A Pariah State

With so many terrible things transpiring in today's world, it is often hard to feel any hope. Wars and injustices abound, and we are met daily with images of death, destruction and mutilation. The average person likely feels powerless to do anything about it. Indeed, often, as a temporary balm, we embrace the distractions provided by the machinations of the fascist nation we share a common border with. But distractions can take us only so far.

Other parts of the world, however, are not so easily and eagerly diverted. The good news, if we can call it that, is that internationally, thanks to the genocide they are conducting, Israel is feeling increasingly isolated.

Is it approaching a "South Africa moment", when a combination of political pressure, economic, sporting and cultural boycotts helped to force Pretoria to abandon apartheid?

Two former prime ministers, Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, have already accused Netanyahu of turning Israel into an international pariah. 

Thanks to a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, the number of countries Netanyahu can travel to without the risk of being arrested has shrunk dramatically. 

At the UN, several countries, including Britain, France, Australia, Belgium and Canada, [the latter has confirmed it will do so later this month] have said they are planning to recognise Palestine as a state next week.

Increasingly, nations are finding it very hard to ignore the daily slaughter by Israel of Gazan men, women and children.

... more and more European governments are showing their displeasure in ways that go beyond mere statements.

At the start of the month, Belgium announced a series of sanctions, including a ban on imports from illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a review of procurement policies with Israeli companies and restrictions on consular assistance to Belgians living in settlements.

Other countries, including Britain and France, had already taken similar steps.

A week after Belgium's move, Spain announced its own measures, turning an existing de facto arms embargo into law, announcing a partial import ban, barring entry to Spanish territory for anyone involved in genocide or war crimes in Gaza, and prohibiting Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from docking at Spanish ports or entering its airspace.

And additional measures ensure that Israel has or is becoming a pariah nation. 

In August, Norway's vast $2tn (1.7tn euros; £1.6tn) sovereign wealth fund announced it would start divesting from companies listed in Israel. By the middle of the month, 23 companies had been removed and finance minister Jens Stoltenberg said more could follow. 

Meanwhile, the EU, Israel's largest trading partner, plans to sanction far-right ministers and partly suspend trade elements of its association agreement with Israel.

The EU is being called upon to take stern measures as well.

... 314 former European diplomats and officials wrote to von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas calling for tougher measures, including a full suspension of the [trade] association agreement.

Drawing comparisons with the sanctions that broke the back of South Africa's apartheid in the 90s, former diplomat Ilan Baruch believes strong sanctions are the only way to curb Israel's madness. He

resigned from the diplomatic service in 2011, saying he was no longer able to defend Israel's occupation. Since retiring, he's been a vocal critic of the government and supporter of a two-state solution. 

He believes recent sanctions are necessary, saying: "That's how South Africa was pushed to its knees."

Of course, the outlier in all of this is Amerika, which continues its unflinching support of what has become a rogue nation.  A good part of that comes from its historical support for what was once a nation that fought valiantly for its survival. Today, I suspect it goes beyond that, given Herr Trump's admiration for leaders who employ strongarm tactics. 

One can only hope that in their next election, israel will deprive Netanyahu of that status so that he will finally, in much overdue fashion, face real justice.

 

Why Mandela Is So Important

Although I have only made reference to him three other times in this blog, Nelson Mandela is a person who I revere like no other. And of course, I am hardly alone in that sentiment, attested to by the fact that millions of people, not only in South Africa but around the world, are in a state of anxiety over his latest hospitalization.

But in frail health at the age of 94, hospitalized yet again with a stubborn lung affection many attribute to his 27 years of incarceration, most of it on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, where he contracted tuberculosis, it is unlikely that Mandela will be with us much longer.

Why is the world so reluctant to let him go? I can think of no other world figure who will be as mourned upon death as Mandela will be, and for some fairly obvious but crucially important reasons:

He is, without question, a man of outstanding character and deep morality. Not only did he show the courage of his convictions against apartheid by remaining in prison for 27 years (he could have been freed much earlier had he renounced the African National Congress), but upon release, when ordinary people would have been consumed by bitterness over that suffering and the lost years, he went on to become the President of South Africa and led the way to reconciliation with, not revenge against those who had treated him and his fellow blacks so abominably over the decades.

In doing so, Mandela held up a mirror to all of us, showing the potential that resides deep within and discoverable if we are willing to do the work that that entails. He taught us, political and corporate culture notwithstanding, that we are much more than mere fodder for that thing called the economy, that we have an innate dignity and a worth current propaganda would gladly deny.

Mandela showed us that we do not have to defined and circumscribed by our circumstances, that transcendence is possible.

I suspect that current rulers, both domestic and international, would like us to ignore those glimpses of our better angels that Mandela's life has afforded us. Those glimpses might lead to other things, like an expectation that those we elect put the people and their dignity before the exultation of corporate forces. They might demand that government not move in lockstep with those forces who see, not human dignity but only human fodder, mere fungible commodities to feed the machine in its quest for never-ending growth.

People might also begin to expect character from those they elect, not the subterfuge, not the opacity, not the arrant greed which have been mainstays of so many so-called democracies, not the least of all our own in Canada. They might demand real integrity, not a manufactured image, to define those who ask for our trust. They might demand real accountability.

I suspect our rulers would like us to ignore the lessons in life and humanity that Mandela's example has given us. Better for them if we continue upon our frightened and frequently insensate path, either disciplined by the ever-present fear of job loss or anodized by the latest in reality programming that invites us to mock our fellow human beings, the latest fashions, the latest technological marvels.

We are, of course, free as in the many opportunities that life presents to either ponder and learn from or ignore the truths that the long existence of Nelson Mandela has provided us with.


I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Nelson Mandela