Its Almost Supernatural reports that South African Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils appears to be toning down his anti-Israel rhetoric with a followup commentary in the Cape Times (only available to Cape Times subscribers). Supernatural writes:
Red Ronnie comes out in pseudo-support of a two-state solution if only for pragmatic reasons.
This would seem to contradict his previous statements that the Jewish state had no right to exist. This article is also devoid of much of the extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that Ronnie so relishes. For example he did not repeat his libellous claim that Israeli’s are behaving like Nazis. This is not to say the article was not anti-Israel (as his ever present apartheid accusations confirm). But it was considerably more measured relative to his normal standards.
So why the change? I believe that Ronnie has been brought to heal by the powers that be within the South African government. And I think that our barrage of angry letters to Mail and Guardian in no small way contributed to this.
This certainly highlights the power of the pen.
UPDATE 9/28: The South African government is reining in Kasrils to follow the government’s policy supporting a two-state solution. See Supernatural’s latest update.
