Here’s a
fresh look at Israel’s news—and some headlines you might have overlooked as
last week ended.
Today, we
look at—and comment on—just a few headlines from December 10-12, 2013.
Nelson Mandela
-Masses
gather in Johannesburg for Mandela memorial (12/10/13, Jerusalem Post)
-World
leaders pay tribute to Mandela
(12/10/13, Ynet)
-Obama in
South Africa: Mandela is 'the last great liberator of the 20th century'
(12/10/13, Haaretz)
- Obama hails Mandela, chides other
leaders who stifle dissent (12/10/13 Ynet)
-Labor Chief
Slams PM over Mandela Memorial Absence (12/10/13, Arutz Sheva)
- Mandela
vs. the Iron Lady (12/10/13, The Times of Israel)
-By avoiding
Mandela’s memorial, Netanyahu digs Israel’s PR grave (12/10.13, blogger essay The
Times of Israel)
Israel Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harvested more bitterness from last week’s news
cycle, this time over the Mandela funeral. The bitterness he collected didn’t
come from foreigners. It came instead from Israelis who, apparently, are more
smart than wise.
The problem
was, Mr Netanyahu begged off going to the funeral due, his office said, to cost
constraints. Israel President Peres—who at first announced he would go--also
begged off due, his own office said, to a case of the flu.
As one
writer put it, Peres got a ‘doctor’s note’ to stay in Israel. He got an excused
absence.
But
Netanyahu got hammered. With his ‘I
can’t go’ announcement, he seemed to have committed three unforgiveable political
sins. As Leftist Labor leader Yitzchak Herzog said, Netanyahu was guilty of
"insensitivity or plain stupidity" over his decision not to attend
Nelson Mandela's funeral (“Labor Chief Slams PM over Mandela Memorial Absence”).
According to
these accusations, Netanyahu’s first sin was that he gave Israel a black eye (“By
avoiding Mandela’s memorial, Netanyahu digs Israel’s PR grave”). Netanyahu’s
refusal to honour the world’s greatest moral leader would serve only to provoke
the world to demonize Israel.
Netanyahu’s second sin was that his failure to
honour Mandela demonstrated a complete lack of appreciation for ethics and
justice. As one commentator was quoted to say in “Mandela vs. the Iron Lady”, “Netanyahu’s
decision to skip Madiba’s [Mandela’s] memorial draws jeers, especially in light
of that fact that he attended Margaret Thatcher’s funeral… ‘What values, as a country, do we place higher, values of justice and
ethics, or the economic values of Margaret Thatcher, who after her death Brits
went out drinking [sic] and waved signs condemning her?’
His third
sin was the lameness of his excuse—the cost of travel. It seemed a
transparently disingenuous excuse. How could he lie so stupidly?
Altogether, these
accusations appeared to combine into a powerful and articulate slap in the
face. It made Netanyahu look vile. But the
accusations were misplaced.
Netanyahu
was correct not to go to Mandela’s funeral. He might even have been correct to
use so lame an excuse.
These Israeli
moral gurus who rake Netanyahu over the coals apparently believe that Nelson
Mandela remains a moral giant. But
that’s not entirely true. It’s certainly not true for Jews.
Nelson
Mandela had once been noble. During his life, he became a moral icon. He
contributed to (led?) the defeat of the evil South African apartheid—and became
his country’s President. Therefore, these writers proclaim, he is to be
honoured for being the great moral leader of our time; and anyone who didn’t show
up at a ceremony to honour the passing of such a giant only soiled his own
reputation.
Take that,
you swine Netanyahu.
But while Nelson
Mandela had no doubt been a moral giant, he did not remain a moral giant. When
it came to the Jews, he put his morality—and his nobility—aside.
Look at what
he did. He kissed Yasser Arafat. He called Arafat one of our generation’s giants
(or something like that). He praised Arafat. He sat together with Arafat. He
visited Arafat. He continued to kiss Arafat.
He lent to
Arafat his moral reputation. He allowed a killer and an advocate of ethnic
cleansing to gain strength, fame and power from the afterglow of association
and photo-ops.
With every
kiss, Mandela’s moral stature shrank. Arafat was a tyrant. Mandela kissed him. Arafat
used apartheid rules to control his own people. Mandela kissed him. Arafat
spoke of ‘freeing Palestinians’ even as he imprisoned them. Mandela still
kissed him.
But instead
of kissing, Mandela should have used his moral stature to pressure Arafat. He
should have told Arafat, in public, ‘My friend, if you wish to proclaim
solidarity with me, then you cannot be intolerant to your own people.’
Mandela
didn’t do that—and if apologists say he did, then he didn’t do it enough. At
the very least, he should have spoken these words with every kiss. He didn’t do
that, either.
All we saw
were the kisses. What we saw was, the love; and today, that love continues: the
country that Mandela led and influenced now says that the “arrangement there in
Palestine [sic] keeps us awake ... the last time I [South African International
Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane] looked at the map of Palestine, I
could not go to sleep. The struggle of the people of Palestine is our struggle…”.
The truth
about Netanyahu’s decision is this: the Prime Minister of Israel should not honour
one who kisses unrepentant Jew-killers. The Prime Minister of Israel also does
not—and should not-- honour a man whose own country appears to buy into the
Arab war against Israel without reservation. Perhaps the virtues our Prime
Minister prefers to uphold are the virtues of right and just morality, not
hypocrisy.
Perhaps that
is why the Jewish people are to be called, a Light unto the nations—because Jews
understand better than most where moral double-standards can lead.
Perhaps
that’s why Netanyahu didn’t go to honour Mandela; and so far as that lame
excuse goes—the cost of the trip—perhaps the excuse should be lame, so that
others can see that Netanyahu knows how to remain polite and courteous even to
one who has betrayed his own nobility.
What do you
think?
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