The Democracy of Hypocrisy

SA sidesteps Iran-Israel dispute (Busines Day)

SA will not condemn Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call last week for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa would say only that SA supported peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.

I think that South Africa have side-stepped this issue because we see ourselves in a unique position where we can form a bridge between Iran and the West -- and in a world where nations are vying for new seats on the UN Security Council we want to milk that position for all it's worth. It's a selfishly motivated stance that renders us a democracy of hypocrisy.

(The more cynical minded amongst us might suggest that our position has something to do with the memorandum of understanding on bilateral cooperation that SA has with Iran.)

South Africa’s failure to take any stand whatsoever against Iran’s unacceptable and inflammatory comments continues a long run of fog horn diplomacy.

When Israel is perceived as the aggressor South Africa sounds the fog horns and leads the pack of nations challenging and condemning Israel. We saw this when South Africa joined a 15 other nations hostile to Israel in presenting a case against the Israeli security barrier to the ICJ.

But when the aggressor is Iran or Zimbabwe South Africa's attitude takes an about turn and the fog horn is replaced with quiet diplomacy.

I understand that the situation is more complicated than I make it out to be. South Africa is in a unique position where she can heavily influence Palestinian strategy. The PA can learn from the ANC policy which foreswore attacks on all civilians and generally expelled members who violated that policy. South Africa wants to play a role and is therefore worried about losing the trust of the Muslim and Arab world.

I get all that, I really do. But if South Africa wants a serious role in attempting to resolve the conflict then they will also need the trust of the Israeli and American people. And the best way to win that trust would be to start judging all nations equally.

Comments

[Darren]

Excellent post, I agree with what you're saying. It is not neutral to constantly criticise one side, while remaining silent about the actions of the other, no matter how much the SA govt pretends it is.

[mike]

Was wonder what the SA government response had been. It is truly shocking. The entire democratic world stood up to Iran's hate mongering but not our government. They place themselves in the same camp as leftist Venezuela. The ANC criticized Reagan and Thatcher for not following a moral foreign policy and supporting apartheid South Africa. Now it seems real politick and not morality are the driving force behind ANC foreign policy today. Cheap oil and trade is obviously more important than injustice.

Does the ANC honestly believe that Israel will allow them to be a peace broker, when they don’t even defend its right to exist? It looks this myth of a more balanced South African foreign policy in the Middle East has been today been shattered.

[Anti-UN]

That said, we have over the past year strengthened our ties with Israel after a point were our ties reached their lowest point in years. Down here in the Cape there are regular prgrams where Israelis implement new agricultural technologies in karoo-type areas.

I also remember something about a black leadership tour to israel where promisin young black leaders were sent by SA to Israel for some sort of leadership training.

But this may hurt that developing relationship. Especially after Israel were reported to have recently complained about SA's murky relationship with Iran.

[James Clark]

I agree, South Africa certainly needs to take a tougher stand against those nations which are clearly opposed to world peace and human rights.

"Quiet Diplomacy" is just a euphemism for cowardice.

[Jodi]

Ugh..." Foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa would say only that SA supported peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians"

I can just picture it. a typical govt spokesperson asked about the Iranian remarks completelt dodges the issue and just replies that he supports peace btwn israelis and palestinains.

does he support peace bwtn israelis and iranianS?

[Gary Selikow]

I am reffering to the comments by Jocelynn Hellig at the 'Open Forum' of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies in Johannesburg (SA Jewish Report 9-16 December 2005)

Hellig claims that "it was incorrect to regard the South African government as being anti-Semitic because the government , in fact , had an extreme revulsion against any form of racism , as a result of the racism and anti-Semitism of the Nationalist government and one could see the huge differences and appreciate it"

I don't have to remind anyone of the vehement and venomous hostility of the ANC/SACP government in SA towards Israel . Ranging from the hate-filled statements of the likes of Ronnie Kasrils, Aziz Pahad, Kgalema Mothlanthe and Patrick Craven , to SA's stand at the Hague demmanding international isolation against Israel to remove the security fence so Arab terrrorists could kill Jewish men , women and children , to SA's silent approval of Iran's promises to 'wipe Israel off the map'.
Obviously Hellig is therefore working on the premise that anti-Zionism does not count as anti-Semitism. This needs to be rejected with the contempt which it deserves.
Anti-Zionism is racism , as it involves hatred of an entire people i.e the Jews of Israel. I believe anti-Zionism ,is in fact , far more contemptible that traditional anti-Semitism.
The new anti-Semitism is cloaked in the language of political correctness and academic language, but the end goal is the same, genocide of Jews. On university campuses, in the media, in the halls of the United Nations, and in Third World governments (like the government of SA) , prejudice runs strong. The leaders of today’s Nuremberg rallies are supposedly ‘enlightened’ and ‘progressive’ Left-wing academics, as Israel is pilloried, without the slightest compassion for the men, women and children of that tiny country. On the contrary, it is condemned by a coterie of malignant narcissists for destruction.

Of course the Israel-haters deny hotly that they are antisemites: The first thing students learn today in the ‘humanities’ departments on university campuses across the world is that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are different. Many Jewish ultra-Leftists lead the “burn Israel” movement. In fact it could be argued that the new antisemitism was founded by malignant high priest of Marxist academia Noam Chomsky, together with his partner in hate, Arab propagandist Edward Said. Indeed, the Jewish Israel-haters are often the most callous and vicious, hoping that expunging five million Israeli men, women and children from the face of the earth will make themselves more universal and progressive in the world today. It is only the ‘backward Israelis’ who get in the way of the place of Diaspora Jewish Marxists as leaders of the ‘progressive vanguard’ once more. So innocents must die in the millions!
After all, is it not antisemitism to deny Jews the right to live in Israel? Is a Jewish child in Israel, gunned down in her bed by Palestinian goons in 2002, any different than a Jewish child in Poland, gunned down in her bed by Nazi goons in 1942?

Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out the truth when he said 37 years ago: “Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so.”

There is no logic in the intensity of the hate of the new antisemites, as Israel is condemned for every action taken to defend herself, by the same ones who are so silent in the face of massacres of Israeli women and children by Palestinian killers. The latter are seen as the victims and the former as the aggressors in this macabre Orwellian theater.

Indeed, as we saw with the rise of Hitler, when the world loses its moral compass, there is no limit to what they will stoop to, and no amount of politically correct jargon and Marxist obfuscation can hide this from us all.

Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism at it's worst. Period.

[steve]

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