by israelirealities » Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:51 am
Your analysis, Eric, points to some despair, which is actually the reality of the colonised world. Whatever we do, its going to be for one empire or the other. there is no independence per se, even at the level of identity. I still think SA is better off now than under the Afrikaner appartheid regime. there is a constant flow of white immigration to USA< Canada etc., they will always have a place under the sun. THe locals will not. <br>I think that for ISraelis it is hard to accept that the Boer (sp?) were also a persecuted minority in Europe who went to their "promised land" and ended up as oppressors of the same kind they left behind. There is an Israeli journalist in Washington DC (Yoav Karni, otherwise I don't like him) who did a very deep and thorough research into the similarities bn ISrael and SA, I don't know if he published it in English as well. He argues that if the "Labor" party of SA (mostly English oriented, moderate) did not fail constanctly to get re elected (due to arrogance, corruption, shorsightedness), things could have worked out better and appartheid would then be abolished without the need for a white "exodus" from SA. He draws a parallel between the appartheid ruling party and the Likkud, saying these are mainly white trash who exploited racial "supremacism" to climb up the ladder and take over the entire SA, including the more educated white population. <br>His intention is to show that if Israel allows right wing mob and riffraff to hold on to the government for too long, the international community will finally interfere and move to boycot Israel altogether and bring it down.<br>I think he left out the most important component : US and European interests. But his cultural comparisson is compelling and his entire work on SA is very interesting. <br>Israel indeed collaborated with SA, especially with less attractive people there, actually nazis of sorts. The general excuse we hear here, from our government, is that "israel cannot be too picky and choosy with allies at this time blah blah" but the truth of the matter is that it took a toll of nazification of those who had do this collaboration cause you cant do it without being influenced. My hometown retired photographer, a German JEw survivor of Dachau, moved there after his grandchildren (whose father did business there and settled during appartheid rule and the peak of Israeli-SA romance) and was murdered there by black garden worker during a robbery of ten dollars. I think it says everything. <br> <br> <p></p><i></i>
