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Essay

Editorial

Alliance Tarnishing
Mandela's Memory

S

outh Africa's ruling party – which for years included Nelson
Mandela, who was close to Jews despite loyalty to the
Palestinian cause – has decried Israel as
a nation rooted in apartheid. The African National
Congress (ANC) further described Israeli statehood
as a crime against humanity.
Such canards by South Africa's dominant
political party are yet another example of how
tense Israel is positioned in the whirl of nations.
Compounding the pronouncement is that South
Africa 1) is Africa's most developed nation, 2) fea-
Nelson Mandela
tured a disproportionate number of Jews in the
struggle for democracy and 3) remains home to 70,000 Jews who rep-
resent just .1 percent of the total population of 51 million.
Last April 27, Freedom Day 2014, marked the 20th anniversary of
South Africa's first interracial democratic election, ending 46 years of
sanctioned, systematic racial segregation enforced through the apart-
heid-favoring National Party governments. Rights of the black majority
were effectively limited and Afrikaner minority rule was upheld during
this turbulent period. Racial conflict in South Africa dates back to the
arrival of the Dutch at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.

Israel's blood services require new home base.

Above: Dr. Eilat Shinar, a visiting
associate professor in medicine at Tel
Aviv University, has led the MDA Blood
Services Division since 1997.

lood.
It's the most precious liquid on
Earth.
Humans are doomed without healthy
blood. It's not a luxury. Blood delivers oxygen
The New York-based American Friends of
to the body, fights infection and nurtures
MDA is helping promote that cause, as is its
healing. Through transfusions, blood helps
Michigan-based John J. Mames Chapter. The
people survive near-fatal injuries.
chapter remains a living tribute to the mem-
In Israel, where war can break out at any
ory of John and Eva Mames. The beloved
moment given the rough neighborhood,
couple — she was a Holocaust survivor and
blood is in shorter supply than
he survived a Russian labor camp
water. One strategically fired
— were devoted Zionists. In 1967,
bomb by Hezbollah or Hamas
they founded the Mames Chapter in
could jeopardize Israel's blood
the shadows of the Six-Day War to
supply for civilians and soldiers
support Israel and save Israeli lives.
alike.
They frequently visited the ancestral
That's what confronts Magen
Jewish homeland.
David Adom (MDA), Israel's
Over the years, the Mames
national emergency medical,
Chapter has donated more than 240
disaster relief, ambulance and
ambulances to MDA as well as more
Robert Sklar
blood service agency.
than $34 million in additional sup-
Contrib uting
The MDA Blood Services
port — from bulletproof vests, blood
Edito r
Division is tasked with furnish-
processing equipment and defibril-
ing safe and sufficient blood to
lators to paramedic scholarships and
the people of Israel. But the Ramat Gan-based emergency aid stations. The chapter also sup-
MDA National Blood Center stands above
ports the renowned MDA Cord Blood Bank.
ground with an inadequate below-grade shel-
It's not a stretch to say Jewish Detroit
ter, making it an easy target for terrorists or
has been among the greatest champions of
American Friends of MDA. It was our own
earthquakes. It also is too small to efficiently
serve Israel's quickly growing population.
Bill Davidson who led a local 1986 campaign
that generated $8 million toward the $30
Looking Ahead
million cost of opening the MDA National
What's needed is a new, cutting-edge center
Blood Center in Ramat Gan. Handleman
with crucial services, such as blood process-
Plaza there is named for Detroiter Joseph
ing and storage, situated underground. MDA
Handleman, a past international chair
envisions this new facility in Ramla, near
of MDA, and his wife, Sally. In 1985, the
Ben-Gurion International Airport. The facil-
Handlemans commissioned Jewish sculptor
ity is projected to open in three to four years,
Nathan Rapoport to create "Brotherhood of
fundraising allowing.
Man," now standing in the plaza.

Life Giving on page 59

58

September 25 • 2014

Cfmner

For the ANC to join with South Africa's anti-Israel lobby in urging a
"boycotting and isolating of Israel as a state founded on the basis of
apartheid" is a telling blow to the Jewish state, given its dangerous
Middle East neighborhood and the worsening attacks on Jews across
Europe.
The alliance the ANC has teamed with pledged "ongoing solidarity
with the people of Palestine" as well as support for the boycott, divest-
ment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The platform calls
for transport workers at South African docks and airports to forgo
handling products bound for Israel and for retail workers to renounce
any tasks associated with goods made in or coming from Israel.
The fiction posited by the September alliance statement gives the
ANC cover for the economic inequality and political corruption that
plague South Africa – racial advances aside.
The thin ties between Jerusalem and Pretoria were frayed this sum-
mer during the Israel-Hamas war when the ANC compared Israel's
Operation Protective Edge to the genocidal acts of Nazi Germany.
The ANC's outrageous condemnation of Israel demands repudiation
by those who stand with the Jewish state. Dismissed in all the Jew-
hatred is that Israel is ready to resume peace talks over key issues like
borders, security, settlements, refugees, Jerusalem, water rights and
holy sites; it's the Palestinians who have stayed away.
To say Israel is predicated on the practice of apartheid shows a dis-
tinct lack of understanding of history.

Echoes Of Mandela

Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994
following his 1990 release from 27 years as a political prisoner. Despite
the recognition Israel gave South Africa's apartheid regime out of
political expediency, Mandela as president gave his imprimatur to
Zionism as Jewish nationalism. He sought to be fair to Israel and the
Palestinians, realizing Palestinian independence hinged on Palestinian
recognition of Israel's legitimate right to exist with secure borders.
In his 1995 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela writes
about the white Johannesburg law firm that courageously hired him as
a law clerk in the 1940s: It was a Jewish firm and, in my experience, I
have found Jews to be more broadminded that most whites on issues
of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically
been victims."
Clearly, the African National Congress has conveniently ignored the
sage counsel of its most iconic and sagacious figure.

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