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February 6, 2009 | 10:04 am

South African politician says she meant ‘Zionists, not ‘Jews,’ control U.S.

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Hajaig

Not everyone who is an anti-Zionist is an anti-Semite. But clearly the rhetoric of today’s anti-Semites is to say that Judaism is a beautiful religion but Zionism the spawn of Satan. In fact, some of their best friends are Jewish ...

And that’s the point of clarification that Fatima Hajaig, the South African deputy foreign minister, has made regarding her statement last month that “control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money.”

Hajaig says she meant:

I have just returned from a visit to Japan and learnt of the controversy surrounding some comments that I was purported to have made. I have reviewed the proceedings of the meeting and wish to say, to state the following: Throughout my life I have been opposed to apartheid and all forms of racism. It is this opposition that drove me into exile and to work with the African National Congress for decades. Along with all in the ANC and consistent with the recent resolutions adopted at our Polokwane conference in December 2007, I have long been cognisant of the immense suffering the Palestinians have experienced in the form of expulsions, collective punishment and massacres, of which the recent war in Gaza is but the latest example. It is to this suffering that I spoke at the meeting. I deplore the attempts of Zionists to justify policies that have worsened the crisis in the Middle East, in particular unmitigated state violence directed against unarmed civilians as much as I deplore indiscriminate attacks against Israeli unarmed civilians.

At a singular point in my talk, and entirely unrelated to any South African community, I conflated Zionist pressure with Jewish influence. I regret the inference made by some that I am anti-Jewish. I do not believe that the cause of the Palestinians is served by any anti-Jewish racism. As a member of the South African government and a committed member of the African National Congress, I subscribe to the values and principles of non-racism and condemn without equivocation all forms of racism, including antisemitism in all its manifestations and wherever it may occur.

To the extent that my statement may have caused hurt and pain, I offer an unequivocal apology for the pain it may have caused to the people of our country and the Jewish community in particular. I wish to reiterate that the major issue in relation to the Palestinian Israel conflict is the enormous suffering of the Palestinian people and the struggle for peace for all its’ people based on justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, I reaffirm the government’s commitment to engage all parties in Israel and Palestine to find an amicable and just resolution to the conflict in that region.

Ben Cohen at Jewcy isn’t buying it. He writes:

Check out the fascinating inversion going on here: instead of the word “Zionist” being used as deliberate code for “Jew,” the word “Jew” is being - accidentally? - used as code for “Zionist.”

Fatima Hajaig doesn’t want to explain how she flipped those around. And why should she? Antisemitic canards about Jews and money and power were, no doubt, furthest from her mind when she made this unfortunate slip of the tongue. Those of us who dwell on this point are playing the usual Zionist trick of changing the subject. As Hajaig’s defenders in South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Alliance put it, what we have here is “no more than a sinister means of diverting public attention from the ever increasing reports war crimes, ethnic cleansing and a massive humanitarian crisis caused in Gaza by Israel.”

Yes, it’s very sinister. After all, Hajaig is clear that what she calls “anti-Jewish racism” does not serve the cause of the Palestinians, so how could she possibly be suspected of anything other than noble intentions? When Hajaig rails against Jewish financial influence, or when Hamas quotes from the Protocols, or when Torah scrolls are pulled from the ark of a synagogue in Caracas and defaced by a group of armed men, none of this is directed at Jews. Shame, really, on those who say otherwise.

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Wow that was an intense read.  It’s wild how they were flipping “zionist” around with “jew.”

Comment by God Texts on 2/06/09 at 1:16 pm

Not to mention the fact that this is one UGLY woman.

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 2/07/09 at 3:41 pm

Comments are open . . .
OK, first comment. As if anyone thought she meant Noam Chomsky or Norman Frankenstein! This formulation of ‘does not serve the cause of the Palestinians’ is bogus because that the problem, not the solution or goal of “an amicable and just resolution to the conflict in that region.” It has its roots in the days when the Arab occupation would commit some atrocity on peace-loving Zionist liberators of ancient Judah and Israel, and were prodded by the US State Department and its tame Jewish steers to apologize or condemn the actions. Rather than rejecting violence their lame-o self-serving statements focused on the usefulness of such actions to the goals of the ‘Palestinians’.

Next, it has becoem so commonplace to conflate Jews and Zionists that she did not even dream that there are still people too sane to be down with the program. she didn’t even know she was doing it.

But let’s not be too hasty on making fine distinctions and distancing that only serve to advance the goals of the ‘palestinians’. In a way she is absolutely correct on conflatinmg the two. Most important, Zionism is just a name for a core component of original age-old Jewish national and religious existence. The notions of non-Jewish Zionism and non-Zionist Judaism are historically recent failed experiments that have already died whether or not they know it. Jews have never acceded to any of the racist, colonialist, imperialist invasions and occupations of Israel including the latest, and never will. It is increasingly clear that to oppose Zionism is to oppose Judaism and Jews and vice-versa. All the protestation to the contrary are artificial and theoretical.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 2/08/09 at 3:38 pm

Anti-Zionism is the new Anti-Semitism… no matter how you paint it, 99% of the time anti-Zionists are actually anti-Jewish…

The problem for Jew-haters is that it’s not politically correct to say “Jew” or “Jewish”, but today’s society has completely kashered the term “anti-Zionist” and thus we are in the predicament we are in now.  The Jewish-loving world had better wake up soon, because the chances of another mass-pogrom (this time on a global scale) have never been closer.

The global Jewish community is in grave danger, and it’s on each of our shoulders to support one another while there is still time to so.  Don’t ignore the “ant-Zionists” or we may soon wake up and realize that the anti-Zionists have dropped their kafiyahs from their necks and openly donned their swastikas on their sleeves.

Comment by Comrade Tovya on 2/08/09 at 6:39 pm

Why only 99%? Zionism and Judaism are congruent. Zionism and the Israeli Government are not. I wish Feiglin would break away with a new party called Likud Bet, with a constitution that is almost word-for-word that of the Likud with the exception that he will really mean it.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 2/08/09 at 10:02 pm

” A British diplomat was arrested for an anti-semitic tirade at his gym, the Times of London reports.

Rowan Laxton — a diplomat with Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office — reportedly shouted, “F***ing Israelis, f***ing Jews,” after watching television news reports of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at his gym in London.

Laxton also allegedly called for Israeli soldiers to be “wiped off the face of the Earth,” the paper reports.”

“Laxton, who married a Muslim woman in 2000 and has lived in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, is considered an expert on the Middle East…

The Daily Mail said that in response to a query on Monday, Laxton denied that his comments were anti-Semitic, but dodged answering whether they were anti-Israel.”

* * * * *

We report - you decide{/i}

Comment by Ben Plonie on 2/11/09 at 3:37 am

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