saif Soofie’s letter of 29-1-2019 in the Star refers. He describes that Security barrier in Israel as an Apartheid wall and lists all the harm that it does to Palestinians.

Typically, not a word about its origin.

That barrier of several km was erected to stop Yasser Arafat’s suicide bombers from infiltrating Israeli residential areas where they had murdered

1,200 men, women and children. That barrier reduced those atrocities by 90%, thus saving the lives of at least 1,000 Israelis and preventing the mutilation of a multitude of others. Apartheid? Just a convenient lie, like so much of the other accusations made by Israel’s enemies for whom truth is just a hindrance to be ignored as and when it suits them.

That barrier was bound to be inconvenient and Israel had little choice but to erect it. It’s effects have proved its need and value.

It’s alternative was the attention at funerals, lots of them, and in hospitals. The avoidance thereof is probably the reason people like Soofie are so vehemently opposed to the barrier. They regard the massacre of Israelis, men, women and children, with equanimity as their history of the past century has shown.