Wednesday 27 May 2015

“Kick the Jewish State out of Football!” This is Racism, FIFA!


If Israel has to go that extra mile for peace, after multiple offers of concessions were roundly rejected, then the Palestinians, who are so far behind, have to go a full marathon distance just to catch up.
But they are not on the start line. They are not even on the track. Instead, they are in the judges’ stand screaming to have Israel disqualified and removed from the race.

In sporting terms, take FIFA, for example. As Israel uncovers Hamas couriers and terrorist smugglers among the Palestinian football squad, their former terrorist head-honcho, Jibril Rajoub, exploits FIFA as a political football. He does it not to advance Palestinian facilities or equipment but to get Israel thrown out on spurious grounds. Cynically, he has done his math and reckons he has the votes to have Israel boycotted.

FIFA, once famous for its “Kick Racism out of Sport,” is now being asked to adopt a new slogan, “Kick the Jewish State out of Football,” on July 4.

Should that tragedy occur you will know that the Palestinian cause has brought their anti-Semitic racism to the pinnacle of world sport.

If FIFA red card Israel, they will hang the gold medal of football racism round the neck of Palestine.


Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’  https://www.createspace.com/5333306

Saturday 16 May 2015

Which Palestine?


When the Vatican joined the chorus and announced it would sign a treaty with the Palestinian political leadership to recognize the ‘State of Palestine’ it was yet another sign that people are so fixed on a desire for ‘peace’ that it makes them shortsighted, if not blind, to realities.

The peace camp is so myopically short on rationale, and the power of reason is so weak, that it doesn't have the strength to pull the peace train out of the station, let alone allow it to reach its destination.

Allow me to highlight some simple facts that get in the way.

The Palestine envisioned by the Vatican is not the same Palestine envisioned by the Palestinian factions. Of course, the Vatican will say that this can only be the outcome of negotiations with Israel. If this is the case, why are they recognizing an unknown entity now and refusing to face the reality of Palestinian politics and ambitions?

Let me be blunt. The Vatican takes no consideration of the rejectionist anti-Semitism of both Fatah and Hamas or, if it has considered this malevolent and determined opposition to the existence of Israel, has chosen to ignore it. 

Israel, I suggest, deserves an answer.

It is inevitable that a State of Palestine will be headed by Hamas which declares itself to be an Islamic movement dedicated to jihad. How does that square with the best interest of the Catholic Church as we witness the slaughter of Christians at the hands of other similar radical Islamic movements?

There are those in the Holy See who say that Hamas does not represent peace-minded, freedom-loving Palestinians. I respectfully remind them that every Palestinian poll and election has proven this notion to be wrong.  In every case, Palestinian Arabs vote overwhelmingly for Hamas.

As I repeatedly explain to anyone capable of clarity of thought, those who vote Palestine will deliver a Hamastan. This includes the Vatican.

The Vatican needs reminding that Palestinians in Ramallah, Gaza, and even Bethlehem persecute Christians.

When Israel handed Ramallah over to the Palestinian Authority the Christians were a majority. Today, under Palestinian repression, it is less than 20% and dwindling further. Bethlehem, a once wealthy Christian town under Israeli sovereignty, now has a Christian population of less than 12%, due to Muslim intimidation. Elias Frej, the Christian mayor when Israel handed over his town to the Palestinians, pleaded that Bethlehem would become “a Christian town without Christians.” Sadly, under the Palestinians, his prediction is coming true before our eyes.

Anti-Israel voices blame this phenomenon on “occupation and oppression” but, like most anti-Israel claptrap, this lie is easily exposed by the fact that while the Christian population has plummeted under Palestinian control the Muslim population has rapidly expanded.

My question is why the Vatican is favoring a Palestine of disappearing Christians?

If they really believe that granting statehood and recognition of radical anti-Jewish and anti-Christian regimes is the way to peace, why doesn’t the Vatican offer recognition and statehood to Islamic State (ISIS)? After all, perhaps they too will stop their persecution of Christians? Of course this is a ridiculous notion, but no more ridiculous than encouraging a future state that will be dominated by another radical Islamic jihadi rule dedicated to the slaughter of Jews and the destruction of Israel.

The Vatican’s generous offer of signing a treaty of recognition to the State of Palestine fails to define the borders of such a state. This is deeply troubling taking into consideration that Palestinians regularly call for a state “from the River to the Sea,” in other words, a state in place of Israel.

The Vatican will say that borders will be settled between the parties, but surely their recognition could have waited until the world, including the Catholic world, witness a willingness not seen until today by the Palestinians to recognize Israel’s right to exist as the national home of the Jewish people.

It is this myopia to grant a generosity to the violent rejectionists that will jeopardize and set back peace for many years to come.

Until well-wishers, like the Catholic Church, appreciate the true nature and intent of Israel’s enemy, no peace will come from altruistic gestures that restrict Israel’s maneuverability.

Instead, the Vatican and others must take drastic measures to reform or change all sides of the Palestinian political leadership into taking dramatic steps that include, first and foremost, a commitment to recognize and live in peace alongside Israel.

One way would be to condition their financial and moral support on making these essential steps.

The Vatican gesture should have been the final reward for such a Palestinian reformation, not a reward for their recent violence and intransigence.

Barry Shaw is the Consultant on Delegitimization Issues to the Strategic Dialogue Center at Netanya Academic College. He is also the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’ https://www.createspace.com/5333306


Friday 15 May 2015

Anti-Semitism in the Guise of Delegitimization and Anti-Zionism.



The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs staged a highly successful event at the 5th Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem between 12-14 May.

Delegates from around the world gathered to hear an impressive array of speakers, led by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The conference was intense. Even the lunches during the three days became platforms for keynote speakers including Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Confederation of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization, Robert Wistrich, Jerusalem mayor, Nir Barkat, and US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro.

The third day was taken up with numerous working groups each delegated to address specific aspects of global anti-Semitism and come up with solutions and action plans to counter this ongoing plague.

I joined the group discussing Anti-Semitism in the Guise of Delegitimization and Anti-Zionism, which was chaired by Mitchell Bard and Dr. Pascal Markowicz.

We were presented by a screen listing the many challenges and questions faced by everyone affected by anti-Israel activism that morphs into expressions of Jew-hatred and Israel denial.

It was clear, hearing the problems faced by students of campus to the problems that heads of Jewish communities are increasing dealing with, that anti-Semitism posing as anti-Zionism is rampant worldwide.

Participants from North and South America, Europe including the UK, South Africa and Australia, told of the challenges they are trying to counter in their countries.

True to the title of our session, it became apparent that, although we discussed in depth the difficulties that Jews abroad and Israel in general have been suffering from in recent times, the big black cloud that shadows all our concerns is the anti-Semitism linked to all aspects of the Palestinian cause.

As described in my book ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism,’ its fertile roots are deeply embedded in Gaza and Ramallah. Here is the spearhead of a wider Arab malevolence against Jews rooted in their faith and political systems.

As the title of our working group suggests, this strain of anti-Semitism radiates from the Middle East into Western societies, fanned by  far left agitators, racial professors, lecturers and other voices who call and act for the delegitimization of Israel and an end to anti-Zionism.

The excuse that “we don’t hate Jews, we only hate Israelis” won’t wash anymore. We in the know are now on the case, exposing the fraud of this lie, a lie that has replaced the older canard of “I can’t be an anti-Semite, some of my best friends are Jewish.”

The evidence is clear and is now being documented. It’s time the name and shame the perpetrators, and call it for what it is.

Anti-Semitism is an international crime. However, despite the efforts of major European Jewish organizations, the EU has been dodging the issue of coming up with a definition of what is Anti-Semitism. We were witness to statements made at the Jerusalem conference by European representatives of an attempt of lumping any resolution or definition of anti-Semitism with other issues such as Islamophobia into a broader mix of “hate crimes.” We need to make the case that we deserve, especially in Europe, a specific attention to our individual and collective predicament.

One important outcome of the event was a wall-to-wall affirmation that only Jews have the right to define what is, or isn’t, anti-Semitism. As one person at the conference said, just as most Americans accept that African Americans are the ones to recognize anti-black racism, it is the Jews, and not the goyim who instinctively know, from generations of bitter experience in every culture, what is anti-Semitism.

If anti-Semitism is evil, and if the world desperately desires peace between Israel and the Palestinians, it is legitimate to demand that the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League stop supporting the development of a national movement that has the words “Oh Muslim, there’s a Jew hiding behind me! Come out and kill him” as the cornerstone of their founding charter as does Palestinian Hamas. 

It is this, together with their declared admission that the Palestinian cause is an Islamic movement of jihad in the name of Allah, that must give every reasoning mind, let alone the political representatives of Western liberal democracies, pause.

How is it possible that they invest hundreds of millions of dollars and euros in the advancement of a Palestine that will, inevitably, be a Jew-hating, Jew-denying entity?

How can there be any doubt of this when the Hamas hatred and the Jewish state denial of the Palestinian Authority spills over into the manifestos and charters of the PLO (adopted by the Palestinian Authority) and the constitutional document of the Fatah Party?

The aims and objectives of the Palestinian cause are blatantly defined. They are consolidated by the statements of Mahmoud Abbas, he of the Holocaust denial doctorate, who denies three thousand years of Jewish heritage and existence, rejects the Jewish state and the existence of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people as legitimated in the international treaties of the League of Nations and further enshrined in Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. In further anti-Semitic references, Abbas has declared that Palestine will be Jew-free and that any Arab selling land to a Jew will be executed.

This is part of the Palestinian anti-Semitism that denies and delegitimizes Israel.

A question that usually leaves European diplomats with a blank look in their eyes is what sort of Palestine they are trying so hard to create.  Some mutter that they are working to develop institutes necessary to achieve a democratic Palestine living in peace with Israel.  But they are stumped when asked what responsibility they take if Israel surrenders essential territory according to their demands and political pressure that results not in peaceful Palestine but a radical Hamastan?

According to all Palestinian polls and elections, Hamas consistently gains the support of between 64-78% of Palestinian society. That’s a majority every time. The latest evidence that Palestine will be Hamastan was the student elections at Bir Zeit University in April where Hamas won 26 seats compared to Fatah’s 19.  It must be pointed out that Bir Zeit is not in the Gaza Strip but seven kilometers north of Ramallah within easy reach of Palestinian Authority headquarters, and only 20 kilometers from Jerusalem. So a Hamas controlled Palestine is not a guess. It’s a certainty.

This makes the US Administration and European urging for the establishment of a Jew-hating, jihadi state standing on territory belonging to a liberal democracy, highly disturbing.

What is equally disturbing is the apparition of the fevered efforts of hundreds of dubious NGOs, supported politically, morally and financially by most European governments. Some have politicians who are being exposed for their dislike of Jews.

Those of us active in defense of Israel against the demonization and delegitimization campaigns that use thousands of eager young European volunteers regularly witness their Palestinian lovefest comes with an equal, if not more passionate, Israeli hatefest which leaves us wondering if Jew-hatred is not at the heart of it.

Therefore, we are entitled to ask why they adopt this aspect of Palestinian concern yet ignore the abuse of Palestinian rights at the hands of both Palestinian leaderships in Ramallah and Gaza. They also do or say nothing about Palestinians that are suffering in Arab lands. Their exaggeration of anti-Israel claims and insults is out of proportion to other world crisis points that apparently do not concern them. This obsessive behavior that targets the Jewish state points to anti-Semitism. In fact, colleagues can attest to fairly regular outbursts of anti-Jewish utterances from these NGO volunteers.

And so we see the spread and growth of anti-Semitism in the guise of delegitimization and anti-Zionism. Once, and for a period far too long, they claimed victory with a slogan of “Zionism is Racism” which won favor in the United Nations for sixteen years until, after a prolonged struggle, it was struck down in 1991. It was struck down, but didn’t die. It is still alive and killing.

It is the anti-Zionists who are the racists. It is the Israel deniers who are the discriminators.

It is essential to define anti-Semitism to include the denial of Jewish rights to freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and the denial of Jewish rights to self-determination as enshrined in internationally binding documents.

The delegitimization of Israel and the attempt to deprive the Jews, and only the Jewish people, of the right to self-determination and nationhood is anti-Semitism.

(These are the personal reflections of the author and not the official positions of the working group nor the Israeli government.)

Barry Shaw is the consultant on delegitimization issues to the Strategic Dialogue Center at Netanya Academic College and the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’ https://www.createspace.com/5333306 ,or in Kindle format on Amazon.

Monday 11 May 2015

Jews at the Crossroads.


The 2014 Gaza conflict threw up an alarming outburst of anti-Semitism that ranged from personal and collective insults, petty violence, and the targeted murder of European Jews.

The phenomenon of rabid demonstrations against Israel turned into the targeting of local Jews under the blanket of anti-Zionism campaigning in support of the Palestinian cause. 

As I relate in my book ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism,’ a relatively new strain of anti-Semitism is the selection process which attempts to divide local Jews from the Jewish state. 

Back in 2009, a London café advised customers that the owner was boycotting Israel but Jews were still welcome to spend their money there. As an Israeli Jew, I posed the question which part of me is welcome in his shop, and which part of me has to remain outside? And, more pointedly, how could I, as a Jew, support a café that victimizes the Jewish state?

This modern-day form of Jewish targeting began to emerge with more force in 2012 when the Social Democratic mayor of the Swedish town of Malmo, Ilmar Reepalu, warned his Jews to “denounce Israeli violations against Gaza” instead of holding a pro-Israel rally in the town square which, he said, “could send the wrong signals.”   

When Swedish mayors dictate how Jews should practice political thought is when the goyim are surgically trying to cut Zionism, and through it their Jewish identity, out of the heart of their Jews. In my book, I call this phenomenon “The Malmo Symptom,” although it is far from limited to Swedish Social Democrat mayors.

It showed its ugly face in London when the Tricycle Theater threatened to ban the annual Jewish Film Festival from their venue if they proceeded to accept a small donation to the cost of the event from the Israeli Embassy. The message was clear. “Accept help from Israel at your peril, Jews!” 

How dare these European goyim impose on Jews how they should behave politically? But they do. Just look at how they treat Israel. Why should they treat their own Jews any different?

Those who pose as liberal progressives turn viciously intolerant over one issue – Israel. And in Europe and on American campuses they have no compunction in victimizing their Jews. They don’t know, or don’t care, that for Jews, Zionism is an integral part of their Jewish identity.

Anti-Zionism feels the same as anti-Semitism does. It singles out, discriminates and targets the Jew. With Israel, it’s the collective Jew.

The passion of much of the support for the Palestinian cause is the free expression of Jew hatred given legitimate license. People can associate with the end of the Jewish problem in the Middle East in the guise of the high ground of a moral cause. They snigger as they witness Jews (Israel) squirm. After all, they claim, these Jews had it coming to them for all the evil they inflicted on the world, especially to those poor Palestinians. They whitewash out the rabid Jew hatred that is etched in each branch of the Palestinian political tree.

And, as Diaspora Jews feel the white heat of this hate, they feel worried that they too will become victim of an assault. They see when haters are unable to strike against Israel they turn to local Jewish targets, be they Jewish schools, synagogues, supermarkets, community centers, or simply the Jew on the street. Is it any wonder they view Israel as a bolt-hole, a safe haven, if they suddenly need to pack their suitcases and leave, as Jews have done since the late 40s, both from Europe and from Arab lands. Such has been the fate of Jews at an awful number of junctures in history.      

In Britain, they are having one last shot by forming local grassroots non-violent resistance groups. Last year, anti-Israel intimidation that insulted Jews reached a peak as they targeted Jewish businesses selling Israeli products. This prompted a growing number of individuals to stand up in activism, a rare phenomenon not seen on the streets of Britain since the Jews faced down Oswald Mosley’s fascist blackshirts in 1936. Although physical disturbances have not occurred, Jews have joined noisy but, so far, peaceful counter rallies and protests, standing for Israel and against anti-Semitism, often in greater numbers than their opponents, and they felt  a sense of personal and collective pride by doing so.

For many British and French Jews, Israeli activism has become a significant part of their lives. This is hardly surprising. Jews see Israelis coming under incessant Palestinian rocket and terrorist attacks, and many have family and friends living in Israel. They were educated in Jewish schools and attended synagogues and community events where Israel is the core of their Jewish upbringing. Some have vacation homes there. They identify physically, religiously, emotionally with the Jewish state.

Now, with their loyalty and their safety being tested, they look on Israel and appreciate even more how it has withstood the most enormous challenges to its existence. They look on it with pride and admiration, and a renewed sense that, one day, it will offer them shelter when life around them becomes intolerable.

Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’




Thursday 7 May 2015

How low will a Jew go?

The iniquitous report of ‘Breaking the Silence,’ that featured Israeli soldiers admitting crimes in Gaza, has been receiving widespread media coverage in the foreign press as if it was some startlingly honest and factual document.  Of course! We are used to Israel bashing in the media – up to a point!

I am certain that the amateur and deceitful BtS report will be publicly amplified further by Israel’s enemies abroad who will, doubtless, invite BtS people to parade their dreadful nonsense around campus’s and halls as if it were some gospel direct from the Holy Land.

Journalist, Matti Friedman, divulged that the Israeli-based left-wing BtS fringe group did not even produce their report and video in Hebrew for local consumption, but in English for their European paymasters.

I, like so many Israelis, look on ‘Breaking the Silence’ as dishonest informers who will sell out Israel for a buck and a fleeting moment of fame.

Their report is dishonest both in how it was obtained and in the inaccuracy of its findings. They failed to offer their ‘evidence’ to the IDF who have been carrying out a thorough and detailed post-operation investigation of the 2014 Gaza conflict.

Unlike ‘Breaking the Silence,’ the IDF transparency is proven by the fact that they are conducting their examinations under the scrutiny of military and legal professionals, including those from overseas armies as evidenced by a document I read entitled ‘Israeli Targeting; A Legal Appraisal.’

This is a professional and authoritative report. The BtS report is neither.

 This excerpt take from the document, written by US Army military legal experts on IDF’s performance in the 2014 Gaza conflict stated, “Israel’s positions on targeting law are consistent with mainstream contemporary State practice. While some of them may be controversial, they are generally reasonable and in great part closely aligned with those of the United States. In the few cases where Israeli practices and positions diverge from those of the United States (or the authors), they nonetheless remain within the bounds of the broader contours of the Laws of Armed Conflict.”

Coincidentally, the issue of these laws and the ethics of armed conflict were openly discussed by military and legal experts at the Shurat HaDin Conference on ‘New Laws for New Wars’ in Jerusalem, which is further proof of the transparency of the IDF to open itself up to scrutiny.

In this light, and in light of the robust liberal democracy that is Israel, it is preposterous for ‘Breaking the Silence’ to claim that they had to hide the identity of the soldiers for fear of reprisals.

Further enhancement on the IDF ethics in armed conflict displayed by our brave young men and women was given by Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, who participated in the Jerusalem conference and was in Israel when the BtS report broke.

I can personally vouch that Kemp was in Israel throughout last year’s Gaza fighting. He conducted daily briefings not only with officers but also with the regular soldiers as they emerged from the battlefield. He debriefed both and reported on their exemplary conduct which compared, in his professional opinion, very favorably with his British soldiers in similar battle conditions. Unlike BtS, he took into account the complexities of urban warfare.

On the ‘Breaking the Silence’ video which is replete with inflammatory expressions such as Israel causing ‘deliberate mass destruction’ and conducting ‘indiscriminate fire’ one unidentified person is seen saying that he could fire his tank where ever he wanted and whoever he wanted. The ignorant, or the malevolent, may choose to believe this nonsense but anyone who does doesn’t know battlefield conditions in warfare. A tank is not a one-man machine. There is a crew of young men bonded together with the discipline and experience of training. The tank crew is usually in a convoy accompanied by foot soldiers, engineers, and other personnel under the command of field officers and under the close scrutiny of the command and control center.

If you listen to or read the BtS report you imagine that Gaza, for Israeli soldiers, was some sort of Rambo-style computer game. However, ignorant people with a hate for Israel will take it up and run with it. They will call it ‘evidence’ and ‘proof’ against Israel and convert this nonsense into ‘war crimes.’  This, for the European paymasters, will justify the pay check to ‘Breaking the Silence.’

When I hear of Jews taking money to snitch on fellow Jews it reminds me of the kappos in the service of the Nazis.

“Breaking the Silence’ is a nasty little left-wing group that get their moment of notoriety and gelt for being deceitful informers. They are not even honest informers as their method of information gathering and reporting is dubious and unprofessional at best, and deceitful and malevolent at worst. Neither are they accurate. They are unable to cross reference or document any context and background in which battles were fought. Neither will they hand over their documentation to the IDF.  They do not do this because this is not their mission. Their mission is to serve their anti-Israel European taskmasters. They receive their money conditional on dishing up specific numbers of complaints and ‘evidence’ of ‘crimes’ perpetrated by the Jewish state.

In other words, they have sold their sold to the devil, and the devil owns them.

This is clear because, as so-called ‘former IDF officers and soldiers’ their first loyalty should be to the State of Israel and the IDF, and not to some anti-Israel foreign entity.

This report shows how low ‘Breaking the Silence’ has sunk – not that they had any respectable standing in Israel. They are despised in Israel people on the left and the right, including those brave young men and women who put their lives on the line to protect them and us.

Sadly, BtS have other NGOs abroad who will eagerly amplify their inaccurate message. NGOs such as UK’s ‘Yachad’ will pounce on anything that BtS produce and invite them on speaking tours of Britain to enhance their lies. They will also be warmly welcomed by BDS radicals.

Pity I didn’t feature them in my new book ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism’ because this is yet another ugly stain of Jew hatred.

Who said you can’t be Jewish and an anti-Semite? With our ingenuity, we even do this better than the goyim.

Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’

He is also the Consultant on Delegitimization Issues to the Strategic Dialogue Center at Netanya Academic College in Israel.


http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Breaking-the-Silence-20-317854

http://www.thetower.org/1999-watchdog-breaking-the-silence-was-paid-to-incriminate-idf/




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Saturday 2 May 2015

Israel is the Rainbow Nation.

Much fuss has been made about the Israeli decision to block Blade Nzinmande, the South African minister for higher education, from visiting Bir Zeit University.

It must be noted that this Communist Party leader supported the suspension of academic cooperation between Johannesburg University and Ben Gurion University, so this education minister can hardly be described as a shining example of free academic exchange. On the contrary, he is a champion of the dogma of academic boycotts. 

What makes his example particularly harmful is that the boycott of Ben Gurion’s joint research with South Africa damages this minister’s own people.

The academic cooperation, which began in 2009, centered on helping South Africans improve their water purification and micro-algal biotechnology research. South Africa has a desperate shortage of good drinking water.

Kenneth Meshoe, a rare voice for Israel and a tireless worker for his people in the South African parliament, told me last year of politicians in his country whose hatred for Israel outweigh the best interests of their own people. Nzinmande is one of them.

Nzinmande advocates the removal of the Israeli ambassador to South Africa, and the BDS movement is threatening to march on Pretoria and physically eject Israel’s representative from their country.  Such is the level of diplomacy that the education minister employs.

What healthy relationship is possible with a South Africa whose leading politicians and diplomats look on Hamas as a liberation organization?  Hamas is the radical Islamic regime that controls Gaza and has a charter that threatens to destroy my country and kill Jews in the name of Allah and jihad, the same ideology that is conducting the wholesale slaughter of Christians in Africa and the Middle East.  Despite this, and despite him living under a barrage of Hamas rockets last year, the view that Hamas is a liberation organization is still shared by the current South African Ambassador to Israel.

You know that BDS is bankrupt when they have to invite a Palestinian terrorist to help their fund-raising efforts in South Africa.  This is what happened when Leila Khaled visited that country in February of this year.

Khaled successfully hi-jacked a TWA plane in 1969 and then tried to hi-jack an El Al flight between Amsterdam and New York in 1970. She was holding two hand grenades as she was tackled by alert Israeli air marshals.

In South Africa, they call this type of person, ‘a freedom fighter.’

The BDS movement and Palestinians such as Khaled work, not for a two–state solution, but for the total destruction of Israel, but this did not prevent Khaled from being warmly welcomed by Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba as she landed in his country. She was also received as a special guest at the South African parliament.

People like South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu regularly and falsely calls Israel ‘an apartheid state.’ They are unable to get past the empty slogans and realize that it is the Palestinians they favor against a liberal democratic freedom-loving Israel that practices an apartheid and an anti-Semitism of massive proportions.

People such as Tutu need to learn that the flight of Christians from Palestinian-controlled territory has nothing to do with Israeli occupation, but has an awful lot to do with how Palestinian occupation is practiced. Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian Authority, had a 20% Christian population when Israel handed the town over to Arafat’s PLO. Now the Christian population is less than 2%. If this fall in numbers had to do with ‘occupation’ how is it that the Muslim population of Ramallah has grown, not shrunk?

So I ask, who is doing the ethnic cleansing when it comes to Christians living threatened lives in Palestinian-controlled societies. This is a question that the Archbishop, and other South African Christians, ought to be asking.

The time has come for South Africa to take a more level-headed world view as its post-Mandela reputation takes a beating at the hands of his inheritors.

As I told an audience in South Africa a couple of years ago, if there is one country, north of Cape Town, up the huge continent of Africa and across the crescent sweep of the Middle East, that can be called ‘The Rainbow Nation’ that country can only be Israel.

Israel in a very dark part of the world is, indeed, the Rainbow Nation.

Barry Shaw is the special consultant on delegitimization issue to the Strategic Dialogue Center at Netanya Academic College.
He is also the author of the new book ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’ https://www.createspace.com/5333306