Generally, we present a Smoking Socks award to the writers of letters filled with tortured logic, but a letter in the Eastern Cape Herald yesterday deserves more serious consideration. The letter includes the common prediction that Jews will respond with cries of anti-Semitism – but we cannot allow that convenient tactic to prevent us from calling a spade a spade.
Anti-Semitism, like the HIV-AIDS virus, has a remarkable ability to mutate to survive in any environment. There have been so many different strains over the years. There is the Christian ‘Jews killed Christ’ variety, the Muslim ‘Jews are dhimis’ brand, the leftist ‘Jews control global capital’ kind, the capitalist ‘Jews are communists who desire to overthrow the global financial system’ type, The fascist ‘Jews are an inferior species’ sort and the anti-Zionist ‘Jews have no right to a state’ category etc. Many of them may today seem totally ludicrous, but in their appropriate context they were extremely influential ideas (often held by the most ‘enlightened’ members of society).
Anti-Semitism is not indigenous to Africa. I (perhaps naively) believe that the vast majority of black South Africans do not have a negative attitude towards Jews. Many black South Africans are deeply religious Christians. Like their evangelical counter-parts in America, they are squarely behind the Jewish state. Reverend Kenneth Meshoe of the African Christian Democratic Party embodies this large constituency.
Many Jews (mostly Left-wing) did play a disproportionately large role in the struggle. Many black South African political leaders acknowledge this and are grateful. Jews have also been very involved with the Zulu based black opposition party the IFP. Many of the top Zulu leadership in South Africa are extremely pro-Jewish.
That said, symptoms of a new strain of African Anti-Semitism have been spotted amongst Black Left-wing intellectuals in South Africa. The letter published in the Eastern Cape Herald this week encapsulates many of its features.
It is first and foremost virulently anti-American. It has an irrational hatred/fear of American power both economically and militarily. Everything from her founding to her fight for freedom abroad is portrayed as evil. As the letter points out
America is a country built on the enslavement of Africans and the genocide of Indians…The innocent children being born without limbs in Iraq have been sentenced before they were even born by the American uranium dumps during Operation Desert Storm (like father, like son). The Vietnamese are still being born with deficiencies directly linked with Agent Orange used during American aggression against Vietnam.’ |
Once having painted America as the most wicked of colonial forces in history, Jews are then thrown into the pot. As the letter writer explains
Any study of the Transatlantic slaving process will reveal that not only were Jews involved in the process, they ran the operation. As financiers and insurers of European maritime commerce, a commerce largely focused on the slave trade for three centuries, Jewish mercantile houses amassed vast fortunes in both Europe and North America, fortunes that were often inter-related by family and marital ties. In Europe "converses" operating out of Madrid and Seville handled the business of Spanish slaving. Jews openly operating in Amsterdam served the financial needs of Protestant slavers. In America, a flourishing Jewish financial community centred mainly in Newport, Rhode Island, financed and insured slaving voyage? |
It’s not clear whether America is evil because of the role Jews have played in making it the only superpower or Jews are evil because they are tainted with American power. Nonetheless in this world view both Jews and America are intrinsically entwined in the pursuit of absolute power.
Jews were central in building America to the ruthless nation it is today. They know they are eternally indebted to the Jewish community.’ |
Why is this different from traditional Left-wing anti-Semitism? It has a slightly African twist. The goal of Jews through America or America through Jews is to enslave Africans. The writer asks
What does the Jewish community have to say about the Jews who were part of Hitler`s administration and who were neck-deep in the Holocaust? The European community must not take their family squabbles over material resources raped from the African continent and misrepresent them as something else. Even a closer look at the Second World War will tell you that it was nothing but Eurasians fighting over African resources.’ |
The letter writer then makes the preposterous accusation that Israel was
originally populated by Africans and millions of my ancestors had to die for that area to become the Middle East we know today |
He claims Jews have covered up this unknown genocide and told Africa to forget about their history.
He ends this diatribe masked as intellectualism with a strong African nationalist plea.
Africans, do not forget your history for it is the clock that will tell you your time of day as a people. It tells you where you come from so as to tell you where you are and where you must still go. |
It is easy for us to dismiss this as the ravings of a racist lunatic. I believe that would be a mistake. These ideas are extremely dangerous that were published in a mainstream South African newspaper. We need to fight this African strain of Anti-Semitism now while it is still weak. Later may be too late.
Write to the editor of The Herald and ask them why they have given so much space to a letter which unequivocally incites hatred. A scanned PDF of the full letter can be downloaded from this link. Notice how long this letter is. It's as long as a typical op-ed piece. Anyone who has ever written a letter to the papers knows how strict the editor generally is with the length of a letter. I have never seen a letter this long. What's going on at The Herald?
Letters to: [email protected]. The editor's name is Jethro Goko. Remember, if you want to be taken seriously you need to write a serious letter. Don't resort to the childish practice of name calling. Your complaint is serious so treat it with the respect it deserves.
I have just red about the death of Daniel Wultz - a 16 year old who died of wounds sustained in the Tel Aviv bombing during Pesach. Too often I wonder how terrorists get into Israel if our security is so tight. People always talk about the strictness of checkpoints and how the wall has prevented terrorist entering Israel - and there are statistics to prove it. And so this leads to the assumtion that people of the inside, with Israel citizenship are helping terrorists enter Israel. This has brought a new issue to the forefront - that of citizenship of Palestinians who marry Israeli. The Jerusalem Post reported today that:
"The High Court of Justice decided on Sunday by a narrow 6-5 vote to uphold the existing Citizenship and Entry Law, which prohibits Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from living within the Green Line. "
The narrowness of the vote shows how controversial this issue is. On the one hand, a security threat and on the other hand the right to family life. It is a interesting issue, so please commment!
Posted by: Nili Scham | May 14, 2006 at 20:24
I accept the court's ruling. The law does indeed violate human rights but I agree with the judges in the majority that the damage is not disproportional. It only takes one infiltration via this gateway to make the damage "not disproportional."
But another argument stems from the source of the law - was it born from racism?
I believe it was not.
The temporary law took effect due to a suicide bombing in 2002 where 15 Israelis were killed and more than 40 were wounded. The Hamas terrorist who carried out the attack had become a citizen by marrying an Israeli Arab.
quoting from a jpost article in 2004 when the high court extended the law by 6 months
Women over 25 and men over 35 carry a lower security risk and hence the law does not apply to them.
Btw, since 1994 "family reunification" under Israeli law has allowed over 100 000 Palestinians to immigrate into Israel. The terrorists caught onto it and now everyone suffers. Its part of the price of terrorism.
While suicide bombs continue - i support the law but i acknowledge that it does cause traumatic pain on perhaps thousands of Palestinians who would never dream of being involved in acts of terror.
Posted by: Steve | May 14, 2006 at 23:02
Thanks Steve, you really prep your stuff! That statisitcs of 26 Palestinians who married Israelis being suicide bombers is huge. As you said, just one person dying because of a Palestinian getting citizenship this way shows the damage is hugely disproportionate. Though it is evident that the law does violate human rights, its a catch 22 situation. The bottom line is that Israeli lives and security are the most important priorities of Israel.
Posted by: Nili Scham | May 14, 2006 at 23:34
Pleasure - you come up with great questions about morally taxing issues which need to be discussed :)
Correct - just as it should be for any country. And its nice to know that these things do get so extensively investigated by our independent courts ensuring that checks are placed on the govt.
Posted by: Steve | May 15, 2006 at 08:28
Wow, the comments here should be made a feature article. Too good to be relegated to the comments tab of an unrelated article about how the Jews took Israel from Africans, secretly ran the 16th century slave trade, organised World War 2 and voted for the Holocaust at the annual Illuminati Board Meeting.
This just goes to prove that you need an ultimate sock award. You can call it the "SOscars" and have nominees and say things like "May I have the envelope please... and the 2006 SOscar goes to..."
I would love to host the SOscars incidently if you ever get a TV show :)
Posted by: Derikboy | May 16, 2006 at 10:11
:)
Posted by: Steve | May 16, 2006 at 20:10