Louis Joffe
Sifrin is obviously left wing and believes that peace can [only] be achieved by giving back land, and [acquiescing to] a demand from [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas for giving up Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.
The barbaric murder of Jews nearly every day has passed Sifrin by. Sorry Geoff, but I am a fanatic Zionist and I thank G-d for giving the Jewish people their own homeland called Israel not Palestine.
Umhlanga Rocks
Choni
Oct 14, 2015 at 4:45 pm
‘Agree with you Louis 100%
In all his years as editor of S.A. Jewish Report Sifrin was always ‘neutral’ on the Israeli/Arab conflict.
This in itself often made him sympathetic to the cause of the psychotic Arab murderers who wish to destroy all Jewish presence in Israel.
‘
Josh
Oct 14, 2015 at 7:40 pm
‘Id like to say that while I respect your right to freedom of speech to voice your disagreement with Mr Sifrin(It is good manners to add Mr by the way unless you happen to be Mr Sifrins golf buddy) but I must say I take great offense to the assumption that left wing jews are any less patriotic.
No one is denying the atrocities being perpetrated against Israelis. Mr Sifrin has never denied anything of the sort. If you are going to pen such an aggressive and inflammatory article I hope you can defend it.
Is it unpatriotic to say a two state solution is the best solution? Or that military might can never win an ideological war? Is it unpatriotic to state the fact that if a two state solution is not implemented that a one state solution is the only alternative(because genocide wouldn’t be an option) I am not saying Israel is guilty of any such atrocity in case you try pin that accusation on me. If a one state is implemented then Palestinians will vote in their own non jewish government democratically. Then what?
Lets be mature enough to realize that if a system is not working it needs to be fixed. We all want peace. Lets stop arguing over who’s wings are correct or we will never get off the ground
‘
Samuel
Oct 15, 2015 at 9:35 am
‘Certain folks amongst us ,including Geoff Sifrin still aren’t aware that Likud and Bibi Netanyahu are anything but \”right-wing\” rejectionists ,so what does Geoff say about Yisrael Beiteinu’s Avigdor Libermann and Bayit Yehudi’s Naftali Bennett ,considered far-right even by Israeli Jewish standards !’
Josh
Oct 16, 2015 at 9:07 am
‘I have to just weigh in again.
I mean the way you guys carry on you make being left wing sound like a swear word. I have never considered myself directly left wing but if me believing that all lives are equal, all people are created in the image of G-d and therefore deserve life and in a two state solution where both Israelis and Palestinians can live within secure borders and peacefully if that makes me a left winger then fine.
The greatest threat to the world as it stands is the false belief that things cannot change. When we say \”oh Palestinians are always going to be bloodthirsty\” we conform to the narrative that this will never change. So it never will. We cant think like this. What is currently going on in Israel with the spread of violence being perpetrated by Palestinians on innocent Israeli civilians at the urging by Hamas is deplorable and needs to be stopped. But there also has to be a long term solution. Stopping short bursts of violence at a time for all eternity is not a viable solution.
A two state solution is the only viable solution. If we do not help give rise to a sovereign independent Palestinian state the Palestinians and Arabic people will eventually vote out a Jewish government democratically when they overrun Israel. Can you not see that short sighted rhetoric and pure military dominance cannot possibly win this war?
We need to have a long term strategy to ensure the survival of the state of Israel which is so important!
Can we rely on Religion alone to do this. Not necessarily.Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the dominant faiths which operate within our cultural narrative, were given birth with great intentions in order to guide people to lead moral lives whilst living in very different circumstances to our own currently put simply, deserts. How do the teachings of Christ or Abraham or Muhammad help us in the modern, post-industrial, secular world? A world where people have no concern for their souls and we dont care about each others spiritual well being. Not to say these texts are obsolete; I would never suggest that there is so much to learn from the Torah and there’s some terrific advice in all of them (Bible, Quran). Primarily, though, they have become tools for advancing personal agendas and conflict. The aspects of these ideologies that testify against oppression, segregation and conflict, which would seem to be the most vital bits, are consistently ignored by the people who preach them. So how can we take advice from people preaching from a pulpit of which they cherry pick what suits their own agendas.
Can we believe in politics to solve this alone? No because we dont understand the politics that goes on behind the cameras and away from the public eye.
The reason this bit of politics is not explained this to us is because the politicians in charge know that if we find out the extraordinary lengths that they’re going to keep us ignorant we will overthrow the current system and replace it with something fair. That’s why all this important stuff is made to seem inaccessible, boring, and abstract. That is why our participation in politics has been sanded down into an impotent nub. Stick your “X” into this box and congratulate yourself on being free.
What will save the world and the Middle East from burning is Love, peace and the acknowledgement that we are all equal in the eyes of G-d. We all have the right to live in peace with each other. For those that will not live in peace and compound violence they need to be imprisoned and let those of us who do want peace to give birth to it.
But by refusing to acknowledge a two state solution we are not just not helping the issues but in the long term we are punishing Israelis.
Peace
‘
Choni
Oct 16, 2015 at 11:33 am
‘Josh, Go learn some Tanach.’
nat cheiman
Oct 16, 2015 at 12:11 pm
‘If you give a hand, the palestinians want an arm.
Jordan has a majority of Palestinians. Israel should take over entirely Gaza and the West Bank. The Aqsa mosque should be removed and the muslims can pray in Mecca or Medina.
You cannot have a 2 state solution with people that want to destroy you. Jeremy Corbyn is a liberal. I wouldn’t want to live under his government. Jews are not wanted in Europe and most countries.It will be too late to do anything once the enemies of Israel live next door. Now is the time to chase the Palestinians out to Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Europe etc.’
Josh
Oct 16, 2015 at 2:17 pm
‘Choni climb out of your bubble. If your a bad person you dont lack religion you lack empathy. ‘
Josh
Oct 16, 2015 at 2:19 pm
‘Try focusing on being moral. Even a parrot can learn religious text’