Israel's cache of nuclear weapons and the grass isn't greener in the US, say our letter writers

Trump goes one step further

I MADE a mistake in one of my previous letter. 

I left out an important point about Trump. As I have said  before, Jim Reeves endeared himself to the Afrikaner community. He toured South Africa twice, made a film here and sang in Afrikaans.

Decades later the Afrikaners got help from another American. This time it was a big one, the president himself. President Donald Trump went one step further.   

Despite any concrete evidence, he was convinced that white Afrikaners were being persecuted by the Black majority  government and decided to help them. He sent two planes to South Africa to bring the poor, suffering Afrikaners to the US to live in peace and prosperity.

But the world knows Trump, that he has no qualms about using deceitful means to achieve his ends.  | T Markandan Kloof

The grass isn’t so green over there

It appears that some very delusional Afrikaner families who arrived in the US under a refugee programme meant for “persecuted individuals” were under the impression that they would be ­provided with comprehensive assistance including housing, jobs and healthcare.

Instead – especially in the case of a family of four who found themselves stranded in a hotel in Montana – they are struggling for basic necessities, such as food and communication. | Eric Palm Gympie, Australia

Farmers concerned following raids

As part of KwaZulu-Natal’s Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), the DA has received many serious concerns from northern KZN farmers about the possible Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) contamination of their farms.

This, as a result of recent Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) inspections.

While the rule of law must be upheld and the employment of undocumented workers cannot be condoned, the DEL must exercise far greater caution when entering farms, particularly during the current FMD crisis.

Reports suggest that, in many instances, officials are arriving unannounced, fail to follow basic bio­security protocols, such as vehicle and footwear sanitisation, and potentially endangering the fragile progress made in containing FMD outbreaks.

The DA calls on the DEL to immediately review and revise its operational procedures within agricultural areas to align with biosecurity standards. Intergovernmental co-ordination is critical, and any government activity on farms must be informed by the ­current agricultural risks, including FMD.

The livelihoods of thousands of farmworkers and producers are already under pressure due to market access restrictions linked to the FMD crisis. The potentially reckless actions of one government department should not further compromise the work being done by the agricultural sector and veterinary services to protect our economy and food security. | Sakhile Mngadi, MPL Pietermaritzburg

The pot is calling the kettle black?

ON June 13, Israel executed an unprecedented military strike deep inside Iranian territory, penetrating multiple layers of advanced air defences (including Russian-made S-300 systems and domestic missile shields).

Using stealth drones and standoff missiles allegedly smuggled into Iran, Israel struck critical nuclear facilities at Natanz and Isfahan and military installations, some buried under meters of concrete.

The attack inflicted significant damage on Iran’s most fortified sovereign assets and concluded without any Israeli casualties, leaving Iran’s deterrence posture exposed and regional tensions at a historical cliff. 

The attack of Iran by Israel is analogous to your neighbour who, suspecting you’ve secretly built weapons in your fortified basement, scales your 20-foot electrified fence, disables your motion sensors and guard dogs, slips past armed patrols, bypasses steel vault doors, and detonates explosives in your basement undetected. All while your family is fast asleep. Then, your neighbour vanishes without a trace, revealing catastrophic failures in your security system and leaving your household in a state of shock and vulnerability.

What will your view be of such a neighbour?

What should not be overlooked is that Israel attacked Iran, a sovereign nation, since it suspected Iran was close to acquiring a nuclear bomb. This is despite Iran, as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), currently being the most inspected country by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), second in history only to Iraq.

However, Israel refused to sign the NPT and does not allow any inspection by the IAEA at its suspected military sites, such as the Dimona reactor in the Negev Desert, widely believed to produce plutonium for weapons.

It should be remembered that in 1981, Israel invaded Iraq, another sovereign country, and destroyed its incomplete Osirik Nuclear Reactor. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and Federation of American Scientists, Israel has a stockpile of 75-130 nuclear warheads.

Although Israel comprises a measly 0.125% of the global population, yet the highest number of UN Security Council resolutions have been issued to Israel for a myriad of transgressions.

Is it fair that a country that has nuclear warheads and refused to be inspected by the IAEA takes it upon itself to act as police, judge, and executioner in the case of Iran?

You be the judge. | Adiel Ismail Mount View

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