We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Ariel Sharon, Apartheid South Africa and mutual military interests

Click here to access article by Hennie Van Vuuren and Anine Kriegler from Daily Maverick (South Africa).

In reviewing the legacy of Ariel Sharon, few media sources have covered his important role in collaborating with the South African in military affairs to secure capitalist interests in Africa and with nuclear weapons programs. This article fills in the gaps. This collaboration clearly illustrates the common proverb which states, "birds of a feather flock together".
The military alliance between the two pariah states was largely covert, but, according to reams of correspondence between the respective defence ministries, unreservedly supportive and warm. Sharon played a key role in keeping it so, going further than most in publicly asserting South Africa’s urgent need for more and better weaponry. There was a clear sense of parallel between the struggles of the Apartheid and Israeli states, and although many Israelis were at pains to maintain their ideological distance, Sharon was not among them.