Well-meaning do-gooders destroyed the Palestinian dream

Not every critic of Israel is a raging antisemite, although let’s face it, many are.

The anti-Israel coalition has been cobbled together as a broad partnership of unrehabilitated Stalinists; leftist fascists; neo-Nazi racists; radical jihadists; woke vegans; anti-Western anarchists; and a group of meandering misfits desperately searching for any cause that would accept them.

One of my school classmates who told our first reunion that she couldn’t wait to get married so she could get rid of her “Jewy” last name, has today reinvented herself as both a failed actress and a “Jew for Palestine”. This weekend, pictures circulated of her in front of a sign at a protest in Cape Town proclaiming, “We are all Hamas”.

Protests were also spearheaded by a decrepit current Communist and former minister of intelligence who led 28 South Africans to their death at what became known as the Bisho Massacre. Needless to say, the social media warrior and national laughing stock, Carl Niehaus, joined the fray.

For many jihadi Muslims around the world, the sight of Hamas cruelty and barbarism was too much to process. In one of the greatest contradictions that never gets pointed out, they simultaneously both denied the savagery of the 7 October 2023 attacks and believed that Israel deserved it. Despite Hamas documenting its bloodlust, the jihadi world rallied to its defence, hoping that their protests could overwhelm the screams of those they had massacred.

It was the same fascists who attempted to disrupt the memorial for the victims of 7 October at the Great Park Synagogue this past weekend, as they tore down banners commemorating the victims of Hamas’s grotesque violence. I’m reminded of the prophetic words of Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago: “In a competition of pain, there are no winners.” A few weeks later, their son, Hersh, was executed, shot dead by a bullet to the back of his head by his Hamas captors in Gaza.

But there’s another group who actively support the anti-Israel cause. It’s the well-meaning do-gooders and human rights activists who perceive the Palestinian people as an oppressed group yearning for freedom and independence. I know, because I, too, have been a “peacenik” my entire life.

But the Palestinians they believe in are a fantasy. Their Palestinians are peace loving, human rights adhering proponents of coexistence. Their Palestinians aren’t callous murderers, racists, homophobes, and torturers. Their Palestinians don’t take hostages, decapitate babies, or massacre children at a rave. Their Palestinians must, under all circumstances, be protected. These are the Palestinians which African National Congress (ANC) first deputy secretary general, Comrade Nomvula Mokonyane, called on all ANC structures to come out to support.

For these do-gooders to survive in their fantasy world, history begins long after 7 October, it begins with Israel’s counter-attack on Hamas in Gaza. To survive this fantasy world, they must ignore Hamas’s racist charter; its massacring of opponents; its raping of women; its hostage taking; its ruthless, callous murdering of civilians; its execution of opponents by throwing them off buildings; its hanging of gay people from lampposts; and its oppression of women.

For them, Palestinians must be protected no matter what principles you have to abandon.

In truth, it’s these do-gooders who have destroyed the Palestinian dream, and they are the ones to blame for the destruction of Gaza.

On 7 October 2023, there was one of the most brutal and sadistic attacks on a civilian population in modern times. On that day, close to 5 000 Hamas terrorists and their “civilian” collaborators invaded Israel; slaughtered grandmothers in the streets; shot Holocaust survivors; decapitated babies; massacred children in front of their parents; killed parents in front of their children; raped women; cut off the breasts of victims; and killed more than 360 youngsters at a rave. By the end of that day, close to 1 200 Israeli, mostly civilians, had been massacred and 251 had been taken hostage to Gaza.

As the fog of the Palestinian genocide of the Israelis lifted, there was little doubt that Israel had few options. She would mete out justice to those responsible, her army would dismantle Hamas, Israel would restore its deterrent power, and the state would do whatever it took to return the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Up to 20 000 Hamas terrorists have been killed together with countless Palestinian civilians. Much of Gaza has been destroyed.

But it didn’t have to be this way!

The so-called do-gooders and human rights activists could have stopped the destruction. If they had a shred of moral fibre, they would have loudly proclaimed their horror and disgust at the Hamas attack; women’s rights groups would have stood up for the raped Israeli women; and human rights advocates would have unequivocally called for immediate justice for the victims. They would have demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages.

But they didn’t! They remained silent!

Not surprisingly, the South African government did the same. At the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the ANC, immediately after the Hamas massacre, NEC members donned Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves and failed to mention either the Hamas invasion or the taking of hostages. A number of South Africans had been murdered on 7 October, even more had been taken hostage. The ANC was silent! It didn’t care!

Shortly thereafter, it was announced by Hamas that South Africa’s jihadi minister of international relations and cooperation (Dirco), Dr Naledi Pandor, had called Hamas to congratulate it on the success of its “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack, a statement denied implausibly by Pandor.

Rather than demanding justice for the victims, the South African government decided to take the victims to court at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Bought by the coffers of Iran, and encouraged by the jihadi dreams of the Pandor family and Dirco Director-General Zane Dangor, the country became a proxy puppet of Iran.

Suddenly, condemning attacks on civilians depended on context, as did the rape of women. If the human rights activists had a shred of moral clarity, they should have demanded that Hamas surrender; lay down its weapons; offer its soldiers to be tried for war crimes; and return the hostages. If they had done this, the war could have been over in days.

But instead of assuming the moral high ground, they conspired to protect Hamas, conflating the barbarism of the attack with the freedom of Palestine.

This emboldened Hamas provided it with cover and encouraged it not to capitulate to Israel, and by so doing, they forced Israel into a long battle in Gaza, with door to door, hand-to-hand combat, building by building, tunnel by tunnel, searching for the perpetrators of 7 October and desperately seeking hostages to rescue.

The result of the do-gooder’s bravado has been the destruction of Gaza.

But the Lesbians for Palestine are incapable of self-reflection, the woke academics who live in theoretical constructs are incapable of taking responsibility for what they have done, and the misfits who stand at the barricades of the West cosplaying revolutionaries will never understand that it is they/them who destroyed the Palestinian dream.

• Howard Sackstein is the chairperson of the SA Jewish Report but writes in his personal capacity.