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South Africa Is Becoming Another Front in the War Against Israel
Anti-Israel protesters march through the streets of the township of Lenasia in Johannesburg, South Africa, Oct. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ihsaan Haffejee
Amid growing instability across the world, South Africa is playing a key role in the tectonic geopolitical shifts underway, recently supporting Iranian membership in BRICS, the Russian-led Global South economic club.
With its bogus genocide charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its connections to Iranian nuclear interests, South Africa spearheads the global solidarity movement’s attack on Israel.
Elite political figures in South Africa show no discomfort with the desire of Iranian leaders to destroy the State of Israel. The South African figure most closely associated with nuclear policy, Abdul Minty, is a veteran anti-apartheid activist and ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He is also an outspoken opponent of Israel, who has a track record in the IAEA that is considered favorable to Iran.
In pursuit of their goal to destroy Israel, the Iranian leadership prefers not to put their own population in the firing line, cultivating proxy militias elsewhere, including Gaza’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and Syria’s Shi’ite militia.
South Africa increasingly shows itself to be another key Iranian proxy site, an eighth front in Israel’s existential war.
With South African civilians and politicians working actively against Israel — including in diplomatic arenas, in lawfare, and in humanitarian sectors — public perception is churned in Iran’s favor, including support for the false “apartheid” analogy that has since been overtaken by charges of genocide.
Iran’s stated goal to destroy the Jewish State has been supported on the streets of Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town, where sources close to Jewish communal organizations highlight links between South African anti-Israel groups and Iran.
South Africans generally are reeling in shock, following crass antisemitic statements made by Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman, the much loved founder and director of Gift of the Givers humanitarian relief agency, at a recent rally in Cape Town organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and attended by extreme anti-Israel and pro-Iran groups.
Sooliman’s comments were highlighted in an open letter by retired High Court Judge Lawrence Nowosenetz, published in his blog on The Times of Israel.
Sooliman continues to work with the backing and support of the South African government and elite civil society, and has many other supporters including Usuf Chikte, coordinator of the PSC Campaign. Speaking at Cape Town’s first Shia Mosque, Ahlul Bait Mosque, on Al Quds Day in April 2022, Chikte described his excitement in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution took place, and his support for Iranian geopolitical interests oozes from his every utterance. He has pushed legislation to boycott Israel, to use lawfare charges or genocide against it, and much more.
Chikte’s promotion of Shiite Iranian geopolitical interests is also clear on the international front, where he calls explicitly for the removal of the Sunni leaders in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Gulf States, which he describes as “so-called Muslim countries.”
“We want to expose the hypocrisy of the despots of the Middle East,” said Chikte. “In the fight against imperialism, these are the people at the forefront and they must be removed for us to be able to ensure that the whole region is free from imperialism, from plundering and pillaging of that whole area.”
Time will tell if South Africa is using BRICS to undermine the possibility of any progress with the Abraham Accords as Sooliman, Chikte, Hamas, and Iran would wish, and whether leaders of the “so-called Muslim” countries described by Chikte will be pleased if, with South Africa’s support, Iran does in fact succeed in its goal to undermine and destroy the Jewish State.
Joshua Schewitz is a researcher and analyst specializing in Africa and the Middle East, with a focus on security related-topics in addition to blockchain technology.
The post South Africa Is Becoming Another Front in the War Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Democrats, Republicans Make Final Push for Jewish Voters on Eve of US Presidential Election
US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) speaks during the House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, Sept. 30, 2021. Photo: Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS
Both Democratic and Republican parties are scrambling to galvanize Jewish support on the eve of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.
In what is projected to potentially be the closest presidential election in over 20 years, both parties believe that Jewish voters could play a major role in determining the election’s outcome. As the race for the White House enters the final hours, Democrats and Republicans have deployed some of their most vocal pro-Israel allies in a last-minute pitch to the Jewish community.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) visited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to court Jewish voters who feel alienated by Rep. Summer Lee’s (D-PA) unrelenting anti-Israel rhetoric. Torres sought to assuage fears that Vice President Kamala Harris harbors similar views on Israel as Lee.
In addition, Torres defended the Biden administration’s record on Israel, arguing that a potential Harris administration would continue to strengthen ties with the Jewish state and mitigate any threats from Iran.
“I joined the Harris campaign in showing solidarity with the Pittsburgh Jewish community, which has been profoundly shaken by both the Tree of Life mass shooting and the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism,” Torres told Jewish Insider.
“I did my best to reassure the Jewish community that the Democratic Party — despite the background noise on Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok — has been and will remain fundamentally pro-Israel and that the Vice President herself falls squarely within the pro-Israel consensus that has historically governed American politics, rejecting both the [a]nti-Zionism of the far left and the America-[F]irst isolationism of the far right,” Torres continued.
On the conservative side of the aisle, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) filmed a video with the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in support of former President Donald Trump.
“This is the most important election cycle in our lifetime, and as we have seen on college campuses, the rot of antisemitism is real in the Democratic Party.
She accused the Biden White House of betraying Israel and the Jewish people. She lambasted the Biden administration for their failure “to combat antisemitism”
“It is Republicans who have always – and will always – stand strongly with Israel, and stand up and clearly condemn antisemitism,” Stefanik said.
While serving on the Education and the Workforce Committee, Stefanik has lambasted administrators of elite universities for their mealy-mouthed condemnations of antisemitism and tolerance of anti-Jewish violence on campus. Last December, Stefanik engaged in a fiery back-and-forth with the presidents of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over a purported antisemitic campus atmospheres.
Early indicators suggest that Harris is expected to win a smaller share of the Jewish vote than previous Democratic candidates. Jewish voters, highly-concentrated in important areas such as the suburbs of Detroit and Philadelphia, could prove critical in Harris’s bid to win the White House.
Liberal CNN commentator Van Jones cautioned Monday that Harris has suffered an erosion of Jewish support in the Philadelphia metro.
Jones said that he’s “worried” that the “Jewish vote in the suburban areas” of Philadelphia have dramatically soured on Harris.
“Biden won the Jewish vote [in suburban Philadephia] by 70%” Jones said, referencing the 2020 election.
“Some polls show Kamala at 50-50” among Jewish voters in suburban Philadelphia, Jones lamented.
The post Democrats, Republicans Make Final Push for Jewish Voters on Eve of US Presidential Election first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Quiet antisemitism in Toronto’s Roncesvalles Village leaves a resident wondering how this area is considered ‘progressive’
In a gentrifying West Toronto neighbourhood full of signs advocating for Black lives, transgender youth and the unhoused, the clerk’s refusal to hang up a sign of my own design […]
The post Quiet antisemitism in Toronto’s Roncesvalles Village leaves a resident wondering how this area is considered ‘progressive’ appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Jewish Boy Assaulted on Way to School in New York City, Assailant Remain at Large
Illustrative: An ambulance used by Hatzalah in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Orthodox Jews in New York City are again frustrated with a lack of law and order in the Five Boroughs following another attack against a member of their community, this time a child.
According to multiple accounts, an African American male on Monday morning smacked a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was commuting to school on his bike in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. The incident was the second known assault on an Orthodox Jew in the area in less than a week.
“He was riding his bike between Winthrop and Clarkson, near the hospital, when a man slapped him. He arrived at school shaken, and the school contacted his parents and Crown Heights Shomrim [a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group],” Yaacov Behrman, a local Jewish leader, posted on X/Twitter.
Behrman — a liaison for Chabad Headquarters, the main New York base of the Hasidic movement — added that the boy was filing a police report.
A teacher of the young man, Yisrael Eliashiv, added that the assailant, who remains at large, “smacked [the boy] across the face for no reason other than hate. Thankfully, he got away before anything else happened.” The teacher then noted that his student did not initially think to notify the police because he doubted the attacker would receive any punishment.
“I’m fuming to the point I’ve got a migraine … You have kids who are 13 or 14 and have grown up with the attitude of ‘if you get assaulted in the street, just take it because nothing is gonna be done.’ Those are the symptoms not of a sick but of a dead and decaying society,” Eliashiv wrote.
Crown Heights, home to a large Orthodox Jewish population, has seen numerous antisemitic hate crimes in recent years. In July 2023, for example, a 22-year-old Israeli Yeshiva student, who was identifiably Orthodox and visiting New York City for the summer holiday, was stabbed with a screwdriver by one of two men who attacked him after asking whether he was Jewish and had any money. The other punched him in the face.
Earlier that year, 10- and 12-year-olds were attacked on Albany Avenue by four African American teens.
Monday’s assault came just days after an assailant slashed a visibly Jewish man in the face as he was walking through downtown Brooklyn last week.
These latest attacks on the Orthodox Jewish community continue a trend.
According to a report issued in August by New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crimes in New York City last year. The report added that throughout the state, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims.
Meanwhile, according to a recent Algemeiner review of New York City Police Department (NYPD) hate crimes data, 385 antisemitic hate crimes have struck the New York City Jewish community since last October, when the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas perpetrated its Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, unleashing a wave of anti-Jewish hatred unlike any seen in the post-World War II era.
Beyond New York, anti-Jewish hate crimes in the US spiked to a record high last year, and American Jews were the most targeted of any religious group in the country, according to a report published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in September.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish Boy Assaulted on Way to School in New York City, Assailant Remain at Large first appeared on Algemeiner.com.