MIDDLE EAST CRISIS
Israel, Hamas and South Africa – The biggest failure of all
A role in mediation demands at least a perception of impartiality. Given Pretoria’s consistent partiality towards the Palestinians over Israel, it would do best to remain schtum rather than posture on peace.
The most startling aspect of the current conflict between Hamas and Israel is not the evidence that the strategy of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s various governments towards the Palestinians has failed, not least given the barbarity of the recent Hamas attack.
It is not the way in which the tragic loss of hundreds of lives in a missile strike on a Gaza hospital has become the subject of claims and counterclaims by Hamas and the Israeli Defence Force, with the truth impossible to fathom.
It is also not to do with the operational security failures that led to Hamas’s outrages.
It is not even the cold-blooded killing of Israeli citizens, since this is standard Hamas operating practice, though the scale this time is shocking even for a region numbed by scenes of deprivation and loss of life.
It is not the crushing Israeli response by air and, now, likely by land and sea. Previous Israeli reactions made this predictable just as the housing of Hamas facilities in civilian areas, hospitals and schools ensures that civilian loss of life is inevitable.
It is not that this was most likely designed to spark a wider regional conflagration, the reason President Joe Biden has warned other nations – read Iran – not to attempt to profit from the imbroglio.
“To any country, any organisation, anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: Don’t. Our hearts may be broken but our resolve is clear,” said the US president.
It is not that Israel’s actions in Gaza can deliver much beyond a sense of vengeance since wiping out Hamas is going to be hard, nay, impossible.
As Ehud Barak, Bibi’s political nemesis and a former general, argues, the notion of destroying Hamas is folly even though he supports a ground campaign in Gaza.
“What does it even mean?” he asks. “That no one can still breathe and believe in Hamas’s ideology? That’s not a believable war aim. Israel’s objective now has to be clearer. It has to be that Hamas will be denied its Daesh-like military capabilities,” he says, employing the Arabic term for Isis.
It is also not that the Israelis will attack Hamas, even though the Islamic organisation does not pose an existential threat to Israel – and even though the Israeli reaction risks undoing Netanyahu’s policy of dividing and ruling the Palestinians between Gaza under Hamas rule and the West Bank under Fatah’s government, and weakening his assiduously developed Middle East strategy, drawing the Emirates and Saudis closer to Israel.
It is not, also, the failure of Palestinians themselves to enthusiastically build a system of governance beyond supporting a war machine.
When the opportunity to achieve peace arose during the Camp David negotiations in 2000, for example, Yasser Arafat refused to grasp the opportunity to win the peace, preferring to be remembered as the historic figure who delivered the Palestinians from the political wilderness with a pistol in his belt than the leader who delivered a state.
As Barak, who headed these negotiations on the Israeli side as prime minister, told us in an interview in July 2022: “I cannot speak for Arafat. We sat together with Clinton, we put on the table a proposal that covered probably 90% of whatever he can think of and didn’t try to dictate it. We never told [Arafat] take it or leave it. We just asked him to take it as a basis for negotiation. The fact that he rejected it tells you that they were not ready for whatever reasons.
“He probably was afraid of the kind of more grey area of daily life in a new Palestinian entity. Instead of being a heroic figure for his nation, he might have to dive into education and social security and sewage, you name it. Or probably he just thought that nations should be born in blood, not in negotiated agreement which happens in air-conditioned rooms.”
It’s not even that the ANC government has attempted to make some sort of moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, failing in the process to differentiate between a liberation movement and a nihilistic terrorist organisation.
Instead, it prefers to describe Israel as “genocidal”.
As it noted in the NEC press statement of 16 October, “We have also witnessed the unprecedented escalation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The ANC NEC has condemned, in strongest terms, the brutal killing of civilians by Hamas. The ANC has also been perturbed by the genocidal and atrocious activities of the State of Israel which are being directed indiscriminately at Palestinian citizens, shutting them off from all means of livelihoods.”
It’s not that the ANC takes a one-eyed view of the reasons for the conflict.
Ramaphosa’s statement
Speaking publicly following the NEC meeting, Ramaphosa empathised with the manner in which the Palestinians “have taken up this issue” since “they have been under occupation for almost 75 years, and people under occupation who have been waging a struggle against an oppressive government that has occupied their land, but also a government that has in recent times been dubbed an apartheid state.”
This view is hardly neutral and only rehashes the occupation/liberation trope.
And never mind the related failure of South Africa’s government to call the war in Ukraine what it is, a Russian invasion counter to international law, and now trying to play the victim of a conflict it has from the outset failed to condemn.
This, and the response to Israel, smacks more of political flavour and friendships than the norms of international relations.
No, the most startling aspect is that the South African government earnestly believes it is in a position to offer its mediation services to the warring parties. As the government’s press release of 7 October put it:
“South Africa therefore calls on all sides to seize the opportunity for peace as opposed to violence, and for the international community to actively rise on the side of its own international resolutions and establish a credible peace process.
“South Africa stands ready to share its experience in mediation and conflict resolution as it has done on the continent and around the world.”
No mention is made of the fact that South Africa is one of four places in the world to host a Hamas representative office – the others being in Gaza, Iran and Qatar.
This unusual access might put SA in a good position to play a brokering role, but only if it is viewed as a credible interlocutor by Israel, which is not the case given its clumsy pronouncements.
A role in mediation demands at least a perception of impartiality. Given Pretoria’s consistent partiality towards the Palestinians over Israel, it would do best to remain schtum rather than posture on peace.
And then there is the small matter of SA’s experience in conflict mediation, so assiduously mythologised by the ANC.
Such a role fundamentally presumes that the country has been a success since 1994. It might have had a reasonable first half, but the second half of the past 30 years has been simply dreadful. The economy is stuck, debt is ballooning, basic services are crumbling, and post-apartheid dreams are in tatters, except for a party-linked elite.
While Pretoria expresses its concern about the loss of life in and around Gaza, the average of 1,000 deaths a year in the war between Gaza and Israel since 2008 pales by comparison to the rate of South African murders, which reached 27,000 in 2022.
To take another example, that number is more than four times the civilian casualty total from Ukraine last year, a country in the middle of a full-fledged conventional war in which civilians are deliberately targeted.
The trouble with South Africa’s position is that it appears to be supporting the perpetrators of terror.
Hamas certainly believes it has South Africa’s backing, saying its senior leader, Ismail Haniyeh, received a call from International Relations Minister, Naledi Pandor, backing its assault on Israeli civilians.
Pandor has since issued a statement to “clarify the content of her discussion with the leader of Hamas,” saying she “expressed sadness and regret for the loss of innocent lives both Palestinians and Israelis”. She denied supporting Hamas’ terror attack on Israeli civilians.
Precisely because of its longstanding support for the rights of the Palestinians for a state, the SA government and the ANC should update its position and make a clear distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PLO), the former which has a clear religious and racist ideology, the other the goal of a Palestinian state.
It is said that peace begins with you. Questions of impartiality and neutrality aside, the SA government apparently remains blithely unaware that it is hardly the success that others should wish to emulate.
For this, and many other reasons, South Africa would do best in the circumstances to remain silent. DM
Mills and Hartley are with The Brenthurst Foundation. www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org
Besides all of that you can’t really have simpletons mediating serious international conflicts
Absolutely spot on. A good example is the “eleventy million” “now listen carefully” grade 6 leader who was deemed the best person to lead a country.
Excellent piece, thank you!
“… the SA government apparently remains blithely unaware that it is hardly the success that others should wish to emulate…”. That in a nutshell, sums it up perfectly. The ANC SA government is such an embarrassment to us, clumsy and stupid.
A simple fact is that it is way more dangerous to live in South African than in Palestine and Israel.
More people are murdered in South Africa every single week.
So our government is hardly in a position to make any statements about human rights anywhere at any time.
Mills and Hartley, re the Camp David negotiations. You criticize Arafat for not accepting “a proposal that covered probably 90% of whatever he can think of.”
Given, that Israel illegally occupied more than 70% of what was meant to be the Palestinian state in 1948, this is 90% of 70% which is actually 63%!
I hope on your regular visits to Ukraine you are advising the regime to also accept 63% of their former territory in the negotiations that will come soon?
Aha, you don’t do this. Given that the Oppenheimers pay your salaries, we can call this Anglo-American hypocrisy.
You should get your facts straight. How can Israel be an illegal occupant when Jerusalem and much of its surrounds used to be Jewish territory? The Arabian people drove many of the Jews out many years ago. So it’s a rather futile and one-dimensional exercise to only consider the last 75 years and jump to conclusions based on that.
The Romans defeated the Jewish army in 135 AD. Just a little bit further back than 75 years ago when the Palestinians had Isreal imposed on them.
Please feel free to independently verify the following:
On 15 May 1948 the State of Israel was formed. Fact (like it or not). The next day Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon (the Arab League) attacked. They were defeated. Fact (like it or not). Since that time Israel has unfortunately been attacked by one or more of these, and they have successfully fought them off and defeated them. Fact (like it or not). Israel has won vast land in many of these battles, and in almost all instances has returned it with assurances of an elusive peace, that has unfortunately never happened. Fact (like it or not).
Prior to 1948 there were more than 900,000 Jews living peacefully in the various Arab states of the Middle East, many of them in communities that had existed for thousands of years. As Egypt’s delegate to the UN in 1947 chillingly told the General Assembly: “The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries will be jeopardized by partition.” Jews were uprooted from their countries of birth, fled and had their properties confiscated by the Arab states of their birth. Please check this fact independently. Today there are only about 5,000 Jews remaining in Arab lands.
Never mind Jews arriving in Israel from Israel who had survived the Holocaust.
Israel was not “imposed”. It was hard-earned, has been defended as is now won. When last did you look at a map and see the size of the rest of the Arab world in comparison?
Well presented Truth marc, unfortunately hatred by the world of “Gods chosen people” – overides all facts and consuderation.
About getting your facts straight – that is a piece of advice you might give to yourself. The Jews have not governed any part of that land for more than 2,000 years. Read some history.
The Assyrians conquered the region in the 8th century BCE, then the Babylonians in c. 601 BCE, followed by the Persians who conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE. Have you heard of the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the 1st Temple? Then the Persians allowed the Israelites to return and build the second Temple. But the Persians continued to rule the whole area until Alexander the Great conquered the Persians and Alexander’s successors ruled the area until the Romans took over. The Romans destroyed the second temple and started by expelling Jews en masse.
To say that the territory used to be Jewish territory is total codswollop. They used to live there, together with many other ethnic groups. The territory has not been theirs, if it ever was, for at least 2,800 years.
Israel’s only only claim to statehood in that area rests solely on the authority of the British, who declared the Jewish State of Israel in 1948. And they presently illegally occupy a much greater area than that originally proclaimed by the British.
From your beautiful “codswollop” word onwards, so is the rest of your commentary.
What is indisputable, like it or not, is that Israel currently IS a sovereign Jewish state, with more than 7 million Jews living in it, and 7 million more in the diaspora who call it home (and have, since the time of Moses).
And that Jewish state has occupied Palestinian land and oppressed its people since its formation.
And it should not be, listen to Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss’ interview and you will understand who the real terrorists are …
An article dealing with the ANC’s lack of credibility is answered by an ANC member with total lack of credibility — or adherence to the facts.
A crystal clear analysis, as always, from two of the most erudite contributors. We are all acutely aware of South Africa’s geopolitical leanings and flawed aspirations. The most bitter pill to swallow is that this country is considered an irrelevance and a second rate failed state.
👍
Excellent well balanced article.
Excellent article. The basic dynamic is the persistence of a fanatic premodern Islamic terror axis in the MEA led and fed by Iran.. This resonates with a postmodern victimhood cult in parts of the Western Left and postcolonial countries. The Islamist terror cult aims to create an Islamic Utopia/Caliphate by conquest. Israel stands in the way. The present war is the fight of primitive theocrats in the ME, failed States around the world and Utopian radicals in the West against the demands of modernity, normalcy and democracy. All the rest is commentary.
“South Africa stands ready to share its experience in mediation and conflict resolution as it has done on the continent and around the world.”
WTF? What experience, not to mention tangible successes, does the ANC have to show for their mediation resolution expertise?
The ANC is “playing government” while SA burns. They’d be better off saying nothing as the real world could care less what the ANC thinks about anything.
Could NOT care less, George 😉
A mediator’s intellect, relationships, integrity and standing are critical to his/her success. President Ramaphosa falls short in all aspects:
– he and his organisation are pro-Palestine radicals, Russia,China, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, have no embassy in Israel, and a Hamas office in Pretoria;
– relationships in Southern Africa, notably with Zimbabwe, and Africa are tenuous with no significant engagement in the conflicts in Northern African (Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia);
– presiding over a failing state and corrupt ANC as enabler of cadre deployment is hardly good standing, neither domestically or in the international community;
– integrity require impartiality, clearly not the case.
Pragmatism has its limits, playing with fire its consequences – vainglorious posturing as well.
Calls for negotiations and peace, against the backdrop of suspect Russian shipments, are hollow, jaundiced expressions of sympathy revealing.
SA foreign policy and international standing is in the wrong hands. Impartiality requires a balanced posture, and charity starts at home.
Outstanding, balanced and considered article, deserves wide exposure.
Almost restored my faith in DM’s reporting on this issue, which has been largely one-sided.
Here here
Hear Hear
Thank you
A well-rationalised piece that even people like me (with entrenched positions and admitted bias), must respect. Never once resorting to the well-worn cliches of “proportional response”, “apartheid state” or “innocent palestinians”. Weaves the SA narrative smartly and draws an intelligent conclusion.
Listening to Fikile Mbalula’s one sided rants on radio yesterday and today, spells out exactly where the ANC government’s ‘neutral’ stance is positioned. Firmly pro Russian and firmly pro Hamas. And this is the ANC Secretary General, not just some party hack. And they think they’re unbiased mediators ? A bunch of clowns backing losers as usual.
Occupation is hardly a trope… It is what it is. Then add illegal settling.
I don’t think Brenthurst/Oppenheimers are a good source of neutral and blnced comment.
It would be interesting to scratch a little below your surface. You do know the Oppenheimers are not Jewish / zionist, right? You do know that there are 7-odd million Jewish Israeli’s in Israelis in Israel right? What should they do – go back to Poland and Germany (see Helen Thomas’s comments in 2010 and where that got her)? You do know that Israel is not the only sovereign country on earth, and that almost every “country” is/was “occuppied” and or “settled”, almost always by war / invasion, right? The mask that covers your prejudice (and I’m being polite, not labelling it as exactly what it is here) is slipping …
That is such terrible rhetoric, Marc. Can we please stop wheeling out the old chestnut that is ‘if we asked all the ‘settlers’ to leave…’ The difference is that Israel is currently, right now, present-time, running a brutal militant apartheid regime against Palestinian residents. Gaza is known as the world’s largest ‘open air prison’ for a reason. Is that honestly what you’re trying to defend?
“… a brutal militant apartheid regime against Palestinian residents”, “Gaza is known as the world’s largest ‘open air prison’ …” and so much more that must have been itching to say.
Copy and paste trope. Nothing new to defend that hasn’t been attacked for over 3000 years, in Israel, Europe, wherever. We each know who we are.
An open air prison perhaps, but only because of a Hamas leadership that decided to use economic aid for building a terrorist base and not channel this funding towards actual economic development. If only hey. And thus forcing Israel to keep tighter control of the borders to stop weapons flowing in. But, it could have been different if they wanted to actually have a peaceful state.
Hahahahahaha But Gaza has direct border with Egypt too – why no outcry about Egypt holding them “prisoner”? Why are none of the neighbouring Arab states welcoming them with open arms? Fact is, the Arab nations do not want terrorists in their countries, that’s why even Arab nations keep Gaza locked down
I have no love for the ANC, and would never trust in the purity of their intentions, but can we take a step back and define ‘genocidal’ please? Because ordering the flattening of a vast swathe of an incredibly densely populated area that you yourself have confined and have military occupation of, knowing that half said population consists of children, cutting off all utilities, disingenuously ‘warning’ the inhabitants to evacuate, when you know there is very literally nowhere for them to go, targeting members of the press, bombing evacuees on their way out, bombing the South where you had indicated would be safe, killing entire families and displacing over a million people sure sounds like a genocidal effort to me.
I’m sure you were searching for definitions on 7 October as an armchair critic too.
Is the Hamas stated policy of wiping the Jewish people and Israel from the face of the earth not the epitome of the definition of genocide? Do you expect the Israeli people to sit back and invite Hamas to come on over and slaughter them?
Reality has left you I’m afraid
A frequently overlooked truth: the difference between standing with the “the people of Palestine” versus supporting Hamas is rather interlinked. As you say above, “the failure of Palestinians themselves to enthusiastically build a system of governance beyond supporting a war machine” is their failure to own.
They created their own mess, but it’s Israel’s fault now…
Exactly, but it doesn’t fit the leftist narrative
The writers use of ‘Bibi’ to describe Netanyahu easily gives away their bias. Using a cute and familiar nickname for this murderous nationalist, identified as being responsible (by close to half the population of Israel) for creating the despicable situation that the Israeli’s and Palestinian’s find themselves in, is inappropriate to say the least. And while the ANC is a failed political party they certainly have success when it comes to negotiating peace with oppressive apartheid states.
Well said. And using “remain schtum” as well.
I can’t believe that you think the use of that word makes the authors pro Israel, but in the land of the blind, I suppose anything’s possible
Mr Davidson has repeatedly shown himself ant-semitic and homophobic with his slanderous posts here, some of which DM has deleted
Opposing Zionism is not anti- Semitic. Many Jews did and do oppose it.
Please don’t be so presumptuous as to tell Jews what is and what is not antisemitic. It is patronising at best, like saying “but some of my best friends are Jewish”. For your own enlightenment here is why anti-zionism is defined as antisemitism (please feel free to verify it from your own credible sources):
“While anti-Zionism is indeed antisemitism, anti-Zionism is much more socially acceptable than classic antisemitism. The result is that many anti-Zionist activists can embed historic antisemitic tropes in their criticism of Israel without significant pushback.”
Its an odd feature of the 2020s that peace and negotiation as a means of conflict resolution have fallen completely out of fashion. As Branko Milanovic observed on Twitter: “Its a simple fact that there are currently no pro-peace parties in Russia, Ukraine, USA, Germany, UK, Israel & Palestine. So, if the general sentiment is to wage war until the other side is annihilated, who is going to stop a forever war?”
As global tensions mount inexorably we may find that South Africa is a good place to live.
One question. – Why is the name of that Gaza hospital and it’s supporting charity NEVER GIVEN when mentioning it?
Is it because it is a Christian charity supporting it or just journalistic apathy?
The name of the hospital has been mentioned in numerous articles, however you’ll never see photos of the damaged hospital because there are none, the hospital was unscathed as the failed hamas launched rocket fell in the adjoining carpark resulting in a few burnt out cars and that’s it. The whole hullabaloo about 500 deaths etc is rubbish, never happened
Thank you. I’ve looked and looked at photos of this hospital and all I can see is a few burned out cars snd a small hole (crater) the hospital looks fine. I do believe that 100’s were in the car park as they had no where else to go. But how do people get from a car park to “deliberately destroying a hospital “. Let those who have eyes use them.
There’s a narrative they need to push , the poor sad victim narrative while back at the ranch, Hamas have been the first to engage every time, Hamas have broken every ceasefire, Hamas position their ops centers inside hospitals, schools and public buildings, Hamas use human shields in every conflict situation but they want the world to sympathise with them and believe they are the victims here
If The ANC wants a role in mediation, they must join the queue. There are quite a few more trustable and better equipped parties ahead of them.
I hope you don’t mean the clearly biased US, UK or EU.
“It is also not that the Israelis will attack Hamas, even though the Islamic organisation does not pose an existential threat to Israel” – sorry, I stopped reading after this insanely false statement. Outrageous!
Please can somebody tell them that they are not world players, they will not negotiate any peace plan, nobody has asked them for their opinion. Nobody even knows who they are and if somebody knows that they are the people stuffing up South Africa there is still not one single person who cares to hear what they think, or who they support or what they have to say.
Please!!!
Besides, Ramaposa, Netanyahu is not de Klerk or Roelfie Meyer.
There is no better way to say it as you have in the article. Brilliant assessment of the government’s so far pathetic responses and behaviour. Very very dismal second half.
Flogging the dead horse Apartheid – Israel, quite pathetic, what are hundreds and thousands Islamic /Hamas supporters called in every other country? Settlers? Colonialists? It’s Xenophobia, is what it is, both the ANC and Radical Islamist terrorist groups has Marxist teachings in common, why are there dozens of Radical Islamic terrorist groups fighting even in Africa, they are mainly espoused from Islam, this is not about Israel, free Palestine from Hamas..
And the radical often violent settlers? Who murdered Yitzak Rabin? Who uses words like annihilate and vermin for Palestinians – some Israeli politicians! Is this not extreme?
And what language would you use if someone launched rockets into your back yard repeatedly, day after day for years and years non stop, and every day reminded you that their sole purpose is to wipe you and your family off the face of the earth? So what would you do, sit back and sing kumbaya?
This is such a stupid question. How about what would you do if someone moved into your backyard and threw you out?
I don’t know – why don’t you ask the former owners of Schulphoek in Hermanus where thousands of Eastern Cape settlers swarmed into their backyard and threw them out?
To describe liberation for the Palestinian people after 75 years of ongoing subjugation and murder as a “trope” exudes a level of ignorance and privilege that should shame you into finding a new career.
Hahahahahaha
Agree. Also remember the Irgun – branded as terrorists too.
Very disappointing to see that the Daily Maverick is failing to call the situation for what it is – Israel is an illegal occupying state. They just showed up in Palestine in 1967, forcibly removed the people living there, and continue to enforce an Apartheid state for Palestinians remaining on the land. Strange that South Africans aren’t recognising the similarities between our country pre-1994, and Palestine today.
Israel has dropped 6 000 bombs in just 12 days over Gaza, killing over 4 000 civilians, over half of whom were children. Check Human Rights Watch: (https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/18/israel-unlawful-gaza-blockade-deadly-children).
Israel has imposed an illegal blockade in Gaze, trapping over 2 million Palestinians in the areas with no incoming food, water, electricity or medical supplies. Source: Amnesty International (https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/).
Israel has forcibly removed thousands of Palestinians from their homes, despite this blockade, forcing Palestinians to seek shelter wherever they can within Gaza. Source: Amnesty International (https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/)
Israel has bombed mosques, churches, hospitals and homes. Source: Business Insider (https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-palestine-confilct-bombing-gaza-strip-hamas-united-states-isis-2023-10).
Israel receives billions of dollars of military aid from the US. Just this week, the US used its veto power to block a UN resolution to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza (Israel has blocked any attempts at aid for civilians). Source: New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza-un-security-council.html
This is not a war between two equal parties. This is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the settler colony that is Israel. And no, I do not support the Hamas’ actions against innocent civilians of either Israel or Palestinian. I do support Palestinian liberation.
how ignorant.
Which goes to show how the ANC is completely out of touch with reality. Sadly, most of SA’s population are unable to see this.
In South Africa, we fought against Apartheid (maybe not all of us is the problem), so I can’t understand this article, and the authors disingenuously do the same (along with the whatboutism pertaining to South Africa). They seem to leave out what happened in the past 75 years to the Palestinians. It didn’t start last week.
I dislike the ANC for their cadre deployment and corruption. But at least they’re standing up for something righteous. I commend them for this.
Children under the age of 15 in Palestine make up 50% of the population. In Gaza, it’s 45%. One thing I’ve noticed is news media and ActIL shills equating Hamas with the majority of Palestinians, they weren’t even born when they came into power.
Apartheid Israel and Palestine are not the same. Israel is the aggressor. Israel and the IDF is not more moral than Hamas. Hamas also doesn’t exist in a vacuum and Apartheid Israel is to blame for this. The biggest losers are the innocent people.
* Illegal Settlers living in Palestine can vote in Israel but not Palestinians. Apartheid South Africa did the same, they put the people in their own “country” and so couldn’t vote. Israel doesn’t want 1 state as that would mean millions more voting. And it doesn’t want 2 states as that would mean giving up valuable land.
* As of June 2023, Israel has 147 jailed children
* The settlers kill and burn homes to get rid of people steal homes and destroy olive tree groves. They pour concrete into Palestinian farmers’ water wells.
Am in total agreement with you and also find it very perplexing that the authors deem it necessary to highlight crime statiscs with conflict related killings. South Africa like any other countries has its challenges but has a lot to offer because of the practical experience we have endured in the past. For us as black people we had know very well that reconciliation is hard especially when on a daily basis you are confronted with oppressors who, in the main, have never genuinely sought to acknowledge the suffering that they have caused and systematically participated in.
As a black person I often find it exasperating that a majority of such people use platforms like this to actually forward the agenda of disunity through platform such as this rather than advocating for peace. Every critical voice is labelled political party A, B and so forth because there is this underlying belief that the ordinary black South African cannot formulate opinions of their own . We are it seems not capable of analysing anything without it being sanctioned by some political party.
I think that our media also needs to do more in terms of offering a balanced view through exposing readers to prominent and credible scholars, historians and so forth such as Dr Gabor Mate who is a Jewish Holocaust survivor, Illan Pappe, Prof Norman Finkelstein amongst others.
Achieving peace and forgiveness and maintaining these , is a very painful excercise and no one knows it better than us ordinary black South Africans. War and Revenge is never the answer though that we know for a certainity!
“Apartheid Israel and Palestine are not the same. Israel is the aggressor. Israel and the IDF is not more moral than Hamas.”
Your colours nailed to the mast right there. “From Jordan to the Sea” is not a “2-state solution”, its a “Final Solution”. The Jewish people unfortunately have previous experience with this, and those that supported it. There can be no doubt which side of the fence we would have found you on pre 1939 ….
“Apartheid Israel and Palestine are not the same. Israel is the aggressor. Israel and the IDF is not more moral than Hamas.”
Your colours nailed to the mast right there. “From Jordan to the Sea” is not a “2-state solution”, its a “Final Solution”. The Jewish people unfortunately have previous experience with this, and those that supported it.
The most revolutionary among us often state how the “revolution” has failed, or it was stolen, or even some other indication of failure. Yet, we still think it is something worth exporting to other countries. Go figure.
From an alien perspective…. your little rock is fekked
I needed that after trawling through the previous crazinesses…
Will humans forever learn history, but nothing from it?
What will it take for us to start from a clean sheet versus reacting to anything and everything since human #1 emerged?
If we keep justifying our (bad) behaviour because of another’s deemed (bad) behaviour we shall never escape from this mess.
Aliens do indeed come swooshing along from time to time – stop for a moment, check things out, shake their heads, arms or whatever, then race away: ‘These earthlings have learned nothing since they stood upright.’
New world order , gangsters dik gerook on the Cape flats killed innocent people mostly children with their guns hardloop Soos zombies rond government ignore want those are coloured people just as those of Palestine are coloured people the Zionist are white European who chose to be Jews and cause corruption in the world where ever they settled wants no peace only to be rich of the world minerals and resources as they are antichrist who took the Holy land as their own for them no Christian nor Jew nor Islam is welcome in the Holy land that’s why it must be called war land as they believe in the one eye devil and they plan and God is the best of all planners.may God protect us against the evil doers of this world and may God have mercy on the souls of those who returned to heaven 🙏, amen
How on earth did you land up on a page like this majietfiriale0405? Your comments are so meshugga one can only surmise that you must have mistakenly typed in the wrong webpage address searching for TokTok or something and stumbled into this by accident …
How on earth did you land up on a page like this????
These comments have all the rationality of a puppy having found a teenager’s stash of edibles
How do you mediate…when everything you have done stinks of failure in your own country.
Graemebird should use his real name
History will judge the ANC’s dismal failure in this response too, posturing as standing with the oppressed when their own implementation of “equality” has resulted in an economy on the brink of collapse, many in our society poorer and more divided, more angry and feeling more trapped. The ANC and much of the world seem to have lost their humanity, the brutality of the acts was beyond any scope of normality. Calling that ok, justified even – that speaks to the character of the party who says its fine and understandable. Just read the evidence from reputable journalistic sources. Hearing women of another nationality/religion calling for and celebrating the rape and beheading of another nation’s children, it is heartbreaking. As Gary Murray has said – Israel is the only country in the world not allowed to win a war.