Hardliners undermine holiday plans

In planning this week’s edition, our last of 2024, we had hoped to have an uplifting, lighthearted publication that would herald the beginning of our December holidays. We hoped to inspire a sense of relaxation and letting go of all the hardship and discomfort of this year.

We had it all set up, but hard news got in the way. Unpleasant reality kept biting us where it hurts this week, and in fact all year.

We have still managed to include things to do during the holidays: a lighthearted OpEd on Jozi moving down to the coast; a fun sufganiot (doughnut) tasting; and a piece on generational family holiday homes. We also give you our annual predictions for 2025; commemorate 50 years since Ipi Ntombi hit our stages; and an unusual friendship on page 12. We give you holiday reading suggestions, and talk to those who have hit their senior years but are by no means done (page 16). We have also secured a couple of insightful spiritual Chanukah pieces to inspire you (page 10). But, in essence, we landed up taking reporters off gentler features to cover unpleasant hard news.

While we would love to wish it away or dig a hole in the ground and do the ostrich thing, that would be denying our responsibility to you. We dare not turn our heads from truth and reality, even if it hurts like hell.

It’s tough to accept that part of our hard-earned taxpayers’ contributions is spent on facilitating our government in having a glorious time at The Hague while challenging Israel on fake genocidal claims. There are so many in our country desperate for food, a roof over their heads, and a job, yet our government feels happy to waste its money on this.

We cannot escape the fact that there was an attempted terrorist attack in the Cape Jewish organisations.

I know that I, for one, was hoping that there was some other way of looking at the explosive that was lobbed at their building, hoping it wasn’t an attempt to harm Jews for no other reason than they are Jews. But I was unable to find one.

For so long, we have held sacrosanct the fact that although we had a government in this country that was clearly against the Jewish state in every way possible, South Africans, as a rule, weren’t antisemitic. And, as Jews, we could hold our heads up high in this country.

The truth is still that most South Africans aren’t antisemitic, they don’t hate anyone. They generally don’t think about Jews as anything but people.

However, our haters – a few of whom are born of Jewish parents – are so full of hatred, and clearly have no bounds in their animosity towards us. The more they say ugly and hate-filled things about us, the more they are capable of and the more their venom spreads.

And the more the government and powerful people in this country run us down, denigrate Jews, the more hatred spreads. We see it all over Europe, America, the United Arab Emirates, and in other parts of the world.

Frankly, I believe our government, as leaders, should know better because they should be out to protect all South Africans, no matter our background, religion, race, and so on. Unfortunately, they have made it clear that people who aren’t South Africans and live in the Middle East are far more important to them than us, many of whom have been living in this country for generations. I don’t think they want to acknowledge the fact that we, as Jews supporting a Jewish state – not necessarily its present government, are as much a part of this country as they are.

Unfortunately, our government has added to the stigmatisation of Jews, and it continues to add the horrific labelling of Jews as genocidal. Amazingly, you just have to know us to know that we are so far from that.

Unfortunately for us, though, this is what leads to terrorist attacks like the one which occurred last Friday. Thank G-d, nobody was hurt!

The national government hasn’t said a word about this attack. A particular national news site did its best to dismiss this attack as fake when the evidence was there to prove it. Having said that, fortunately, the police and law enforcement agencies aren’t dismissing it. They have launched a full-scale investigation into what happened because they are aware of the significance.

Hopefully, this means the perpetrators will be brought to book. It’s vital that those who believe they can get away with hate crimes are made to realise they are wrong.

Once again, I’m grateful to Jewish organisations like the CSO, CAP, Hatzolah, and others that ensure our safety.

However, as we all head out for our holidays, we need to be cognisant that times have changed. We cannot just throw caution to the wind. We must be aware of our surroundings and ensure our safety. We must watch out for ourselves, and not put ourselves or our children in dangerous situations.

Don’t let your guard down too much, and if you need to, call for help. Better to be safe than sorry!

As we count down to Chanukah, the festival of miracles and light and the end of 2024, I hope it will bring about change for good. I hope it will lead us to the end of the war, and the beginning of a time in which we can let our guard down.

I wish you all a chag Chanukah sameach, a relaxing holiday, and special family time!

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor

We won’t be publishing over the holidays, but we’ll be back on 16 January 2025. See you then!