29 May 2007 - The ANC targets Israel
South Africa’s ruling party is joining a ludicrous campaign against Israel, which I’ve written about in the latest edition of my substitute Moneyweb column. The first comment responding to my piece is a typical antisemitic rant; the author can’t even spell my name. Anyway, talking to a local prosecutor recently got me thinking about a good way to debunk silly arguments: “To believe this, you have to believe X…”
Over at ynet, the co-authors of It’s Almost Supernatural present a relevant critique of South Africa’s foreign policy and the direction it’s heading. The only possible good that might come out of this madness is that if South Africa does actually support sanctions against Israel, it will could harsher international scrutiny to bear on South Africa’s own government, as well as its hypocritical foreign policy.
posted by Joel @ 2:43 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Quite funny, the first response to our article also asked for us to be exiled!
Seems like Kasrils's calls questioning the patriotism and loyalty of SA Zionists are generating some response.
Perhaps one of the biggest ironies of call's for your exile (I've exiled myself already, when are you coming to visit???) is that is proves precisely why Israel still needs to exist and retain it's Jewish character, in our enlightened, post-post-modern, democratic (or are we post-democratic by now?) liberal world.
The Mail and Guardian's columnist ,Ronnie Kasrils, has recently visited Iran on behalf of the South African government. Since then, he has failed to remind us that Ahmadinejad last year held a holocaust denial conference in Tehran.
This omission should be compared to the recent European Union response. European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering said this week that The European Union will stand with Israel against any threat from Iran.
As a German and a European, Pottering said he was "appalled" by speeches out of Iran which have denied the Holocaust. "Anyone who denies the Holocaust, denies humanity," said Pottering.
I refer to the following extract from http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180527968249&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
"It took an American supporter of Israel, Nobel prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg from the University of Texas, to finally stand up last week and say there were consequences for actions, and business couldn't continue as usual in the face of these boycotts.
Weinberg declined an invitation last week to give a guest lecture at London's Imperial College in July, explaining in a letter to the college that the reason for his decision was the agreement by the National Union of Journalists at its national conference in April to boycott Israeli products.
"I know that some will say that these boycotts are directed only against Israel, rather than generally against Jews," he wrote. "But given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism." "
When one also bears in mind the virulently anti-semitic content of much of the anti-zionist propaganda, perhaps Steven Weinberg has a point?
I include some recent evidence of anti-semitsm from none other than the head of The Palestinian Islamic Council:
Palestinian Islamic Council in Lebanon Head:
"The Prophet of Allah has promised us that the Jews will gather in Palestine, and that the Muslims will fight them, and totally kill them. Even the stone and the tree will say: 'Oh Muslims, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' You might tell me that I am relying on supernatural hadiths. I believe this is not supernatural but is the core of our belief."
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD160107
I refer to the South African "End The Occupation" campaign which is holding pickets on June 8th outside shops that sell Israeli products.
Its an interesting idea but I wonder where they got it from... Do you remember that The Nazis in Germany demanded the boycott of Jewish shops?
Joel,
Re your comment about South Africa's hypocritical foreign policy:
"What the hell was RonnIe Kasrils doing in Iran?"
Was The Minister of Intelligence really persuading Larijani to comply with UN resolutions re nuclear Iran? It seems extremely unlikely !!
Joel,
I have a brainwave/ nutty idea..
Let's picket shops that
sell pistachios from Iran. Don't you hate the way that Ahmadinejad
treats women, political opponents and journalists?
Post a Comment
<< Home