It's Almost Supernatural

It's A Myth That SA is Anti-Israel

Major General Fumanekile Gqiba has been appointed as the new South African ambassador to Israel. This is big news because I believe that South Africa has one of the most powerful influences over the Palestinian people.

Gqiba illustrates this by referring to the past relationship between the SA struggle and the Palestinians.

"It's a myth that we are anti-Israel. We want to prove we're not. We want to share our experience with Israel. We are not going to impose. We're not saying `Do this because we did it.' We want to be partners with them toward the goal of peace."

But, he adds, it must be remembered that "we were once a liberation movement. We rubbed shoulders with the Palestinians. They were our comrades in the liberation movement. And that relationship is still there. It is our moral duty to continue with that. But our relationship with the Palestinians is a strategic one that ultimately will benefit the State of Israel."

I am cautiously optimistic about Gqiba...but comments like this concern me:

"But at the same time the State of Israel should not target civilians".

It sounds like he is suggesting that intentional targeting of civilians is an Israeli policy. After all, he doesn't say that 'Honour Killings' of Israeli women should not be perpetrated by Israeli men. If he does believe that Israel intentionally targets civilians then I don't see how he can be a neutral and reasonable persuading factor in the conflict.

Gqiba also points out that the idea of 'Greater Israel' is not going to work. He doesn't explain what exactly 'Greater Israel' means. He also doesn't say that the idea of 'Greater Palestine' isn't going to work - after all the PLO was founded in 1964 - three years before Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza.

Mzansi has a much better review of the Gqiba's interview. Read it here.

What About Sudan?

The conflict in Sudan did not begin this year. It has been raging for almost two decades. Modest estimates suggest that the conflict has taken the lives of more than 1.2 million people.

So why only recently have we only started noticing extensive coverage of the tragedy?

Amotz Asa-El asks the question

WHILE ALL this raises many harsh questions - where, for instance, were the Vatican, the UN, the Arab League, and the Organization of African Unity - one seems even more perplexing: where was the media?

Amotz points out that there are normally over a thousand foreign correspondents in Israel reporting on the Israeli-Arab conflict. Couldn't a fraction of this force have been allocated to Sudan?

First of all, it is much more pleasant for a foreign correspondent to be stationed in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv than in Khartoum, even before the imposition there of Shari'a law, not to mention hell holes such as Darfur, where most Western journalists are not built to spend more than a short period of time without beginning to wonder why they chose their profession.

Secondly, Africa - even when it comes to slave trade, murderous racism, and unabashed fundamentalism including the basest persecution of Christians - is, for the Western media, not a story.

Amotz poses the question - "Why do the problems in the Arab world (by far the world's least emancipated and employed female, waste of petrodollars, jailing of gays) not receive proportional coverage to the ills of Israel?

Because when it comes to budgeting foreign coverage, news organizations see Israel as an indispensable story, and its neighbors as a curiosity at best, a waste of resources at worst. That, coupled with its accessibility, freedom and comfort, is why Israel is host to more than twice as many Western correspondents than the entire Arab world.

That disproportionate scrutiny is also why Israel is fingered even when killing the guilty, while its neighbors get away even with killing the innocent. And that is also why whenever asked whether there is anything wrong with how the media covers the Jewish state I say there isn't; what's wrong is how the Arab states are not covered.

More SA Links with Al Qaeda

(Thanks Way South.)

Two South Africans (Zoubair Ismail, 20, and Dr Feroze Ganchi, 30, of Fordsburg, Johannesburg) have been arrested in Pakistan after a 15 hour gun battle with heavily armed Pakistani police.

During the raid, police recovered AK-47s, handgrenades, ammunition, computers, maps and several vests containing an estimated 10kg of plastic explosives and several unknown chemical liquids in vials strapped to the devices.

It is believed that one of the South Africans was wearing an explosives vest at the time of his arrest.

Of course, their families are denying any links with Al Qaeda.

Ismail's father, Mohammed, said his son was an ordinary youngster "who likes doing the things normal children do".

Of Progress and Burning Villagers Alive

Laurence points out that our President, Thabo Mbeki has said in ANC Today that Sudan is making enormous progress.

Meanwhile, villagers in Darfur were recently chained and burned alive.

NAIROBI (AFP) - Government-backed Arab militiamen chained and burned alive civilians in a raid on a market in Sudan's Darfur region in violation of a ceasefire signed in April, African Union monitors said.

"The attackers looted the market and killed civilians, in some cases chaining them and burning them alive," said a report released here by AU ceasefire observers in the region.

But in a visit to the region Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was told by the deputy head of the ceasefire monitoring mission that it would be extremely difficult to disarm the militias because they are so mobile.

Progress Mr President?

Arab women singers complicit in rape, says Amnesty report

Charles Johnson points out a report from Amnesty International which details the unspeakable barbarity of the Arab Militias as they go about ridding Darfur of all Black Africans.

While African women in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang for joy, according to an Amnesty International report published yesterday. The songs of the Hakama, or the “Janjaweed women” as the refugees call them, encouraged the atrocities committed by the militiamen.

The women singers stirred up racial hatred against black civilians during attacks on villages in Darfur and celebrated the humiliation of their enemies, the human rights group said.

“[They] appear to be the communicators during the attacks. They are reportedly not actively involved in attacks on people, but participate in acts of looting.”

Amnesty International collected several testimonies mentioning the presence of Hakama while women were raped by the Janjaweed. The report said:“Hakama appear to have directly harassed the women [who were] assaulted, and verbally attacked them.”

During an attack on the village of Disa in June last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang songs praising the government and scorning the black villagers.

According to an African chief quoted in the report, the singers said: “The blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them from our area and our cattle will be in their land. The power of [Sudanese president Omer Hassan] al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God.”

The chief said that the Arab women also racially insulted women from the village: “You are gorillas, you are black, and you are badly dressed.”

The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said.

The militiamen “are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish”, a 37-year-old victim, identified as A, is quoted as saying in the report, which was based onmore than 100 testimonies from women in the refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.

The report indicates that the Sudanese government is aiding the perpetration of these crimes.

Peter Takirambudde, the executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division, said: "These documents show that militia activity has not just been condoned, it's been specifically supported by Sudan government officials."

Read the full article here.

Update
Here is a Loony Liberal Leftists rescue plan:

Professor Quigley says whether the conflict in Darfur does constitute genocide “requires an analysis of the terms of the Genocide Convention.”

"That convention provides a definition that is not as tight as many people would think. That is, it doesn’t require that you kill hundreds of thousands of people before you’re guilt of genocide. The idea behind the Genocide Convention was to come at a definition that would allow prosecution at rather early stages in a plan that might in the future result in the killing of larges numbers of people," he says.

He says before Darfur meets the legal definition of genocide, a fact-finding mission should be undertaken.

Perhaps the Janjaweed would agree to put a halt to the rapes while the UN conducts their fact finding mission?

The Dictator Friendly Democracy

Thabo Mbeki has added a new despotic leader to his gallery of thuggish friends. President of Equatorial Guinea - Obiang Nguema, was warmly embraced by Mbeki earlier this week in a feeble attempt to secure justice for the 67 alleged mercenaries who South Africa will not bring home.

Nguema has clung to power for 25 years. During that time Equatorial Guinea has been described by former US Secretary of State for African affairs Susan Rice as "a poster child for undemocratic practices."

Democracy of Hypocrisy
*South Africa was one of the states that took the issue of the Israeli security barrier to the ICJ. At the same time, South Africa constantly defends Robert Mugabe and is sheltering Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

*South Africa has strongly condemned the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. Yet our own alleged mercenary citizens being held in Equatorial Guinea (who will not be brought back home) have not been allowed to consult lawyers appointed by their families for the 5 months since they were arrested. The National Prosecuting Authority Jan Henning has said that there will be no chance of a fair trial in Equatorial Guinea. SA condemns the USA for their policy regarding Guantanamo Bay, yet we warmly embrace a dictator who will ensure that our very own citizens will not be receiving a fair trial.

*South Africa has strongly claimed that the war in Iraq was about oil. And now, we are warmly embracing a dictator from Equatorial Guinea. It would be nasty to suggest that this is a 'strategic' embrace due to Equatorial Guinea being sub-Saharan Africa's biggest producer of crude oil. Probably accurate mind you, but nasty. (Nguema is even buying property in SA.)

*South Africa has, on many occasions, called for Israel to accept Arafat as a negotiating partner. Yet we repeatedly ignore the Dalai Lama's role as the legitimate leader of the Tibetan people in their struggle against Chinese occupation. Could this be because China is a growing world economic super power with an anti-Western stance?

It seems our Human Rights concerns have everything to do with geography and nothing at all to do with humanity.

South Africa has the highest number of Aids cases in the world resulting from promiscuity of the male population, sixty babies raped on average each day, the second highest murder rate in the world, and is the world leader in fatalities due to road accidents.