Open letter Ms. Esakov following her letter to Chief Rabbi Goldstein
Ms. Esakov,
I am writing as a fellow Jew, South African and Israeli
after reading your letter to Chief Rabbi Goldstein - “Do not speak in my name”+ (21/08/2012).
While some of the content is factually wrong (see below),
unsupported and seems simply thrown in to serve biased sentiments and obsessive
agenda, the logic which fans the content and arguments is twisted and places
stumbling blocks before the blind. If this is your intention, you
needn’t read the rest of this letter.
Relying on your statement - “as a researcher who focuses on
Palestine-Israel, it is my duty to step back from my anger and engage
intellectually and honestly”, I would expect intellectual engagement and
intellectual honesty too. Furthermore, I am glad to see that you are “committed
to justice for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis….and prefer not to personalize
the debate but rather “remain[s] rooted in intellectual engagement”. I commit
to upholding the same moral duty and commitment. I would thus like to clarify
that each and every statement, historic fact and/or comment can and will be
supported by credible links and other informative reliable resources.
After your short introduction, in which you state that you will
“ensure that the personal is not lost to the political” and “remain rooted
in intellectual engagement”, you accuse Goldstein personally, of abusing his
office and “unapologetically becoming a propagandist for Israeli crimes”. I did
some research and cannot find the likes. The only reference I found attributed
to Goldstein, regarding the Goldstone report, is a statement regarding commission member Chinkin’s article and
statements about "Israel's bombardment of Gaza is not self-defense – it's
a war crime"1 before even having researched anything. As a
researcher yourself, you know that assumptions and presumptions preceding any
findings are the antithesis of research, fact-finding and reporting.
You brought up the point of a “blind-spot” in your first
paragraph. Unfortunately, as a researcher, you seem to have one yourself.
“Remember that even when it
became painfully apparent, and the United Nations displayed evidence, that
Israel had committed crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 2008-09
Israeli war on Gaza, leaving about 1,400 civilians dead, including hundreds of
children, and having destroyed places of education and worship, you used your
religious office to defend and condone the indefensible, unapologetically
becoming a propagandist for Israeli crimes. “
Lots of water has passed under the bridge since the
Goldstone report, including Goldstone’s remorse.2 You seem to lack
some researched information and owe an explanation to your readers to fall in
line with your “commit[ment] to justice for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis”,
unless leading readers astray is part of your agenda.
You insinuate that Israel purposely “destroyed places of
education and worship”, “during the war on Gaza”. Israel has no, and had no
policy to destroy places of worship or education, nor did it proclaim war on
Gaza. Had the mighty Israeli military machine wanted to destroy all places
of worship and education it quite easily could have. Israel did not go to war
on Gaza either. Israel initiated an operation against Hamas and splinter group
terrorists to stop indiscriminate rocket fire at civilian targets. Despite
being a legitimate legal and immediate right, under any law system, Israel
initiated the operation after thousands of rockets were launched at civilian
targets and countless negotiation attempts to stop it, including a ceasefire
intentionally broken by Hamas. Hamas terrorists and their splinter groups were the
only targets. British Colonel, Richard Kemp testifies to this3,4
and testified at the UN too5.
It is common knowledge, almost 4 years after Operation Cast
Lead, that the number of civilian casualties is not 1,400 as you falsely wrote
and missed in your research6, 7.
Even the Goldstone report did not invent such a number, rewrite this as
history or distort facts so blatantly.
Presenting a simplified snapshot of event or situation is
considered poor journalism in the field of journalism and is totally
unacceptable in research. There are countless anti-Israel hate sites and
speakers whom, for now, I would like to believe that you do not want to be
associated with. Actually, some research shows that you took part in an
anti-Israel hate fest alongside Friedman, Kasrils, Said, Basam, Mohammed,
Abdullah et al.
You continue and claim that Mr. Ebrahim is correct in saying
that visiting Israel gives legitimacy to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian
land. When asked if travelling to China gives legitimacy to China’s occupation of
Tibet, Mr. Ebrahim said that “We do not recognize the occupation of Tibet”8.
Is it correct to assume that Mr. Ebrahim has singled out Israel as the worst
perpetrator of human rights violations? Please bear in mind, Darfur, Rwanda,
Tibet, Syria amongst others. Mr. Ebrahim might like see what Mr. Kenneth
Moshoe, a fellow Member of Parliament has to say about the “Apartheid Israel”
he constantly refers to9.
I was going to break down every point you made in your
letter but shall suffice with the above, pending your reply. The more I
research your “moral duties” and “commitment to justice for Palestinians and
Jewish Israelis” the more doubts I have to your real intentions and suspect
foreign elements in your commitment to intellectual discourse and “research”. I
hold this view after not finding any mention of anything concerning Israeli or
Jewish interests or concerns. Not one. Nor do I find any mention of one step
that the Palestinians need to undertake in order to bring about peace. Not one.
Instead I am witness to pure Anti-Israel bias at best, and blatant lies as
second.
This leads me, and the wary reader, to conclude that you are
not a “researcher who focuses on Palestine-Israel” but someone who has jumped
onto the anti-Israel bandwagon with popular misleading banners. Your target
audience might be the unwary and ignorant reader, but only you and I live with
that knowledge, meanwhile. Ironic that you write “Palestine-Israel” and not
“Israel-Palestine” – Palestine first, yet the focus is on Israel, another
subtle hint.
1 Chinkin: http://www.alandershowitz.com/goldstone.pdf
7
Casualties: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-admits-600-700-of-its-men-were-killed-in-cast-lead-1.323776
9 Kenneth Moshoe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5xTh8uwyo
