South Africa Spurs on Iran’s Nuclear Drive

In not so 'quiet' diplomacy, Ronnie Kasrils (South Africa’s Minister of Intelligence) on a visit to Iran on Tuesday expressed South Africa’s support for the Islamic Republics’ nuclear drive . In classic Kasrilsspeak he even went as far as praising ‘Iran's wise stand regarding its nuclear program’, according to the IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency).

Iran has consistently defied the IAEA and now the UN Security Council with regard to its nuclear program. And as a result, the international community, including South Africa, has been forced to impose sanctions. How can Minister Kasrils describe this as a ‘wise stand’? The only conclusion is that the South African government is now endorsing Iran’s illegal and dangerous nuclear behavior. So our government has once again demonstrated its moral bankruptcy in relation to its foreign policy. It is now clear to everyone that the former champion of human rights has become the chief apologist for tyranny.

Minister Kasrils often writes about how his ‘Jewish’ conscience obligates him to speak out against Israel. But where is his ‘Jewish’ conscience when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Iran? How could any self respecting Jew (no matter what his position on Israel) call for the strengthening of ties with a nation that is today at the forefront of Holocaust denial? In fact he seems to relish his role as South Africa’s de facto minister of totalitarian affairs.

Comments

[Gary]

How deep can this man's hate of Israel and her Jews go?
He has already said that suicide bombings are a 'legitimate political response'.
Now he is endorsing plans for the nuclear destruction of Israel i.e the deaths of millions of Jewish men, women and children.
And he is doin all this with the blessings of the Mbeki regime.
SA is now part of the Axis of Evil.

[Gary]

Every time you think that this character cannot get any lower, there he go's and astounds us all again!

[THE DICTATOR / EMBITTERED CORRESPONDENT]

Gary,
I wonder if the "Kasrils / Iran" story will be reported, outside of
this blog, in the wider South African media. If it isn't , we need to
analyse the reasons for the silence. Perhaps Mike and Steve could make
this a subject for their next blog editorial?

I would love to read what the US ambassador in Pretoria emails to
Washington about the story state of South African foreign affairs!

Gary,

South Africa has "gold card" membership to The Axis of Evil ! Free
first class flights to Tehran and Damascus.

[THE DICTATOR / EMBITTERED CORRESPONDENT]

Today I went to The FXI's rally at the SABC and chatted with Jane
Duncan FXI Executive Director). I asked her whether she knew that
Kasrils had just "gone nuclear" in Iran. She replied that she didn't.

I told Jane that Ahmadinejad had recently organized a conference for
holocaust deniers and that Kasrils was wrong to associate with the
Iranian regime. She replied that she did not condone holocaust denial
and that she had actually been a pupil at King David School where she
had befriended a pupil who had been beaten-up in the playground for
opposing the war in Lebanon. I got the impression that the latter
incident had left an indelible impression on the young Jane and was the
root cause of her anti-Zionism.

I did not get an opportunity to chat to Na'eem Jeenah and Salim Vally
but they both noticed my new T shirt which was emblazoned with the
words: "SACK SNUKI, NO ANC AT SABC". I gave interviews to The Mail and
Guardian and Das Beeld on behalf of "VIVAVIVA"

[Wessel]

It's a bit rich to deduce that Kasrils really 'endorses the destruction of Jews'. At best you can accuse him of misconceived trust, bad judgement.

I have to say that recent comments by Ahmadinejad has turned my opinion against his government, but before that I was hard pressed to see why India, Pakistan, the US and Israel should have nuclear weapons, and the Iranians not. The UK and the US's historical record in Iran is shocking.

One has to wonder though, that if the Iranians had not been put under so much pressure three years ago, whether the moderates's hands would have been strengthened.

All this Sabre ratling us playing into Ahmadinejad hands. In the end, the best hope for a lasting solution is for the moderate voices to succeed.

SA's tacit support for the Burmese junta and Zimbabwe is moraly worse than this in my opinion.

[Gary]

No Wessel, Kasrils has made it quite clear that he is deeply driven by his hatred of Israel and her Jews.
He has said that suicide bombings are a 'legitmate political response' and it is clear that his support for Iran's nuclear weapons programme isan extension of his venomous hate of Israel.

[Gary]

Even Saudi Arabia and Egypt opose Iran's nuclear weapons programme-but SA supports it.

SA is more hostile to Israel than the more moderate Arab states are.

[The Dictator / Embittered Correspondent]

According to The Iran Daily (11/4/07), Ronnie Kasrils "praised Iran's
wise stance regarding its nuclear program." The news item concludes
that "President Ahmadinejad announced on Monday, at Nantaz nuclear site
in central Iran, that the country has begun uranium enrichment at the
industrial scale."

In a Jerusalem Post report last year,
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
apage=1&cid=1139395548925&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull, Prof
Solomon Hussein (University of Pretoria) stated :" Iran provides South
Africa with cheap oil and we don't want to anger them." Could this help
to explain why South Africa is so friendly towards Tehran?

The Dictator / Embittered Correspondent

[Gary]

I don't think this is even the reason.
I think that SA's regime is satanically driven to the dark side, and so sides with every evil regime in terrorist organization in the world today- North Korea, Red China, Iran, Syria, Hamas/Hezbullah, Sudan, Libya, Zimbabwe, Cuba etc.
Some of these friendships are of no economic benefit to SA.
And strengthening relations with the West (and Israel) would be of far greater economic benefit.
But the SA regime is too attracted to the dark side. It is all metaphysical.
But the SA regime

[The Dictator / Embittered Correspondent]

Gary,
Interesting to note that Prof Steven Friedman, Prof Anton Harber and
Allistair Sparks etc make no attempt to analyze South African / Iranian
"nuclear" relations on the pages of the Mail and Guardian, Business
Day. The Star etc. When South Africa's post-apartheid history is
written I hope that theirsilence is noted. It is quite shameful and can
perhaps be best explained by their cynical anti-zionist allegiances.

[Gary]

Anthony
Of course they don't. They would love to see Israel burned to the ground in a mushroom cloud, together with 5 million Jewish men, women and children.
And they love to be associated with the regime that has endorsed this.

[Mike]

Wessel, I feel that your comment ‘SA's tacit support for the Burmese junta and Zimbabwe is moraly worse than this in my opinion’ needs a response.

I could easily make the argument that a nuclear Iran poses a mortal threat to ten of millions of people in the Middle East and beyond and thus SA’s overt support for their nuclear weapons program is far more shocking than support for Mugabe or the military junta in Myanmar. But I want to respond to your comment in a much more personal sense. I want to try to explain to you the threat that Iran poses to me as Jew and to my people.

Today we commemorated the massacre of 6 million Jewish at the hand of the Nazis. Most of us naively believed that mass anti-Semitism had died with its victims in Auschwitz, Triblinca, the Warsaw ghetto etc. But today only 60 years later another regime is calling for the extermination of my people. But while it took 6 years for the Nazis to kill 6 million Jewish, with nuclear technology the Iranians could today achieve the same results in a matter of minutes.

While South Africa’s support for Iran’s nuclear program may be a theoretical question of the extent of immorality to you, to me and my people it is a question of life or dead. I certainly do not believe that South Africa or Minister Kasrils wish to see another holocaust, but their actions are adding people that do.

[Wessel]

[Editor] Comment moved from an older thread to this one.[/Editor]

Question: Could one compare the PLO to the ANC?

[Wessel]

[Editor] Comment moved from an older thread to this one.[/Editor]

The Freedom Charter however looks rather hollow today measured against the actual ANC actions. The new and almost ubiquitous racially exclusive Africanism is becomming in Van Zyl Slabberts words “the new dominant ideology”. There ain't even room for colloureds anymore.

The ANC was a broad church, but the driving force above all esle was an African Nationalism vs Afrikaner Nationalism. The real infuence of progressive organisations like the Black Sash is evident today. Where is their legacy to be seen?

Comparisons between Israel and SA work and don't work on different levels. For instance - Arabs have the vote in Israel. Blacks did not. But then Arabs are not a majority. would they have had the vote if they were a significant electoral threat?

Sometimes the opinion is expressed that apartheid was more oppresive because whites exploited blacks for labour etc. In Israel this never happened it is said, in fact complete seperation is sought. South Africa on the other hand was always conceptualised as one country. How watertight this complete seperation is as a moral boat on which to sail is debatable.

There is a simplistic way to see apartheid and the problems in Israel. These are the good guys and these are the bad guys.

Then theres reality which is far messier and with no easy answers. History will judge the Afrikaners far kinder than we care to think now, perhaps we should take stock and learn from their experience.

[Gary]

Mike
You wrote:" I certainly do not believe that South Africa or Minister Kasrils wish to see another holocaust."
I think if it meant the destruction of Israel, they would.
Hatred of Israel and Israeli Jews and is them most epidemic and deepest hate that exists today, and it exists among leftwing diaspora Jews (especially if they are cut off from the Jewish community)in it's most virulent form.
Kasrils has in recent years made very clear how rabid and bottomles is his hate for Israel and Israelis.
Remember he said at Wits that suicide bombings are a legitmate political response'.

[Wessel]

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are not more moderate than Iran if as far as I can see measured against openess of the press, democratic elections etc. As far as I can tell - I am no expert - both these countries are Sunni and as feaful of a Shiite country as of Israel.

While both Saudi and Egypt have to violently oppress fundamentilist Islamists, in Iran they are in power. Untill very recently it looked to me as if the students and reformists were in the acendency in Iran. But, like Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Mr. A pulled all the populist cards, like caring for the poor and rampant anti-Western and Israel rhetoric. Made so much easier by the US's actions. I am sure the reformists in Iran curse everytime Bush opens his mouth.

Still I think that if left alone, there's a bigger chance of reformist government in Iran in a few years time, than that of the effective dictatorships in Egypt being able to resist the Islamists.

Iran has despite all the attempts of its Islamists, a thriving cinema, music and alternative publishing scene. Iran has turned the corner and we must help them.

I simply find it hard to believe that even the most crazed racist will offer up large chuncks of his own population to do bomb Israel. But saying that you want to is a great way to stay in power in that semi-democracy-theocracy.

However, I can undertand why Jews would be so distrustful.

Mike said: While South Africa’s support for Iran’s nuclear program may be a theoretical question of the extent of immorality to you, to me and my people it is a question of life or dead. I certainly do not believe that South Africa or Minister Kasrils wish to see another holocaust, but their actions are adding people that do.

I can completely undertand that its not just a theoretical question for you. As an Afrikaner it is not just a theoretical question for me that my langauge, culture and people is under threat. It's not through one fell swoop that it's happening, but through a steady process. Some would argue that we deserve it. I don't think so. And while Jews have at least their religion to bind them together even when they do not have a state and the support of powerful forces in the West. We don't. How many of you know what happened in Standerton this week and if you do what is your opinion about this?

[Gary]

I think it is shameful the way the ANC is engaging in cultural genocide against Afrikaaner, and Standerton is such an example.
The left show no compassion for the people of Israel , who have been subjected to a war of terror , with the aim being total genocide of 5 million Jews in Israel.They show themselves as being very cruel by siding with the Palestinazis whose sole aim is the genocide of the Jewish people of Israel.
They have no compassion , for anyone , whose cause it is not politically correct to take up.
They have lots of compassion for Palestinians, Communists and homosexuals , but none for Israelis, Christian Lebanese , Tibetans , South Sudanese , Kurds or dissidents in Syria, Libya , Iran , China , North Korea, Cuba , Venezuela , Zimbabwe or Namibia.
I have a true compassion for the underdog which is why I fight for the rights of the people of Israel (especially the Jews of YESHA) , Zulus and Afrikaaners in South Africa, , Christian Lebanese , Tibetans , South Sudanese , Kurds or dissidents in Syria, Libya , Iran , China , North Korea, Cuba , Venezuela , Zimbabwe or Namibia. People who are forgotten by the UN, and the left establishment which controlos the media and the universities. That makes me a true rebel and champion of the underdog. Not one who supports the excesses of tyranny and terror.

[Steve]

Wessel,
Are you referring to the destruction of the Great Trek monument that you wrote about on your blog?

[Wessel]

Yes, but the feelings if insecurity this envokes is better articulated on an English South African living in NY's blog.

http://southafricanchoirgirl.blogspot.com/2007/04/brittle-democracy.html

[Steve]

Wow, its incredible what happened. And the ANC says that that piece of cement means nothing to them and they didnt even know where it came from. The whole point of multi culturalism is about accepting things that have meaning to others even though they have no meaning to you.

The ANC didnt say it was offensive. They just said that it means nothing to them. You cant go tearing down things just because they 'mean nothing to you'.

Once again it shows how the ANC pay li-service to their ideals of the past which are enshrined in our bill of rights. Pure lip-service.