Kasrils throws Jewish people under the bus

Dear Ronnie Kasrils

I’ve read your post in the Sunday Times.

It’s with much pain that I’m called to draft a response.

In the name of peace and dialogue for a better future for all, let me begin with an understanding of your view. Rather than correct you, I wish to connect with you.

So, Israel is the ultimate re-incarnation of the devil, the perfection of an apartheid regime, an occupier beyond measure, the quintessential case study for colonialism, and the most inhumane entity above and beyond Assad in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, above and beyond the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Mozambique, and Boko Haram in Nigeria, to mention only a few of the competitors for this prestige competition for obsessive focus and singularity.

In the spirit of dialogue, I’ll entertain your point of view.

Let’s say that Israel is the devil.

The problem I have is the way in which you throw us Jewish people under the bus.

Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein is a learned and sensitive man. Throughout COVID-19 and lockdown, we were privy on a Sunday afternoon to webinars focused solely on the upliftment and wellness of the community. The rabbi was also the innovator of a security system which has kept us safe for many years, and a project which has unified and brought us much joy.

The issue I have with you is your lack of sensitivity to the rabbi and Jewish community in an atmosphere of intensified antisemitism and global violence towards the Jewish people.

Your noble humanitarian, egalitarian, and progressive liberal views don’t add value to the healing of a fracture, but rather increase the dividedness and brokenness.

On this deficit in the strategic import of your so-called passionate call for justice, you fail miserably. You behave like the very Israel you so (incorrectly) label an apartheid, genocidal country. You use your now outdated, expired, heroic stance towards apartheid to stand against your own people, however wrong, in a conceptual genocide and apartheid against the Jewish people and yourself.

When faced with the dilemma of truth versus peace, you choose truth – which is debatable – and it’s not peaceful. How noble. Indeed, so just!