BEV GOLDMAN

Bev Goldman is the doyen of South African Zionist communicators – having spent almost a decade at the helm of the SAZF’s communications department, producing the FedSpeak newspaper and running Media Team Israel. 

To keep Report readers current, Bev scans dozens of op-ed pieces in SA and the world media on Zionism so that she can offer us her weekly pick of the best and most interesting, challenging and positive Zionist reading. Bev is also deeply involved in Zionist education.

Opinion & Analysis, Week ending 2 April

1. Peace process as an obstacle to peace

AB Yehoshua, YNet News, 31 March 2014

In recent years, writes novelist A. B. Yehoshua, ‘peace process’ has become an independent diplomatic entity whose outward appearance conceals not only real inaction but deeds which clearly contradict peace itself.

2. The Palestinians’ Real Enemies

Efraim Karsh, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2014

The actual policies of the Arab states have shown far less concern for pan-Arab ideals, let alone for the well-being of the Palestinians, than for their own self-serving interests. Indeed, nothing has done more to expose the hollowness of pan-Arabism than its most celebrated cause.

3. Israel’s big mistake

Yoav Sorek, Mosaic magazine, March 2014

How my countrymen gave up the hope for real peace, and how they can get it back.  

4. War across the borders

Jonathan Spyer, Middle East Forum, 28 March 2014

The entire area between the Iraq-Iran border and the Mediterranean Sea is currently the site of a single war, following a single dynamic, fought between protagonists defined by ethnic and sectarian loyalty.

5. Saudi Arabia: A kingdom on guard

Roula Khalaf, Financial Times, 26 March 2014

Alarmed by the rise of political Islam, the House of Saud is increasingly hardline at home and aggressive abroad. 

6. Why ‘moderate Islam’ is an oxymoron

 Raymond Ibrahim, CBN News, 24 March 2015

The real question, then, is what do Allah and his prophet command Muslims (“they who submit”) to do? Are radicals “exaggerating” their orders? Or are moderate Muslims simply “observing reasonable limits” – a euphemism for negligence? – when it comes to fulfilling their commandments?

7. What’s left for Israel advocacy 

Neil Lazarus, The Times of Israel, 10 February 2014

If Israel is to remain relevant to this generation of students we must rediscover what is left of liberal Zionist values, because let’s admit it – no country is always right. 

8. So what’s life really like in the Arab world?

John McHugo and Diana Darke, Readers Digest, 1 January 2014

NOTE: The views expressed in certain articles are not
necessarily those of the South African Zionist Federation