Hassen Lorgat – Chief Rabbi has been the ‘Opstoker’ not the helper

Responding to Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein’s outspoken position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Hassen Lorgat argues that the Chief Rabbi has been an ‘Opstoker’ (instigator) and not a helping hand.

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By Hassen Lorgat*

Would it be an accurate assessment to make that Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein has positioned himself as the “opstoker” (instigator) in chief of regime change? It appears so given that what he has articulated in many statements, articles and podcasts openly calls for the defeat of the ANC-led government of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The chief rabbi has been the opstoker in chief of regime change. This he articulated in many statements, articles and even more recently podcasts. In this new role as an instigator for a regime change the esteemed rabbi and his team of hasbara tacticians are hoping for a replay of the UK elections where Jeremy Corbyn lost the elections largely due to the Jewish Board of Deputies and their fiends in the media.

On the eve of the UK’s 2019 general elections Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis used the mass media effectively including the printed press and the BBC to launch an attack on Jeremy Corbyn. Many regarded this as an unprecedented intervention in politics. Other print media houses regarded his intervention as “profoundly significant” as it played into the fabricated claims that the labour party was anti semitic. The timing and scale of the interventions was critical. But South Africa is not Britain.

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein is trying a Corbyn on the ANC, to oust if not to weaken it. These messages are planned interventions for a regime change which the South African Jewish Reporter so eloquently argued two months ago: Vote them Out. The ANC are not our friends.

Earlier in the year, the rabbi went to Israel on “behalf of the South African Jewish community, as well as millions of our fellow citizens throughout the country, that the ANC government does not speak in our name; that we stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel in the battle against the forces of evil”. Needless to say that many in the country including the Jewish community said: Not in my Name.

The Chief Rabbi’s most recent imbongi is Alec Hogg who wrote that the rabbi’s anti-ANC message was timely: Removing ANC is a moral issue for all people of faith. In Hogg’s preamble he highlights the courageous role of faith leaders like Tutu, Boesak and others who played a critical role in opposing apartheid. They spoke truth to power. What both Hogg and Goldstein have omit from their memory is that these leaders were and remain on record as courageous people who opposed Zionism, when it was not easy to do so.

Tutu famously stated that those religious and other leaders who seek to marginalise the cause of Palestinians are complicit in heinous oppression. Tutu was on record for supporting boycotts, sanctions and disinvestment campaigns as in the case of South Africa these actions ¨ultimately forced these leaders together around the negotiating table was the cocktail of persuasive, nonviolent tools that had been developed to isolate South Africa, economically, academically, culturally and psychologically,”

Internationally Tutu reminded his audiences that the opposition political groups in particular the African National Congress was labeled by the US government as a terrorist organisation while they backed white South Africa’s war in Angola and in other parts of the continent.

In addition, the Arch, Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate was opposed to the neutral bystander stating famously that :“those who turn a blind eye to injustice actually perpetuate injustice. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor,”

Propagandistic statements such as those spoken by Warren Goldstein in the podcast include this familiar Zionist narrative: 70 people are being killed / murdered in South Africa and that is more than that of Gaza.

Furthermore the rabbi develops this argument and without context and a-historically compares the genocidal IDF killings of Palestinians from sea, land and air (using sophisticated US f16 aircrafts, tanks etc) to the poor quality public and private services in this country. This argument is simply untenable. The rest of the podcast is an anti South African diatribe that sought to win over the audience to his preferred sentiment that Israel is a victim. But the reality is indeed very different.

Last year on October 12, Newsweek featured vital statistics of the power of Israel under the heading How Does Israel’s Military Compare to Hamas Forces?The article underlines my argument that the state of Israel was no victim but an aggressor and possessed a powerful military that was waging war upon a strip of people densely populated and controlled.

They reported that the Israeli Defence Force receives from the US taxpayers a military budget of around $23.4 billion whilst Hamas “is heavily dependent on foreign funding, and the extent of its military budget is not clear”. The Israel’s army of 169,500 active-duty personnel—maintained through conscription—have been boosted by 360,000 reserves whilst Hamas, it was presumed to be about 40,000 fighters of unknown strengths. Hamas, it argued had some Iranian-made Fateh-110 ballistic missiles as well as the “less sophisticated rockets assembled within Gaza. The group is thought to have around 10,000 rockets”. These are easily dealt with by the Iron Dome defense system, provided by the USA

Israel and the rabbi believe that this occupying army is moral. Netanyahu in various pronouncements also believes that they are close to getting the job done by wiping out Hamas. According to this narratives one can only conclude that with about 32,552 Palestinians killed and taking stock of the numbers – their job is almost done.

The images of babies and children under 5 being killed (without military uniforms and armaments) warrants an outcry from all faith leaders and journalists. To be silent is to be complicit. Luckily the leading role played by South Africa have correctly labeled these actions as plausibly genocidal and the war on the people had to be stopped in an effort to avert widespread famine and deaths.

These concerns and arguments journalist Hogg was too afraid to put to Chief Rabbi Goldstein, whom the South African Jews For A Free Palestine have labeled as UNELECTED and a GENOCIDE ENABLER.

It may be a timely and powerful message Mr Hogg, but only for those who are in his camp. The rabbi has become a faction fighter and has not provided any solutions for all the people in this country, including the Jewish community.