It's Almost Supernatural

Kasrils Turns the Kalashnikov Towards SA Jewry

It is important that we tell Ronnie Kasrils that he is behaving like an anti-Semite when he says certain things, although we are not calling him an anti-Semite.

In remarks reminiscent of pre-Holocaust Nazi propaganda, the South African Minister of Intelligence has "questioned the patriotism and loyalty" of South African Zionist Jews.

According to Voice of the Cape, this statement was made during a meeting between Kasrils and senior Hamas Politburo member Mohammed Nazzal, and leaders of radical Islamist organisations in Cape Town.

Kasrils questioned the patriotism and loyalty of certain groups within South Africa who rubbish the leadership of the South African government on its position of recognising the legitimately elected representatives of the Palestinian people.

This is a veiled reference to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (the official representative body of South African Jewry) and various other Zionist organisations in South Africa who recently condemned the government for extending an invitation to Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh of Hamas to visit South Africa.

This represents an escalation of previous statements made by Kasrils aimed at intimidating South African Jewry into adopting the political positions of their government. In the ANC journal Umrabulo, Kasrils recently appealed to SA Jews to accept that Israel is in the wrong, and warned them that it is in their best interests to agree with the government and publicly denounce Israel.

This is not the first time the classic anti-Semitic slur that Jews are a foreign body in South Africa, which use their influence to advance their own sinister agenda, has been publicly alluded to. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad in his speech before the closing session of the United Nations African Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 10 May 2007 declared that ‘… governments and civil society have become victims of a very calculated and orchestrated campaign even in the South African media, to demonize the Palestinian leadership.’

It would seem that our government is now adopting the anti-Jewish positions of the Media Review Network (the chief Islamist advocacy group in South Africa). Their secretary, Iqbal Jassat, in a recent letter to the Business Day ewspaper, in far less diplomatic terms, accused the South African Jewish Board of Deputies of “arrogating to itself the role of dictator, by insisting that those who are engaged in a freedom struggle against a colonial enterprise such as Israel are ‘terrorists’” and described this as “a tragic and sad reflection of a group of gatekeepers bent on preventing SA from its right to exercise sovereignty over policy decisions.”

South Africa, contrary to the seeming yearnings of people like Minister Kasrils, is not yet Dreyfus’ France, Stalin’s Russia, or Ahmadinejad’s Iran. This is supposedly a democracy and as such Jews like all other citizens of this country have the right to publicly criticise their government’s policies. In fact as Thomas Jefferson observed, in a free society ‘dissent is the highest form of patriotism.’

Wendy Kahn, executive director of the SAJBD, echoed these sentiments in her response to these dangerous accusations levelled at the patriotism and motives of South African Jewry by explaining that “what we are doing is exercising our right as free citizens to lobby against actions by our elected representatives that we believe to be morally wrong and strategically counterproductive. This is known as Democracy.”

This attempt to bully South African Jewry into marching in lock step with ANC's Middle East policy is not an isolated incident. It is part of the South African government’s growing totalitarian impulses. If this trend continues, Jews, and for that matter all freedom loving South Africans, will have to question whether they still have a role in building this country’s future.

Recommended Reading

Make sure you read Joel Pollak’s excellent review of Ali Abunimah’s book, 'One Country'. Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of Electronic Intifada. He emailed Pollak, challenging him to read the book before dismissing it.

Confusion Over Hamas Visit

Question: Have we or have we not formally invited Hamas to visit South Africa?

Ronnie Kasrils’s recent letter to the Business Day sows more confusion over whether the invite is or is not formal. Last week it was reported that Kasrils had invited Hamas to visit SA. Kasrils subsequently said that the invite was not formal. Two days later he was then quoted in the Jerusalem Post claiming that the invite had been renewed - - this time with the backing of his government.

But Kasrils seems to have backtracked again (although he says he hasn’t).

I have not backtracked on an invitation to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and whether that is implemented remains to be seen. The invitation is based on President Thabo Mbeki’s welcoming statement after the Mecca agreement between Fatah and Hamas and the establishment of a national unity government, which we wholeheartedly support.

Huh? Based on the President's welcoming statement after Mecca? I thought the government formally endorsed the visit only a few days ago?

Update at 16/05/2007
Hamas meets with Kasrils, Rasool and ANC reports the SABC...

The Palestinian organisation Hamas has held talks with Ronnie Kasrils, the intelligence minister, Ebrahim Rasool, the Western Cape premier, and the ANC, a delegation said at the end of a visit to South Africa today. The intelligence ministry could not be reached for comment on the meeting. Earlier this month, Kasrils invited Ismail Haniyeh (of Hamas), the Palestinian prime minister, to visit South Africa, in what would be his first trip outside the Muslim world. "The invitation to (Prime Minister) Haniyeh was confirmed and is now a matter of the correct protocol and practical co-ordination to ensure its speedy implementation," said Mohammed Nazzal, the Hamas senior politburo member. He also said Hamas had no quarrel with the Jewish people - only with Zionists. "(Hamas) makes a distinction between Zionism and Judaism. Hamas has no quarrel with the Jewish people, but rather with the Zionists."

Sure they have no quarrel with the Jewish people. That's why their covenant contains specific and violent references to Jews. (Not that this distinction should even matter.)

Article 16: The Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: "The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews." (Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim). ... Article 20: The Nazism of the Jews targeted both women and children. The terror they spread is directed at everyone. They fight people by destroying their livelihood, stealing their money and trampling their dignity. Their horrible treatment of people is like that of the worst war criminals. Deportation from one's homeland is a form of murder. In the face of such behavior, we must have social solidarity among the people, and we must face the enemy as one body, which, when one of its limbs is in pain, the rest of it reacts with sleeplessness and fever.

Update at 17/05
Read about the significance of Ebrahim Rasool's involvement at Guide to the Perplexed.

Stuck in Ronnie's Rectum

Yesterday the Business Day ran twin letters from Ronnie Kasrils and the Media Review Network’s Iqbal Jassat. The Media Review Network is a Muslim lobby group from Tshwane (Pretoria). Their logo indicates their preference for the sword over the pen. They have on numerous occasions met with terrorists leaders – yesterday they hosted a Hamas leader and last year they met with members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It’s therefore not surprising that they have come out batting for Ronnie.

Last year when the SA Jewish Report refused to publish an article by Kasrils which compared Israel to the Nazis, Kasrils ran to his allies in the MRN who subsequently published his article. We questioned what business a Muslim lobby group had with a dispute between Kasrils and the SA Jewish community.

It is fitting that these two letters appear side by side in the Business Day because it clearly reveals who Kasrils has aligned himself with in his fight against the local Jewish community.

Iqbal Jassat of the MRN writes

That the board would arrogate to itself the role of dictator, by insisting that those who are engaged in a freedom struggle against a colonial enterprise such as Israel are “terrorists” and should therefore be shunned, is a tragic and sad reflection of a group of gatekeepers bent on preventing SA from its right to exercise sovereignty over policy decisions. While the board continues to glorify Israel and demonise Kasrils and the government, it does so by risking the alienation of its obviously fractured constituency. Since the formation of Not in my Name, which has attracted a sizeable chunk of Jewish opinion makers, the board can no longer monopolise Jewish views, especially vis-a-vis Israel.

By describing the Jewish Board as “gatekeepers bent on preventing SA from its right to exercise sovereignty over policy decisions” Jassat plays into the age-old canard that there is a cabal of alien Jews trying to dictate and control the policies of their government – these are the same vile tactics I discussed in my previous post.

Equally nasty is the accusation Jassat makes that the Jewish Board has demonised Kasrils and the government. This is a serious accusation and I challenge the MRN to present evidence to prove their claims that the Board has (1) demonised Kasrils and (2) demonised our government.

Perhaps the MRN can’t help but paint these villainous caricatures of Jews after flouting so many revolting Arabnews cartoons. These disturbing remarks represent the vicious bigotry that you should continue to expect from the MRN.

Update at 16/05/2007
The SA Jewish Board replied today with a letter in the Business Day

Obsession at The Word

Yesterday, British Radio station The Word did an interview with Obsession director Wayne Kopping. You can download the 6 minute excerpt here: http://www.theworld.org/audio/0514073.wma

There is also a discussion board where you can share your views about Obsession. The first enlightening comment on the discussion board provides the typical response of those who defend terrorism.

Well, here we have another film being touted by The World, NPR, CNN, etc. at the behest of its well financed backers. This is just fear mongering and the promotion of hate and racism. To think it is anything less is absurd. You have to ask, who benefits from such a film? Also, why is Hamas always linked to those doing international terror? Hamas is a local group who is fighting an oppressive occupation who has never threatened anyone other than its occupier. Clearly the author and his financier have an agenda that The World, CNN, NPR, etc. all are complicit in for a price. You have finally entered the realm of no return, Fox News.

It never ceases to amaze me how often the word "financier" appears when Israel antagonists discuss this film. The financed backers push the film in the same way that they control the media and stifle American debate over Israel. The "New anti-Semitism" is not so different from the "old".

Yesterday Joel Pollak linked to some excellent Doha debates that you can download here. Today I listened to the debate motioned "'This House believes the pro-Israeli lobby has successfully stifled Western debate about Israel's actions."

The debate deals with many issues which have, of course, dominated the response to Obsession.

The debate pits former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and journalist David Aaronovitch against Israel-haters Norman Finkelstein and Alexander Cockburn. Finkelstein and Cockburn share the same crack induced conspiracies displayed in the above response to Obsession. At one point they even argue that it was a well financed and powerful Jewish cabal that forced the National Union of British Journalists to rescind their earlier decision to boycott Israel. David Aaronovitch was superb:

"Listen to that. Just listen to what that man just said. THEY got it rescinded. I’ll tell you who got it rescinded. The members of the union who didn’t like it got it rescinded. THEY, whoever THEY are Andrew, those shadowy people, didn’t get it rescinded. That was a democratic vote.”

Whilst indicating that it is not just the Americans who have refused to deal with Hamas, but the EU as well, Aaronovitch neatly summarised the argument of his opponents:

“The line of demonology works like this: The Americans are in the pocket of the Israel lobby, Britain is in the pocket of the Americans, the EU is somehow, despite Iraq, in the pocket of the Americans as well, therfore ergo, the entire West is in the pocket of the Israel lobby. And anybody who believes that the question of the right of return of the Palestinian refugees is not a complicated question (as Finkelstein does) must indeed answer that the answer to everything is that the Israeli lobby is behind everything!”

Tide Turns in SA

South African deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, speaking at the recent UN African Meeting on the Question in Palestine, unequivocally revealed South Africa’s naked partisan support for the Palestinians. (Statement by Aziz Pahad.) It is now apparent that the noxious views of Ronnie Kasrils are more reflective of President Mbeki’s cabinet than we were willing to realise.

Pahad’s speech was worrying for a number of reasons. Firstly, he endorsed Kasrils’ invite to Hamas to visit South Africa and secondly, he refers to all of Israel as the Palestinians’ original and therefore rightful, land.

Pahad speaks of Africa’s commitment to strengthen international solidarity in aid of the Palestinians. If only we would hear of this African solidarity committed to ending the suffering and oppression in Zimbabwe and Darfur.

It is unacceptable that 60 years after the founding of Israel and 40 years after the 1967 war the reality today is that the Palestinians control only 23% of their original land and even this is being threatened by increasing settlements, the "Apartheid" Wall and the threat by Israel to disengage unilaterally. What can we do to assist the Palestinians to achieve their self-determination? In the end we must be guided by the Palestinians. As we confront this challenge we are acutely conscious, as you have discussed, that the UN Security Council has been unable to find a solution. Israel is the only country in the world that rejects all Resolutions with impunity and the US has consistently used its veto to prevent the UNSC from taking any effective action against Israel.

Pahad also called on Israel to agree to the Saudi initiative. Unfortunately it seems that the Saudi plan has won a tremendous propaganda victory for the Palestinians. After proposing a deal which Israel could not possible accept (and denying them the right to negotiate any aspects of the deal) the Arab drafters of the plan are now seen as the courageous peacebrokers and the Israelis are cast as the intrepid rejectionists.

Today things got worse as the Jerusalem Post reported that the South African government has now backed Minister Kasrils’ invitation to Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh. The date has not been finalised but he will soon be visiting our shores.

Outrageously, Minister Kasrils (who initially denied issuing a formal invite) told the Jerusalem Post that Hamas has renounced violence, recognised Israel, and has agreed to recognise past agreements between Israel and the PA (the agreements were actually with the PLO). Perhaps Kasrils has been watching too much Mickey Mouse?

We often receive copies of letters that readers send in to the press and a letter copied to us last week provides an excellent response to both the statements of Ministers Kasrils and Pahad.

What is the logic behind Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad’s call for Israel to begin serious negotiations to normalize its relations with the Palestinians. Who exactly should Israel talk to about establishing a Palestinian state side by side with Israel? (Israel should talk –Citizen 10 May) The Hamas Fatah Unity Government? Just this week Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said the programme of the proposed unity government between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction “will not recognise Israel and will not include accepting the two-state solution … We reject the two-state solution, which is the vision of US President George Bush, because it represents a clear recognition of Israel,” Barhoum said. (as reported in Pakistan Daily Times 3 May). I assume Pahad approved of sanctions against the apartheid government which resulted in the democracy we have today yet he calls on the EU and the US to drop sanctions against a government who refuses to renounce violence and accept the existence of its proposed peace partner. If South Africa really wants to help effect peace, its Ministers should encourage the Palestinian people to produce and vote for leaders of moral integrity, instead of issuing invitations, formal or otherwise to hate mongers who capitalize on their own people’s suffering.

No Friends for Kasrils?

Sanctions Against Israel Coalition upset over Kasrils at conference

The Sanctions Against Israel Coalition (SAIC) has condemned the inclusion of the Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, as guest speaker at the Palestinian conference being hosted by the Friends of Al Aqsa at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology from 11-13 May. The SAIC’s objection to Kasrils’ presence was based on South Africa’s continuing ties with the state of Israel. “The SA government continues to allow weapons sales to Israel from SA. The state telecommunications network, Telkom, has recently approved of a multi-million dollar deal with Israeli company Alvarion to roll out broadband. South Africa also still allows illicit trade of diamonds from De Beers/Anglo American to artificially support the fascist state of Israel,” says SAIC co-ordinator, Shaheed Mahomed. He adds that the Intelligence Ministry “oversaw the kidnapping of Pakistani Khalid Rashid from South Africa and his deliverance into the arms of imperialist forces. The SA govt is not in solidarity with the people of Palestine, but with imperialism. Kasrils' invitation should be cancelled out of respect for the cause of the Palestinian people.”

It appears that no matter how hard he tries, as long as he is constrained by the government of South Africa he will never be loved by the radicals he so courts. Images like the one below will continue to be just a Kasrils dream.

The SAIC are correct but for the wrong reasons. Kasrils is not good for the Palestinians. By demonising and delegitimising Israel all of the time, he causes those who seek the destruction of Israel as their ultimate goal, to persist with their ideological and terrorist war. This only increases the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis.

Kasrils Calls Israel Fascist; Kasrils denies Calling Israel Fascist

It’s the Kasrils twist, this time all in one breathe.

Israel Worse than apartheid SA – Kasrils

"It is important that we tell the Israeli authorities they are behaving like fascists when they do certain things, although we are not calling it a fascist state."

Kasrils is not being honest with himself. He really does believe that Israel is a fascist state. He accuses them of perpetrating a ‘creeping genocide’ against the Palestinians. He openly calls them Nazis. He says that Israel is worse than 'apartheid SA'. He accuses them of child murder, calling Israelis ‘baby-killers’. He calls suicide bombers ‘martyr bombers’.

It's classic Kasrilsspeak.

South Africans in JIB Awards Finals

I’m happy to report that despite most South African’s being unable to vote (due to the way many SA Internet Service Providers allocate IP addresses) we have nevertheless made it to the finals of the Best News and Current Affairs category of the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards.

The awards have crept along almost as slowly as the cricket world cup did but that doesn’t detract from the massive effort that the organisers have put into this. I think there were close to 1000 blogs at the start that they had to categorise for the competition.

I still don’t know if the security allows South African’s with shared IP’s to vote, but if you like what we do then try and vote for us from the following links.

• Best News and Current Affairs - vote here
• Best coverage of a live event for the post: Anti war but pro terror - vote here

Other South African blogs that are in the finals

• Guide to the Perplexed – Best Left Wing blog
• Guide to the Perplexed – Best New Blog
• Rabbi Shishler – Best Jewish Religious Blog

Thanks to everyone who has voted.

Hamas Bad for the Jews; Worse for the Palestinians

IAS, like most other Jewish organisations, has devoted many hours to exposing the anti-Semitic nature of Hamas’ ideology and actions. Even without plugging Hamas into Jonny Geller’s Jew friendly index, it's easy to see why they not good for the Jews.

(Add “Anti-Semitic Potential” (an open and obvious threat to the Jews) + “Impact on the World” (10 years or more) x “The J-Factor” (level of “Jewishness”)= Tzurus (Yiddish word for trouble), and divide by the Mystical Kabalistic number “Seven.” )

But we rarely ever consider their impact on the Palestinians.

Last month, a disturbing article by Ivan Booth appeared in the Sunday World newspaper, about the increased discrimination against Palestinian Christians under the Hamas dominated government. The article entitled ‘Christians Pursued’ declares that Christians “living in the very birthplace of Jesus, are suffering the type of religious persecution last seen before Constantine the Great declared Christianity Rome’s official religion.”

Booth described both official policies and Palestinian Authority sanctioned actions carried out against Palestinian Christians that bear a remarkable significance to those carried out against black South Africans under apartheid. These include:

• Not being able to sell land to non-Muslims. Violation of this law is punishable by death. This has prevented the building of a much needed Christian school in the West Bank.
• The arbitrary confiscation of Christian land. A Christian family in South Bethlehem woke up one morning to find that 6 dunams of their land had been fenced off and now belonged to Muslim Palestinians from a nearby village.
• Being coerced into following Islamic laws. Christian women are routinely forced to wear headscarves in public and during the recent fast of Ramadan Christians seen eating or smoking in public were thrown into jail.
• Being the victims of racially inspired violence. 2 Christian sisters were recently shot at point blank range in their Bethlehem home. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility ‘saying they wanted to cleanse the Palestinian house of prostitutes’.
• And like all totalitarian governments worth their salt, public criticism is ruthlessly suppressed. Samir Qumslyeh, an outspoken advocate for Christian Palestinian rights, has had his home fire bombed 3 times.

This type of repression has resulted in a mass exodus of Christians from the region over the last century. Christians made up 26.4% of the population of the Near East in 1914; today they constitute a mere 8%. This is the real ‘creeping genocide’ that Minister Kasrils ignores.

Christians are not the only Palestinians suffering from Hamas’ Islamist tyranny. Last week the Cape Times reported that Hamas militiamen threw grenades at a school in Gaza because they had organised a co-ed sports day. The attack was ordered on the grounds that allowing boys and girls to play sport together ‘taught children immoral values’. 1 person died and 6 others were injured in the attack.

Over 40 internet cafes and video stores in the Palestinian territories have been firebombed over the past few months. Why? ‘The Internet is corrupting young people because it exposes them to Western values and culture and pornographic sites’.

And the list goes on and on. Under Hamas, the Palestinian territories are being transformed into a Taliban style theocracy.

Christian and secular Muslim Palestinians are the conflict's unknown victims. Their dead bodies or grieving families are not splashed on the front pages of our newspapers or used as breaking news on our television screens. The world seems to be only interested in Palestinian suffering when it’s the Jews that can be framed as the aggressors.