Milton Shain

LETTER: Veil off anti-Israel lobby


One must applaud Mzoxolo Mpolase for lifting the veil off the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement and its subversive actions (Israel boycott lobby has captured foreign policy of ANC and state, January 12).


Those ANC cadres obsessed with the Israel-Palestine question ignore religious and gender apartheid in Islam and turn a blind eye to past atrocities and, lately, the Syrian atrocities.
Only Israel is in the dock.
These self-proclaimed moral guardians play down the intensity of antisemitism in the Arab world and annihilation threats against Israel, and have nothing to say of Israeli victims of suicide bombers, not to mention the popularity of Mein Kampf in Arab-owned book shops. They join the fascist right in their myopic and one-sided critique of a complex problem. Anyone familiar with the history of antisemitism will know that Jews have served as a barometer for the sickness or health of society. Today it is Israel that plays the role.


As King Goodwill Zwelithini recently advised Cyril Ramaphosa: "Do not enmesh SA in wars we know nothing of."


Milton ShainEmeritus professor of historical studies, UCT

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