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« What Was the 6 Day War Really About? | Main | Zapiro Inverses Reality »

June 10, 2007

Comments

Gary

I would actually ask all of you to consider voting for the IFP on at least one of the ballot papers at the 2009 elections!

mike

Brilliant letter. I think we must email him our thanks. He seems like one of the only few sane people left in parliament.

Brett

Fantastic submission by IFP leader (who wrote his speech?) As SA moves further away from a true multiparty democracy, the ANC will become more emboldened to display their inherent anti-Israel bias. With such strong communist foundations; growing Muslim and diminishing Jewish support, this trend is set to continue unabated. As long as Aziz Pahad, Ronnie Kasrils and radicals remain with the ANC, this position is only going to worsen.

Steve

I am glad that we can praise a letter that mentions Palestinian issues that we typically argue about. It shows that all we seek is balance. We do not demand that politicians accept our narrative as gospel. Just that they see both narratives as legitimate.

"It is difficult to imagine the daily indignities of living in the occupied Palestinian territories with its system of required passes and strict segregation, the loathed wall, or the, sometimes, "shock and awe" tactics of the Israeli army."

Buthelezi speaks quite fondly of Arafat as well.

Hillel

Steve, aren't you being just a little naive reading into the ANC's statement what you want to hear: "the campaign failed to convince the ANC to call for a boycott of Israeli goods"?

The ANC is using classic Kasrilspeak/newspeak (Hat Tip George O), they're not supporting it, but they are.

The ANC, being the good (quiet diplomacy african) diplomats that they are, have come up with a statement that lets those pesky noisy but guilt-ridden (and wealthy) zionists believe the ANC is on their side so the ANC can carry on receiving bribes, I mean, BEE deals from the Jewish Community.

At the same time they can let Chippy, Mo and their cousins think that the ANC supports the boycott and get br.., I mean BEE deals there too.

In short, they're the quintessential prostitute, not only are they getting paid by both sides, but they're also not putting out for either.

Steve

Hillel, I completely agree with you. You put it so well.

On the one hand, they are supporting the campaign which calls for the boycott. And then, because they find it politically difficult to impose a boycott, they declare that they dont support the boycott.

They trying to have it both ways. Ultimately however, despite all the 'lapdogging' to the Palestinian pressure groups, they have not imposed a boycott. (Their resolution they passed does illustrate their true one sided stance - but that resolution doesn't hurt Israel.)

Maybe there are two divided camps on this issue within the ANC?

Some suggest that Mbeki uses Kasrils as an unofficial voice on Israel. Again, its a way of having it both ways. A voice to say things that are politically difficult to say combined with the ability to not officially say anything.

There are so many ways to read this..

But still, the aim of the campaign was to impose a boycott and to that end they failed.

Hillel

Steve, the campaign may have failed but it had nothing to do with the ANC's involvement and the fact that it did fail is really irrelevant since the key question is where does the ANC stand, and more importantly where do they face.

My strong feeling on statements like the one being referred to is that it generally reflects what everyone on the corporate world will recognise as "plausible deniability". It's not quite as strong as C.O.Y.A., but it's just vague enough that you can afterwards either take credit, or shuffle the blame.

My apologies if the "naive" comment came accross as personal, it wasn't intended that way. It was intended however to reflect the impression that you'd !ostensibly! swallowed what they had to say without question.

Keep up the good work!

Steve

Thanks Hillel, didn't take it personally at all.

The Blacklisted Dictator

ANC website clearly states that THE ANC HAS NOT CALLED FOR A BOYCOTT OF
ISRAELI GOODS.

The purpose of this statement must be to distance The ANC from the position adopted by Jeenah and The PSC. Interesting that Kasrils's
parliament speech also doesn't mention the boycott. Perhaps Mbeki told him to shut the f... up?

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