Targeting the good folk

It seems that all eyes are no longer just on Israel, as we were led to believe in the past two years. All eyes are on anyone who doesn’t slate Israel as a genocidal maniacal country. Seriously, I’m beginning to believe that those who have come out vehemently against Israel and Jews are partly doing it to avoid being targeted themselves by our haters. 

Not that I believe it’s acceptable. It isn’t. Siding with terrorists can never be acceptable. But the pressure on anyone who isn’t vocally and blanketly anti-Israel and therefore antisemitic seems immense and totally unconscionable. 

More and more, I’m seeing people who have stood up against antisemitism and Israel hatred in support of the truth being cancelled or put under huge pressure in their careers. 

For the most part, these are individuals who stand up against violence, hatred, and bigotry and simply feel that they can’t be silenced when seeing people supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. 

Our haters are making it difficult for these individuals to find work, defaming them by saying that they support genocide and the murdering of babies and the like. They put massive pressure on potential employers not to hire them. How despicable can people get! 

Then there are Jewish people who are targeted, like Philip Krawitz and his company Cape Union Mart. In this instance, Krawitz, who has endured extreme bullying and hatred, employs thousands of South Africans who then feed and educate their families with their earnings. 

Our haters have pinpointed Krawitz because he happens to be Jewish and, like most of us, he supports a Jewish state for obvious reasons. He has never come out in support of the present Israeli government, nor has he ever publicly made anything other than humanitarian utterings about the Jewish state. 

However, those who don’t like Jews have him in their sights and are now reaching out for funders to help fight Krawitz in court. (See story on page 1.) Frankly, it’s outrageous to call on others to help pay for your antisemitic antics. 

However, what a relief it is to find that BackaBuddy has recognised what these people are trying to do, and have stopped it in its tracks. Well done BackaBuddy! It’s great to know that there are people out there with backbones who recognise what is right and wrong in our world. 

It beggars belief that our haters continue their charade of attacking Krawitz and Cape Union Mart, which is like cutting off your nose to spite your face in a country desperate for employment. If Krawitz goes down, so does every single person in his employ. And their families will be without a breadwinner. 

I guess, though, those who despise us don’t care a jot about anyone left unemployed. Their focus isn’t on South Africans, although they live here and are clearly influential in government circles. Instead they support terror and bringing down democracy and the Western world. 

You know, I would love to believe that they care about the plight of Palestinians, the very people they purport to support. However, when the ceasefire was implemented in October and Hamas had innocent Gazan Palestinians publicly executed, there was not a word from these supporters. So, who exactly do they support? Whose side are they really on? 

When Palestinians come to South Africa to escape Hamas in Gaza, it took a while for anyone to come to support them. Those self-same supporters who have so much to say about Jews in South Africa who want to maintain a Jewish state, were nowhere to be seen when those Palestinians needed help. I wonder just how well they are being looked after now in South Africa. Or are they helpful only in being pawns in the war against the Jewish state? 

It seems that this isn’t the only posturing going on in South Africa. My sense of the G20 that took place last weekend is evidence of that. I have to say, I love the flowers on the side of the road and that many potholes – not even close to half – have been sealed. There was a massive push to clean up our city and make it look beautiful to impress international leaders. (See opinion pieces on page 2 and page 6.) 

When a friend commented how astonishing it was that world leaders were in our city, I agreed. It is phenomenal that we hosted world leaders, only to what end exactly? What did South Africa get out of it? Or is that the wrong attitude to have? 

Here’s my thinking. In South Africa, about 19.7% to 22.2% of households face moderate to severe food insecurity, with nearly 3.5 million families lacking sufficient food daily. Hunger rates vary by province, with the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and Mpumalanga being most affected. These issues are particularly acute for female-headed households and children, who show high rates of malnutrition and stunting. 

Okay, so we hosted world leaders here. What impact did it have on this? Nothing. 

In the first quarter of this year, from January to March, 10 688 rape cases were reported to the police. The majority of the victims are women and girls. And we know that only one in nine rapes are actually reported to the police. 

What impact did hosting world leaders here have on those women and girls? Not much. 

I get that South Africa cannot only look inwards, but I think we are missing the point if we spend our government’s time and energy focusing on people in other countries and on hosting leaders here. 

Really, we need to heal our own country and find ways to sort out our ourselves first and foremost. Posturing and supporting terror isn’t going to cut it. Supporting entrepreneurs and business leaders who are doing good and employing many is. Making sure that hate-filled people don’t get away with targeting and bullying those on the side of good would also go a long way to get people to stand up and be counted in helping those who need help. 

Shabbat shalom 

Peta Krost 

Editor