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Zionism – Features

Tough times ahead as Zuma reaches defining moment

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By Iqbal Jassat

September 2010 will usher in the ANC’s National General Council and all expectations are that the Zuma presidency will regard it as a defining moment of make or break.

Amidst a wave of countrywide protests and huge outcries for better wages and more jobs, it seems impossible to imagine that only weeks ago the country was caught up in passionate euphoria over the soccer world cup.

National pride was in a state of ecstasy then. Unbelievable levels of efficiency and tight security measures characterized South Africa’s international showcase. Whether FIFA or its enigmatic Sepp Blatter was effectively at the helm of this country did not matter. What mattered was that every conceivable state function seemed to work in harmony.

News reports dominating headlines today seem to have backtracked so swiftly to the pre-WC2010 era, that many would find it unworthy of the soccer festival themed country.

Yet the harsh reality is that there cannot be any permanent escape to few fleeting moments of bliss when we as a country do indeed face tough challenges. While these may be described as socio-economic by some commentators, a fundamental challenge is that of governance.

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Chief rabbi wrong to deny existence of apartheid in Isarael

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Archbishop Tutu wont be fooled or silenced by his plea!

By Iqbal Jassat – Chairman, Media Review Network

The late Palestinian author and eloquent spokesman for the Palestinian cause in the West, Edward W. Said, in a ‘96 essay titled ‘Mandela, Netanyahu, and Arafat’ brilliantly captured the contrasts amongst these leaders.

But the defining gaps were not related to personalities; instead Said unpacked crucial differences related to and informed by ideology. For instance he cited Nelson Mandela’s commitment to the African National Congress’ [ANC] single goal for which it was created: the end of apartheid, and the institution of legal equality – one person, one vote – between blacks and whites.

On the other hand, Benjamin Netanyahu, who incidentally was on his first official trip to the United States, represented bigotry and falsehood. Today almost fifteen years later, one will fully appreciate Said’s critic of this man. His analysis likened Netanyahu to all other Israeli leaders who denied the past and the reality of the Palestinians. Netanyahu was a man insensitive to the human toll caused by Israel to literally millions of Arabs, claimed one of the leading authorities on the Middle East.

Having read South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein’s open letter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I am reminded of the above analogy and thus tempted to attribute Said’s brutal assessment of Netanyahu to Goldstein.

And the reason for doing so is relatively easy once you read and
understand the Chief Rabbi’s shameless denial that “Israel is not an
apartheid state”. And to underpin his misleading assertion, he seeks to
confound it by another blatant untruth: “In the state of Israel all
citizens – Jew and Arab – are equal before the law”.

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Osamas killing shows up the us

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By Firoz Osman – Media Review Network

(source: Sowetan Newspaper – Friday, 6/05/2011, Pg12)

Assassinations and extrajudicial killings are banned under both US and International Law, and until all the facts are established the sinister motives of the murky raid leading to the brutal murder of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan will have dire consequences.

As more information comes to light, facts such as Osama bin Laden was unarmed, the premises was not guarded and that his wife was not used as a human shield and was shot in the leg trying to protect herself- shows just how revolting and arrogant America is, a far cry from being the champion of human rights.

The Americans never showed any evidence of bin Laden’s alleged crimes. Let us recall that when the Taliban refused to extradite bin Laden to the USA, the US representatives told the Taliban,’ either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs.’ The Taliban refused.

In the wake of the 9/11 atrocity, the neocons under Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney, in league with Israel, was provided with the opportunity to launch illegitimate military invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, men, women and children, have been murdered by the Western coalition.

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