May 1: Good reasons

It is good that Israeli authorities have stopped bending the knee to South Africa and realized that this so-called moral country is very much lacking in correct values.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Good reasons
I cannot agree more with Ben Levitas when he discusses the good reasons the South African minister for higher education and training was denied entry to Israel so he could travel to Ramallah and implement an academic cooperation agreement (“Why Israel refused Blade Nzimande,” Comment & Features, April 28).
It is good that Israeli authorities have stopped bending the knee to South Africa and realized that this so-called moral country is very much lacking in correct values and does not seem to have the ability to be introspective.
Instead of being an example to other countries in Africa, it has demonstrated only the values that one who is moral would oppose and laugh at.
It is rather unfortunate that the present leaders of the “rainbow nation” know not that they know not, and thus illustrate a complete inability to hide their deep anti-Semitic roots. What a sad state of affairs it was that Nzimande did not realize he was dealing with an Israel that doesn’t need the support of a country that partakes in acts of xenophobia and practices reverse apartheid.
South Africa should put its own house in order before trying to educate Israel.
COLIN WINKLER
Ra’anana
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On his soapbox
 I see that Yossi Sarid is back on his soap box (“Sarid disgusted by thought of Bennett as education minister,” April 27).
The former Meretz leader says: “Secular schools must be protected from missionary activity that Bennett is prone to support.”
Well, Ra’anana and, I’m sure, other parts of Israel are having problems with Christian missionaries, from whom secular children and those who had only a secular education are at greatest risk.
I remember when the ministry was under Sarid and another Meretz leader, Shulamit Aloni. They pushed Arab culture at the expense of Jewish and Israeli culture.
Meretz pushes only pure, secular views. It was lucky to get into the Knesset in the last election.
That must tell us something.
WILLIE MALKINSON
Ra’anana
Sensing fear
In “New carpet in Dome of the Rock stokes tensions” (April 26), you quote Ze’ev Orenstein of the Ir David Foundation as saying: “In recent years on the Temple Mount we have been witness to the wanton destruction of archeological antiquities...at the hands of the Wakf, along with its outright denial of the Jewish historic connection to the site.”
Unfortunately, there is no one in our government prepared to take back responsibility for the Temple Mount. Although the state comptroller documented the Wakf’s ongoing illegal excavations in a 2010 report, it was ordered classified by government officials due to concerns over political fallout with Jordan. Exactly what fallout could there be that makes our prime minister so afraid to stand up for our historic rights? Before we started begging our enemies to make peace with us and offered them our land, they never made the demands that now are accepted as normal.
When an enemy senses fear, it always gains the upper hand.
YENTEL JACOBS
Netanya
CORRECTION
On Page 47 of today’s Jerusalem Post Magazine, the wrong photo accompanies the article “Illuminating the darkness” (Arrivals).
The correct photo of Ateret Violet Shmuel, taken by Mushkie Haskelevich, appears below. We regret the error.