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Opinion

The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa

May 24, 2010 17:35
10 min read

"The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa" by Sasha-Polakow-Surnansky

A new book probes Israel’s murky relationship with apartheid South Africa
REVIEW by BENJAMIN POGRUND May 21, 2010

That Israel traded with apartheid South Africa is well known. But the extent of it, and even more the nature of it, have been shrouded in mystery. Sasha Polakow-Suransky, a senior editor at Foreign Affairs, exposes the details in his new book, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa—together with the disinformation, lies, and hypocrisy that kept them hidden for so long.

On May 14, 1948, Israel declared independence. Less than two weeks later, in an unrelated event, South Africa’s whites adopted the policy of apartheid—Afrikaans for “apartness”—to enshrine in law a system that made them dominant and to deepen racial segregation. Israel made its disapproval plain: As David Ben-Gurion, the father of the new nation, said, “A Jew cannot be for discrimination.” Israel regularly voted against South Africa in international forums. With only minimal contact between the two countries, Israel instead became a friend and helper of Africa’s emerging independent states