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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIsraeli leader who mourned Mandela's death helped white regime get missiles
Among the world leaders who have showered South Africa with condolences since the death of Nelson Mandela, Israels Shimon Peres stood out as a peer. Like Mandela, he won a Nobel Peace prize. Like Mandela, he stayed on the world stage long past retirement age. Mandela died at 95. At 90, Peres is still serving as Israels president.
The world has lost a great leader who changed the face of history, said Peres on behalf of the Israeli nation. Nelson Mandela was a human rights fighter who made his mark on the war against discrimination and racism."
But in the 1970s, while Mandela was languishing in a damp prison cell on Robben Island, Peres was making deals with South Africa's apartheid regime, according to interviews and documents gathered by NBC News, a recent documentary and a book based on Israeli and South African government documents. With the help of an Israeli operative now famed as the Hollywood mogul behind Pretty Woman and Fight Club, Peres traded missiles for money and the uranium needed for atomic bombs.
At the center of the relationship was a "Joint Secretariate for Political and Psychological Warfare" set up in 1975 to handle various matters, not the least of which was "propaganda and psychological warfare." It was an outgrowth of a $100 million South African propaganda campaign to fix the countrys tarnished image. Leading the effort was the late Eschel Rhoodie, a brash apparatchik who had convinced the regimes leaders they needed to sell apartheid to the western media.
Under terms of the agreement, championed by Peres, then Defense Minister, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister, Israel would help South Africa burnish its international reputation. South Africa would supply the money, with each country appointing a secretary to look after its interests.
As the relationship grew, the two sides began to cooperate on military, even nuclear development. Peres, the architect of Israels nuclear program, had procured the countrys first nuclear reactor in the 1950s, and built a clandestine agency called the Science Liaison Bureau that collected nuclear technology.
In a February 1993 interview, Rhoodie told NBC News he was the chief representative on the South African side. "Arnon Milchan was the chief representative on the Israeli side, said Rhoodie. We paid him about 30,000 rand [$40,000] a year." Milchan is now a Hollywood billionaire who has produced more than 120 movies, including Mr. and Mrs. Smith and L.A. Confidential. When he was in his 20s, however, Peres recruited him for the Science Liaison Bureau. Peres designated Milchan to represent Israel in South Africa.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/08/21795608-israeli-leader-who-mourned-mandelas-death-helped-white-regime-get-missiles
Articles like this, from NBC, you know the gloves are off...
JI7
(89,258 posts)far better than the teabagging racist piece of shits attacking MAndela right now.
at least Peres and even Gingrich can acknowledge he was a good person.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)There were those who supported the racists. Those people cannot be forgiven. Many Americans were ostracized and vilified for their support of Mandela. Those are the true heroes and the ones who were never defended and are marginalized to this day.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and former Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums discuss Nelson Mandela and their work in the U.S. to help end apartheid in South Africa.
http://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/where-anti-apartheid-movement-began-in-the-us-82464835721
JI7
(89,258 posts)i'm not saying peres or anyone who is praising him is a hero for doing that.
i'm saying do you think they should attack Mandela like the teabagging racists are today ?
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)I'm not sure what your talking about.
Peace.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)Peres is expecting no one will remember or know what he did.
I think there are many more like him who sing Mandela's praises now but were not his friends back then.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Peres is expecting no one will DARE speak of what he did...
Until a couple months ago, not a single american with veritas would state that Israel had nuclear weapons, much less that they were selling them.
Israel needs to sign the non proliferation treaty and join the civilized world.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)After PM bows out, president decides against trip following bout with flu; Knesset speaker to represent Israel
A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would not be making the trip to the memorial service of late South African civil rights legend Nelson Mandela, the office of nonagenarian President Shimon Peres told The Times of Israel that he would also not be attending.
The president will not be going to South Africa, the presidents spokesperson said. Hes recovering from flu, and hes taking his doctors advice not to travel. He really wanted to go.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein will represent Israel at the ceremony, heading a delegation of five Knesset members.
The last-minute arrangements reportedly led to confusion and concern within the Israeli leadership and in the South African Jewish community that Israel might wind up with no official representative at the ceremonies. At one point, Channel 2 reported, consideration was given to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni being flown to South Africa from the US, where she was attending the Saban Forum, along with President Barack Obama on Air Force One.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/citing-doctors-orders-peres-to-miss-mandela-funeral/
malaise
(269,103 posts)Out planet is full of breath-taking hypocrites, liars and war criminals.
Jimmy Carter is one of the few to call them out with basic facts
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)were working together along with Taiwan. As countries with very few allies and no influence at the United Nations, they shared some military technology and traded with each other for things they couldn't get elsewhere.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)sometimes referred to as the South Atlantic Flash was an unidentified "double flash" of light detected by an American Vela Hotel satellite on September 22, 1979, near the Prince Edward Islands off Antarctica, which many believe was of nuclear origin. The most widespread theory among those who believe the flash was of nuclear origin is that it resulted from a joint South African and Israeli nuclear test
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Incident#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHersh1991271-1