Does Aziz Pahad (the South African Deputy Foreign Minister) take the South African Jewish community for fools? And did we not behave as such?
It was reported in this week’s Jewish Report (the official South African Jewish newspaper) that a delegation from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) met with Aziz Pahad in Cape Town last week to discuss the current situation in the Middle East. The talks focused mainly on the mounting threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Hamas’s election victory. Very worthwhile topics for discussion given the South African governments objectionable positions on both issues.
Pahad in true diplomatic fashion explained away the South African Government’s lack of condemnation of the anti-Semitic comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I should remind our readers that shamefully, South Africa together with Cuba and Valenzuela were the only non Muslim countries not to condemn Iran’s call to wipe Israel off the map. Pahad dismissed this as an ‘administrative oversight’, explaining that it was in large part to due to the fact that he was out the country at the time.
What utter crap. Does Mr Pahad expect us to believe that he is the only person in the entire South African ministry of foreign affairs that could issue such a condemnation? What about the foreign Minister herself surely she could have done it? If not her surely they leave someone else in charge of the Ministry with the authority to make those types of calls while they are away.
Furthermore, we live in the age of instant communication. It’s not like the head of the Middle East desk could not have contacted the Deputy Minister on his cell phone or by email to approve the condemnation. If Osama Bin Ladin can communicate with his assistances from a cave in the remote regions of Afghanistan, Aziz Pahad can issue orders from his 5 star hotels.
But perhaps the most damning fact is that the anti-Semitic hate that Iran’s leaders have been spewing did not all occur during one week in December. It has been a constant tsunami of anti-Jewish racism spreading over a period over more than 3 months. So he missed the “wipe Israel off the map” incident but what about the holocaust denial and the planned holocaust denial conference or just last week the revelation by one of Iran’s spiritual leaders that Zionists were behind the Mohammed cartoon controversy. If he missed all of this, I would honestly like to know when Mr Pahad is in the country. The only possible explanation is that he also flew with our Deputy Minister on a summer holiday to the UAE but unlike her never returned.
So why did he lie? Perhaps he didn’t want to hurt the Jewish community’s feelings. The truth is just so much uglier. How could he spin the fact that our country that owes its freedom to an international struggle against racism looks the other way when confronted with Iran’s anti-Semitism. ‘Unfortunately', he would have had to tell the SAJBD and the SAZF, ‘when it comes to foreign policy self-interest always trumps morality’. ‘We need their oil and their foreign currency from buying our uranium’. ‘We can’t let your petty concerns about Israel get in the way of our prosperity’.
Worst of all for me, is the fact that the SAZF and the SAJBD bought this crap. They nodded their head like good Diaspora Jews and said thank you Mr Deputy Minister. We are sure you will remember to condemn Iran’s anti-Jewish hate speech next time. Ya right! South Africa’s real foreign policy agenda is too much for the official Jewish community to bear. It’s easier to accept the ‘administrative oversight’ excuse and move on.
All in all a job well done our representatives must have told themselves. And so the Jewish community can delude itself for another few months about the government’s Middle East policy. If it were not for administrative oversights, they must think, South Africa would certainly be in the Western Block—not in bed with that awful Non Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Muslim world.
How can we expect the South African government to take our concerns seriously when we behave in such a foolish manner?
|
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and her Deputy Minister Aziz Goolam Hoosein Pahad - crippled administrative oversights or crippled moral clarity? |
Never liked Pahad, always suspected about his true colours for a time.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma is pretty non-existant in terms of media time. What's she's up to really? Or isn't Pahad really running the show?
It's pretty clear to us what's the ZA's foreign policy lies where.
Posted by: Vaz Lube | February 20, 2006 at 11:34