A light unto (African) nations

...To the haters, this is not merely irrelevant - it is vital that such news be minimized or ignored. The haters invariably pretend that hundreds of projects like these do not reflect well on Israel but in fact are evil themselves, as they are meant to whitewash Israel's supposed crimes, which is its main reason for existence. In reality, the true evil lies in the hearts of the haters. Even Christians who pretend that they are demonizing Israel out of their abundant love.

Elder of Ziyon..
03 March '14..

If you read the literature from anti-Israel Christians, one of their themes is that Israel is illegitimate because it is acting more like a tyrannical Pharaoh than like a "light unto nations." They are saying that Israel's actions make it illegitimate as a nation since it is not fulfilling its Biblical mandate. (See the essay on this page by Stephen France, for example.)

This is of course wrong for many reasons. One is that they are saying that Israel falls short of standards that no nation has ever lived up to, but Jews must act to a standard that anti-Israel Christians define and therefore will inevitably fall short.

However, I would submit that Israel is a light unto nations, just people who hate Israel don't want to be bothered with the facts.

This amazing article from Israel21c lists 22 ways that Israel has been helping Africans in recent years.

1. Malaria, the most devastating disease in sub-Saharan Africa, claims the life of a child every 30 seconds. Researchers at the Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are dedicated to helping Africa wipe out this disease just as Israel did in the 1940s.

In December 2013, the university’s Hadassah Braun School of Public Health hosted an international conference of malaria experts to formulate a new strategy for African nations. Representatives from Gabon and Zanzibar were there to see what conclusions they could bring back home, where anti-malaria efforts have been only partially successful.

2. In 2011, a team of Israeli neonatologists went to Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city, to train local doctors and nurses in advanced, low-cost methods to address the city’s high infant mortality rate. The doctors, sent by the Alliance for Global Good in cooperation with MASHAV, also established two new neonatal units in Kumasi’s sole hospital.

(Continue)

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Polakow-Suransky’s Radioactive Thinking

Emmanuel Navon
For the Sake of Zion
27 May '10

Sacha Polakow-Suransky’s new book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa has a clear agenda: to argue that there is an ideological similarity between Zionism and Apartheid, and that today’s Israel is the heir of yesterday’s South Africa.

Polakow-Suransky’s book has been celebrated as a welcome eye-opener by Israeli journalists, scholars and politicians, such as Akiva Eldar, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Yossi Beilin, and Avi Shlaim. In truth, however, the book contains no historical revelation (not even the alleged nuclear cooperation between Israel and South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s). Nor is there anything new about the attempt to “prove” the ideological similarity between Zionism and Apartheid. Arab propagandists and European leftists have been playing this tune for over three decades (Jane Hunter’s book Israeli Foreign Policy: South Africa and Central America [1987] comes to mind).

The story goes like this. Starting in the mid-1950s, Israel built diplomatic relations with the new African states, offering its know-how and help to peoples who had suffered from oppression just like the Jews. But then Israel became a colonial power itself in 1967, thus alienating its African friends. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel was broke and couldn’t think of a better way of making ends meet than by selling weapons to South Africa. No wonder: since Israel became colonialist and racist after 1967, collaborating with South Africa was only natural. From alienated, African countries became furious and broke their ties with the Jewish state. Today, Israel is itself an Apartheid state and the only desirable outcome is for the Jews to follow the example of their Afrikaner brothers by rescinding power to the autochthonous and oppressed majority.

The true story, of course, is very different. The fact that Israel extended its borders in June 1967 as a result of a defensive war was not a source of outrage in Sub-Saharan Africa –on the contrary. During my frequent trips to Africa I have witnessed firsthand that Africans are still resentful of their former Arab enslavers. While they have no sympathy for the Arabs (including for the secluded Lebanese who control entire swaps of Africa’s economies), African Christians are staunch admirers and supporters of Israel.

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