Israel and South Africa: A review of, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa

So after a very long hiatus, I have returned, and this time I do hope to update more often, but I will also be providing book reviews of various books that I have been reading. So with out Further ado, the first review
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The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa By: Sasha Polakow-Suransky Pantheon, 2010 336 pages

In his new book, Sasha Polakow-Suransky explores the deep relationship between Israel and apartheid South Africa; starting in the late 1960s, and lasting until the very end of the apartheid regime. The book uses a variety of sources -- from oral interviews with former South African and Israeli officials, as well as de-classified documents from the South African archives, but official sources from the Israeli government in the book are close to nil (since Israel is still keeping a lid on information regarding the close military relationship between them and the apartheid regime). Polakow-Suransky manages to keep the editorial voice to a bare minimum, and briefly focuses on the idea that Israel is an apartheid state (more on that below). It is important to remember that such discussion is not the purpose of this book; it needs to be stressed that the book is an exploration of the military ties between Israel and apartheid South Africa -- a relationship the author describes as “a marriage of interests and ideologies [wherein] Israel profited handsomely from arms exports and South Africa gained access to cutting-edge weaponry at a time when the rest of the world was turning against the apartheid state.”

The book starts off by exploring the fascist roots of the South African National Party in the years before the Second World War and its' support of the Nazis against the British. It then moves on to discuss the aftermath of the war, and the creation of the State of Israel. Israel's initial moral foreign policy towards Africa rejected co-operation with Apartheid South Africa, and embraced the increasing number of free African states in order to get support in the United Nations; a move intended to counter the increasing anti-Israeli arguments coming from Arab nations. It also explores the actions of the Defense Ministry, and its' creation of a shadow foreign ministry that ran counter to the policy of the official Foreign Ministry. We see the start of this in the early 1950s, when Shimon Peres, then the Minister of Defense, began conducting secret arms deals with the French behind the back of Golda Meir, the Foreign Minister at the time. Peres went so far as to proclaim “the conduct of foreign policy cannot be left to the foreign office alone.” Later, it would be Peres who would be instrumental in forming the close relationship between Israel and South Africa.

What begins to turn Israel away from 'Black Africa', and into secretly supporting the apartheid state, is the exact same event that turned Israel from the darling of the left into the pariah that it is today; the Six Day War. Following the occupations of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula in 1967, many in the African countries began to associate Israel with being a western Imperial power. Though the African nations were weary of Israel, they were still supporters. In reacting to the criticism of the independent African nations, Israel, with support of many in the Labour government, began to move towards South Africa as an ally. What is most disturbing about the alliance is the nuclear secrets shared between the two governments. The South African government was desperate to obtain an atomic device; ostensibly under the auspices of the “peaceful” nuclear explosion programs that were en vogue during the Cold War.

In the mid 1960s Israel achieved its' nuclear ambition, but to this day they are still vague about it; taking the line that they will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. South Africa was of the notion that “the Israeli model of nuclear ambiguity coupled with covert weaponization was enticing. In order to gauge what it could get away with down the road, Pretoria was watching developments in the Middle East closely and, more important, observing the reactions of the superpowers.” The nuclear co-operation between the two countries became so close that, in the mid-1970s, South Africa lifted all safety inspections on Israel of yellowcake (an intermediate form of uranium powder); of which they already had 500 tons, and, in return for another 100 tons of yellowcake, Israel agreed to supply South Africa with thirty grams of tritium (which can be used to increase the explosive power of atomic weapons). There was also the 1979 Vela incident; in which all evidence suggests that an Israeli atomic bomb was tested in the Southern Indian Ocean with the aid of South Africa. In the latter part of the 1980s, when South Africa was mired in the Angolan Civil War, they began to co-develop a medium rage ballistic missile with Israel.

The Labour government of Israel saw the need for an alliance with South Africa as a necessity, even if they disagreed with the policy of apartheid. However, following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the right-wing Likud party came to power and fully embraced South Africa. The entirety of chapter six left my jaw agape, as it described how closely high ranking members of the Likud party identified with the “plight” of the white South Africans. In all truthfulness; words cannot describe this chapter, or how utterly horrifying the information inside it is.

The book ends with the fall of the Apartheid regime and the exposure of the alliance between Israel and South Africa. Attempts were made by Israel to discredit the truth of exactly how close the relationship was; while defending, if only indirectly, the apartheid regime. It also covers the friction that resulted from the creation of the shadow foreign ministry. Those in the actual foreign ministry began to reach out to black South African leaders, and eventually Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. But the Defense mission, which bisected the Israeli consulate in Pretoria tried to hold up the Apartheid regime, going so far as to say that there was another twenty or thirty years left in the system (actually, as history would turn out, there were less than half a dozen). The book’s epilogue then briefly touches on the notion that Israel is currently an apartheid state. What Polakow-Suransky argues here is that while there are criticisms against that notion, the hard-line defenders of Israel aren’t doing any good by their knee-jerk reactions, nor by repeating twenty year old propaganda. While arguing that Israel isn’t an apartheid state (just yet), citing the growing Arab population, and the desperate need of many far-right Israeli’s to maintain Israel as a Jewish state, leads to Israel being no different than de Klerks South Africa. With that in mind, I leave you with the closing conversation between Polakow Suransky and the former Israeli ambassador to South Africa Elazar Granot.

“Reclining on his sofa and gazing out the window at the late afternoon sun, [Granot] confesses, “I haven’t told you what I know, and I wouldn’t…until there is peace in the Middle East.” But for a moment he lets down his guard. “I had to take into consideration that maybe Rabin and Peres were able to go to the Oslo agreements because they believed that Israel was strong enough to defend itself,” says Granot, uncomfortably. “It wasn’t the Americans and it wasn’t the French and it wasn’t the English. Most of the work that was done—I’m talking about the new kinds of weapons—was done in South Africa.”

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Much thanks is owed to a friend of mine who has been acting as my editor

Do Nothing

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
-Edmund Burke (maybe)

I'm a man. Nothing more, nothing less, just a plain simple man. I can accomplish great things, or nothing, or neither. But my greatest strength is also my greatest weakness, being that I'm a man, nothing more, nothing less. I'm of flesh and blood, if you prick me, yes I do bleed, if you tickle me, yes I do laugh and if you poison me, yes I die. Being of flesh and blood I susceptible to all the weakness that it entails. I'm mortal, I'm weak, I'm lazy, I'm all of these things and more.

But for some reason people expect more from me. People expect great things from me, and have told me that I'm meant for great things. Now I'm not a religious man, but I will swear upon a stack of bibles and on my own mothers grave, that people have told me this and its not me inflating my ego. I don't know why people expect this of me. On the contrary to what some may think about me, I'm not ambitious. I'm no great intellectual, I'm not even a good academic, I don't want fame, fortune and glory. I want to be a researcher at the State Department, a common bureaucrat, a simple Civil Servant is my great striving in life.

People tell me I'm a leader. I'm not leader, I don't want to lead. Leading is hard and I don't want to do it. I have taken the reigns when no one else would, but I didn't want to. Now I may be no leader, but I'm also no follower, I'm me, a man, a man of flesh and blood, nothing less, nothing more. I'm not Hegel's Hero. I'm no slave to the Weltgeist, higher powers do not speak to me, and if they did I would seek help right away. I'm also not Hegel's Person. I do not create history, I do not transcend morality , I'm no Socrates. But I'm not Hegel's Victim. I do not act out of petty selfishness and greed, or at least I don't like to think I do. In the end perhaps I'm Hegel's Citizen. I bow to conventional morality, the history I make, if any, is insignificant and only has repercussions as part of the collective. Well I'm also very happy in a peaceable state.

But I reject that notion. For I'm neither of any of those things. Not leader, not follower. I'm just me an individual, I'm Mike, that is who I'm, it's who I've always been, it's who I'll always be. A mediocre, at best, nothing. I've tried being more than that, I have, but I'm not. And this is want brings me to the purpose of the Edmond Burke "quote" is that what happens when evil prevails even when good men do something. This is the place I find myself, time and time and time again, over and over ad infinitium. And I grow weary and tired, fed up and melancholy. I wonder why? Why? Why? Why, the greatest of all words, friend, partner and yes lover. With the simplest utterance of this word, evil can be stopped in its tracks, lies destroyed, lives saved. But ohh, like Justice, she can be mean and cruel and turn on you for merely blinking. For why can also stop good faster than a train into a brick wall. It saps the will of those who try just as easily as it pulls the rug out from under liars.

So I must ask why? Why do I bother? Why? Why? Why anything? I have done things and I have failed, time and time and time and time again I have failed. I have done something and evil still prevails. Even on matters not as grave as good vs. evil, I fall flat on my face. If insanity is doing something over and over expecting a different outcome I must ask, am I insane? So what are my options, keep on doing what I'm doing? Or give up, stop trying, surrender and do nothing?

I'm Back

So I would first like to apologize for my extended time off, I caught up on a lot of rest and relaxation and I'm now back at school. So in honor of that I present to you a gift the first draft of an article I wrote for my college's newspaper. I hope you enjoy it

No Beg Your Pardon.
By M. Miley

Now this is not just meant to be a counter-response to Washeika’s response to my What The Hell Is Wrong With CSI, piece. But I will cover some of those, with more than a helping of ad hominem comments. But I will also attempt to update and respond to some feedback I have received from the previous piece as well as the open letter to Student Government that can be read in the newest issue of the Third Rail, Fall 09, but more on this later.

So first in a general response to her piece, I wish that Washeika’s mind were as deep as her stomach, for after reading it several times I’m not exactly sure what the hell she is talking about. If this is a product of a… “Proud English major” well I’m not sure if that says much towards are good English Department. Now on to specifics, you said that “I do believe that attacking the student government that you (i.e. me, Michael Miley) strived so hard to join was a bit crude”. No, no it’s not crude, I sought to change things from the inside, that route was closed to me. Shame on me for doing that because I should have remembered that real change can only come from without, not from within. But do you know what is crude? Coming into the Third Rail office shouting about this is what victory looks like while flipping on and off out lights and bragging about winning by TWO VOTES. Now you can keep on going and telling everyone it’s a lie and that you came to our office to shake Neil’s hand and congratulating all of us who didn’t win. But to quote some asshole in Congress “You lie”! Because well Neil (Third Rail’s very talented layout director) wasn’t even in the office, oh and there are six fucking people who were there that will swear on a stack of bibles you did that, so please stop lying to everyone. Oh and just one more thing, I think it was a bit crude of you and the former SG President Peter, and lying to members of the slate to get them to quit, which is a bit crude.

My next complaint about your near incomprehensible article and I quote “ It seems that when looking at the facts your figures seem to be understated, over exaggerated”. Now to quote a very famous movie “What we have here, is failure to communicate”, because well your sentence makes absolutely no logical sense for one very simple reason, something cannot both be an understatement and an exaggeration. I repeat, something just cannot be both understated and exaggerated at the same time. And if my figures are completely wrong as you say they are, well prove it. You see the burden of proof is upon you to show that my numbers were wrong, since that is the claim you are making.

This next bit I found interesting and I quote it in full.

“The allocation for the general Student Government scholarship fund is $20,000. Now while this may not seem like a lot, please be aware that the commissions of Student Government also give scholarships. The Academic and Curricular Affairs Commission gives at least $12,500 in scholarships a year. $10,500 of this allocation is given to a different major every month for seven months. I am sorry you were not able to receive those because you are a student working towards a degree”.

To start $20,000 doesn’t sound like a lot because, well it isn’t. That’s a scholarship for about ten students more or (actually) less. How many commissions give out scholarships and how much are they? Your next point I have to chock up to a typo on your part since if the ACA Commission gives $12,500 a year how can they give $10,500 to a different academic department a month for seven months when 10,500 only goes into 12,500 once? Now just al little personal information, I live a very comfortable middle class (I’m among the last of the middle class in this country) life style, my father pays my school bill, since if were going to split hairs, he’s the middle class one, since the pay check I take home barley covers my cost of living but that is an aside, what I care about are the students who are not, or have not been as fortunate as I have been. Lastly, Christ on Fire! What the hell do you mean “Not able to receive those because you are a student working towards a degree?” What the hell does that mean, everyone where is working towards a degree of some kind, the only thing that makes sense to me, is that the many scholarships you just mentioned (barley) are for Graduate Students (which would be redundant since you talking about scholarships just for them further down in your article. Now if we go with my surmise that since I’m not eligible for them since I’m working on my undergrad degree, than they must be for Grad students and well what are the scholarships for the Undergrads since I feel, I may be incorrect in this, that undergrad students are more numerous than Grad students. Now you go on to say that “Most of the scholarships that are given out are to the sum of 500 to 1,500 dollars”, to that I say once again how many? How many people have received these scholarships? How many students has this helped? If you have the money figures, I’m sure that you can find out how many of us, your constituents you have actually helped.

Now you go on to talk about how Student Government has a “Winter Wonderland Dance” which is all nice and good that we can have fun, I’m not advocating some ascetic lifestyle for all of us, but once again would it kill us to get more speakers here to talk about the things impacting out life, to get the discourse going on this campus about healthcare, banking reform, jobs, the nation as a whole, problems facing the college, Staten Island, the city and State of New York things that should be done. I will tell you one of the best events that go on is “The World On Wednesday” when they have Ambassador Robert W. Dry come and speak, those are my favorite “World on Wednesdays” and I’m sure more of us would enjoy debating ideas and learning more about subjects we are interested in. Considering that Student Government had one, just one, just one single rally against the tuition hike we had and you called it a day. I don’t care if 2 people were at the first one you should have been out side of 1C everyday, outside of Morales office and 1A rallying the students and trying to connect with the other CUNY Student Governments to try and fight back. If none of them had reached out to you, you should have reached out to them and been LEADERS! Student Government should have been at the forefront of a call to the barricades to fight the hike, and with CUNY and SUNY “reform” coming at us with a projected ten percent tuition hike coming at us, I expect you to do more.

Oh and just because I was not physically in the room at the time doesn’t mean I don’t have ways of finding out what went on in there during your SG meetings and what was said by people, and things that were left out of your minutes. You also say that most of the work you do is for the betterment of the students, but I ask again, what are those things? What are you doing exactly to help the students? To harp back on the idea of stipends, they are there to reward you for doing work, which as far as me and a majority of the campus goes; we don’t know what the hell you are doing for us. But beyond that in this time of economic crisis when people are faced with pay cuts and unemployment, when my job cuts out hours following a pay cut several years ago with the excuse of the economy is bad, why do we have to suffer alone. That does not just go for Student Government, that goes for the Administration as well, how come President Morales god a pay raise when our tuition was hiked (for more information on that please read the last few issues of Third Rail).

Now I have just one more thing to say about your article before I touch on some other things. You say “The other issues you bring up are not the issues that Student Government can fix with its allocation. The problems you have with Buildings and Grounds should be addressed with Buildings and Grounds.” Wrong, you fail governance forever! Good God Almighty do you even understand what you’re suppose to do! You (and the rest of Student Government) are our elected representatives, OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES! You are to represent US, the Students and our problems, to lobby for our interest, don’t tell me there’s nothing you can do, it may be vain, since the bureaucracy at CSI puts the old Soviet bureaucracy to shame, to call CSIs bureaucracy Byzantine would be an insult to the Byzantine Empire but there has to be something you can do. So I understand the hardships, I do, of all the paper work, of waiting for one’s turn to come up so that something can finally be done. But when we have publications that are paralyzed because of a tech problem and they have to wait days and days, even weeks, months and I would not be surprised years for the Office of Information Technology (OIT) to come and do something, let alone the awful conditions that are professors are forced to labour under. So I refuse to believe there is nothing you can do to take steps to fix this, because if you can’t and Student Government can’t help with many of the problems on this campus, than what the hell is the purpose of even having it?

But now I quickly turn to other things quickly. As I mentioned earlier in the article the new Third Rail for fall 2009 is an issue we should all read and here I would like to confront some comments I have received on it so far among what some have described to be as its impact. Now first there is a claim that Student Government last year spent over $50,000 on them selves, many of the senators have protested this claiming that it is physically impossible. But when Neil Schuldiner made this same claim in front of Student Government some months ago and was meet by the same protests from Student Government, he went down a list of expenditures proving it. So please everyone keep your eyes peeled for more information on this, here in the Banner, over in Third Rail and many other places since I look forward to reproducing it as soon as possible. A sad note I would like to mention is that Washeika Torres is now our Student Government Vice-President, this to me is one of the worst ideas I have ever heard in the long sad history of bad ideas, if the several incidents that I have pointed out aren’t proof of that I do not know what is, and I would like to congratulate Nicholas Imbornone in being elected President, he’s a good man, and he means good, just remember Nick, hold your ground, SG has compromised enough. In that spirit I would also like to congratulate Student Government for starting to turn in the right direction, in what I can only see as a sign of solidarity they voted on a cut to their stipends. Even more hopeful is that in their first meeting which took place on January 28th, there came a motion to pay for a hotel room for the College’s Vice President which cost about $180, now although some members of Student Government were for this (when I get my hands on a copy of the minutes than we will all know who) many were not, and in one statement said “Is this really what the Student Activity Fee money should be going to?” I can say with great pride that this motion was voted down and our money, our Student money, meant to be spent on the Students, the real power on this campus, was not spent on an administrator. So good show SG, and good job I look forward to hearing more stories like this, and trust me I will be looking.

I would like to end on one final note. For too long many of the publications were in disarray. Fallout from the “Pub War”, coups, counter-coups, revolts and restructuring had scattered many of us to the wind, and for too long the administration and SG has enjoyed a free ride, but now we are rebuilding, reforming and stable and the period of chaos is now over, and we’re back.

Merry Christmas.....

To start sorry for the delay in new posts I've been busy and I hope to one at least a few times a week, until I have more time on my hands. Now on with todays topic, a very topical (see what I did there) holiday post.

Now certain (crazy) people on a (ridiculously evil) side of the political spectrum believe there is a "War On Christmas". They think that (remember the following is suppose to be scary) Liberals, Secular Humanists, Socialists, Communists, people with an once of empathy in them and there pawns are out to destroy Jesus or something. So starting every September (since Jesus would have been all about starting the Christmas shopping season as soon as possible) on a particular Faux News Channel owned by some Aussie, they start shouting about how the aforementioned suppose to be evil people (as opposed to the actual evil people who push this idea) are trying to take religion out of Christmas (like the Coke a Cola company, and the soulless drones of 5th Avenue and other famed marketing firms haven't all read).

This preoccupation with making sure you tell every one Merry Christmas, to throw it in there face about how into Jesus you are, is well like all religion dumb. For one Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, December 25th is the Roman Holiday Saturnalia, and several other pagan holidays, also the birth date of Horus the Egyptian god. It goes even further than that in Luke's description of the birth (made famous by Its a Charlie Brown Christmas) he mentions Shepard's in the field tending there flock, the thing is the Palestinian winters are too cold. It is more than possible that Jesus was actually born in the Spring. So that's one reason not to take the whole Jesus born on December 25th with a grain of salt.

Now that being said I tell everyone Merry Christmas, regardless of what religion they are. But why would I do that, especially after telling all of you that its a waste of time. Simply, its because I see Christmas as a secular holiday. It's a holiday that's suppose to about caring, friendship, giving and on top of that all the capitalist commercialism that's been heaped on it. That commercialism its self has practically turned Christmas into a secular holiday. So that's the plan from here on out, fuck these Christians and there bullshit, tell everyone Merry Christmas not because you believe in Jesus, tell them it because were all in it together, and telling someone to be merry and have fun, for all not just a select group of people and most importantly remember everyone to have


A Merry Christmas

We Can't Have Anything Nice.

The worst thing about America by far happens to be Americans. For as H.L. Mencken said "The common man is a fool". I fear Mencken may have been right, my proof of that is America itself and the American populace never ending ability to fuck things up for themselves. Which most certainly has to do with how uneducated the American public is, and how anti-intellectual we are in general once again to quote Mr. Mencken "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public". It speaks volumes that if you really want to make money in the country you have to assume that every single America is an idiot. And for the most part they may be right, ye God on High just look at the popularity of a certain politician from Alaska.

Is it so wrong for us to have nice things? In other places the people can have nice things, functioning health care, education systems, clean reliable public transportation system, even clean public restrooms. But why not here? I've given you my answer to that question, that for the most part the American public is too stupid to have anything nice with out screwing it up. But I feel like that answer is too easy and a bit of a cop out. I think its also the fact that Americans are hypocritical again as our friend Mr. Mencken said "The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth". This is most seen in the activities of the Tea-Baggers and many other conservatives, especially Republicans, who preach about virtues of freedom, and liberty but when given the chance to rule do anything but that, and God help us if they were ever given the power they really want, we'd all end up in places that would make Dachau look like a summer camp.

I write this post seemingly without meaning or direction mostly because its nearing 5am and I'm sitting here bored and somewhat depressed. I'm not even sure if I even believe in democracy anymore, because to have one that functions you need an educated population, which American doesn't have. Once more I leave you with the words of H.L. Mencken, I don't agree with everything he has ever said or even some of the quotes of his I have used, but this one... this one, if there were ever a truer statement I have yet to run across it, "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard".

God help us all.

And Now A Word From the OBC.

London
19:48

Good evening London, and all people of Airstrip One and this is your daily dose of information.

At the top of our stories tonight, Reginald Blackwell chief Minister at the Ministry of Truth has stepped down today following a doubleplusungood statement to reporters here at the Oceania Broadcast Company, in which he uncorrectly stated that "Our greatest enemy is Eurasia". It will be duly noted that Eurasia has always been our greatest ally against the evil and devious Eastasians. Amid cries that Minister Blackwell was an evil agent of the nefarious Emmanuel Goldstein, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Love had this to say "Even though Minister Blackwell has committed an act of doubleplusungood so grievous, especially coming from an esteemed member of the Inner Party would require action, but word comes down from Big Brother himself, that all is forgiven. See Big Brother is filled with mercy and compassion for all". The new Minister a Minister Roger Ailes, former chief of Oceania's province formerly known as America Fox News Network. Minister Ailes has promised to bring the same quality of news to the Ministry of Truth that he had ensured existed at the former Fox News. Minister Alies has also supported a Mrs. Sarah Palin for the Governorship of the American provinces saying, "Palin 2012".

And that concludes our broadcast for today, remember when life get you down nothing is better than some Victory Gin and the ever loving warmth of Big Brother.

Thanksgiving

So first off I would like to apologize for missing the last few days but well I'm sure some of you know how it is. So today I'm going to not talk about politics and talk about some wider things, todays topic will be Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday in that it is entirely about overeating and wanting to murder your family. I think we can all agree on that, that this holiday is truly about wanting to get together with your loved ones for the sole purpose of reminding yourself why you want to kill them. So in that vein, every one have a happyt Turkey Day and be careful with those knives