Last week we reported on Peter Fabricius’ (foreign editor for the Independent Newspapers Group) scathing attack on Ronnie Kasrils for his rebel without a game plan approach to politics. This week in five newspapers across South Africa (Pretoria News, Cape Times, The Mercury, The Star and the Citizen) Red Ronnie has come out in full swing. If there is one thing old style Commies like Kasrils can’t handle its criticism. And as usual Kasrils leverages his public profile to get the last word in.
He accuses Fabricius of deliberately twisting his words ‘in the same way as those bedfellows of Israel, right or wrong, the South African Zionist Federation and Jewish Board of Deputies’. We have to wonder how much lower Kasrils can intellectually go.
First it was "Israel=Apartheid", then "Israel=Nazism", now its allusions to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Is Ronnie implying that Fabricius is a closet Zionist in the service of Israel and the South African Jewish community? I fear our Minister of Intelligence has taken Protocols of the Elders of Zion too seriously.
After outing Fabricius as a Zionists, Kasrils then attempts to wiggle out of his horrendous accusation that Israel behaves like the Nazis. He protests that it was not he who came up with the comparison. He was merely quoting the analysis of others. I think this is probably true of everything the good minister says and writes. Original thought is not Ronnie’s strong suit.
Selective quotes, even from people as intelligent as Einstein (who in fact supported mainstream Israeli political movements and spoke harshly of the splinter movements that were quelled by the mainstream ones), do not constitute an argument. If Ronnie does believe that Israel behaves like the Nazis I challenge him to prove it with facts. For example can he tell us how many concentration camps there are in Israel? It’s pathetic that this blatantly untrue comparison passes as legitimate comment in South African newspapers.
Kasrils, like his Soviet mentors, is a master of doublespeak. Very few would be able to live so comfortably with the contradiction of being an advocate of both a 2-state and 1-state solution to the Israel-Arab conflict as our Ronnie, let alone in the same article. But … Kasrils writes
| ‘His (Fabricius’) assertion that I am not of the same opinion as the government and ANC on settling the Middle East issue is also incorrect I have made it perfectly clear that I accept a two state solution…’ |
But then a few lines later he writes
| ‘Because of my stance on Israel he (Fabricius) condemns me as a romantic. He assails me for hoping to one day see Muslims Christians and Jews of the area living together possibly in a unitary state. That is my personal hope…’ |
Do you get more Orwellian than that?
Nevertheless, the most farcical part of Kasrils attack is his conclusion. Red Ronnie is a non-practising Jew. He is a self-declared atheist but nevertheless has the Chutzpah to preach to Israel and its supporters from the bible. Citing the prophet Amos, Kasrils states
| ‘Jehovah puts his people on the same level as the nations that surround it; Jehovah expects the same morality of them all’. |
If only Kasrils practiced what he preached. We are not opposed to criticism of Israel or the South African Jewish Community. All we ask is that Israel be judged by the same moral yardstick as its neighbours. But I guess in Kasril’s worldview all nations are equal but some nations are more equal than others.
Steve adds:
The titles of his articles makes for some hilarious reading:
Cape Times: Israeli cabinet minister first to compare his country to Nazis
The Mercury: Upholding my dream
The Star: Condemned as a romantic for hope
The Citizen: Moral duty to highlight Israeli injustice
Pretoria News: Don`t twist my words or my entire being will be shaken
His entire being will be shaken?
Comments