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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 1987, page 9 180 Degrees "180 Degrees" appears every Friday in Florida Today, parent publication of USA Today. Whenever space permits, the Washington Report will present a debate between George Thompson, a retired US Foreign Service Officer, and Dan Warrensford, an engineer, on some aspect of Middle East affairs. According to a recent Knight-Ridder report, Israel has, over the past several years, helped South Africa produce jet fighters, armored personnel carriers, and high-speed patrol boats—weapons used by South Africa in its continuing police action against the Communist-dominated African National Congress (ANC). Congressmen William Grey, Mickey Leland, and their assorted, kindred moralists have been bashing Israel because of her involvement with the Botha government. Grey, Leland, et al, are driven, driven I tell you, by Apartheid. They are hypocrites of the highest order who have no problem at all with: • Granting most-favored nation status to our Eastern-bloc enemies whose organized political crime-syndicates hold their citizens captive, granting to their prisoners-in-fact far less political and economic freedom than enjoyed by black South Africans. • Dealing with Israel's Middle-Eastern enemies, most of whom display no penchant for individual liberties (not to mention treating their female citizens as chattel). • Maintaining relations with India which has institutionalized "the unclean" and which has a caste system second to none. • Enabling African Marxists—as in Angola and Mozambique—to keep their boots in the faces of their people. • Helping Ortega's mob spread its "revolution" in Central America by vilifying the freedom fighters and anyone who supports them. Anti-individual agendas of nations in the foregoing make South Africa appear as a paragon of Libertarianism. Israel's relationship with South Africa pales by comparison with active involvement with dictatorial regimes. Indeed, Grey, Leland, and friends display an excess of brass in their collective castigation of Israel (and South Africa). When they (and you, George) decide to champion freedom everywhere, I'll pay attention. Until then, you and other anti-Israel zealots need to holster your tongues. —Dan Warrensford
Dan, stop tiptoeing through tulips. Stick to weeding. Israel and South Africa are more alike than any two countries in the world: Israel is a religious state founded BY Jews FOR Jews. Taken through acts of terrorism, it is held by force of arms. Followers of any other religion (not including credit card-carrying tourists) reside there at risk of losing life, limb, and land. It is usurped ground where property and dissidence are reserved to those in power. It is a place where Brooklyn-born Rabbi Meir Kahane, a possible future Prime Minister, predicts: "Arabs will leave or they will die." Born in violence, its leaders hold to the legacy. It is a frenzied, arms-producing anthill. Fed by US-supplied gifts of cash and no-interest loans, it makes some of the world's most sophisticated weapons. And they are used to take, keep, and covet more land, to subjugate more people. It is also an abode of bigots where those who don't believe are forced by those who do to carry special "I.D." cards. A closed religious society, its zealots stone anything that moves on a Saturday. It is a land so hate-filled that Jews who don't live there are despised by those who do. Daily, more go than come. It is an anarchic anachronism. Adherence to any semblance of internationally recognized morality or legality has long since been left in the dustbin of history. Knowing no borders, its armed garrison crosses land, sea, and sky to kidnap and slay when, where, and whom it pleases. This client-state even spies on its patron. South Africa? You need change but a few words, Dan: "Whites" for "Jews," "Blacks" for "Arabs," "color" for "I.D.," etc. The rest should be easy—even for you. The countries you cited are irrelevant. It is Israel and South Africa who have long since cast aside any pretense of being democracies. Just as well. They were never comfortable in the role. Now they stalk the world's stage, unmasked for the rogues they are. What was that word you used, Dan: "Hypocrisy?" —George Thompson |