South Africa's Betrayal

Postapartheid Pretoria has become the free world's leading coddler of dictators.

"Last September, not long after the Israeli-Hezbollah war, South Africa's minister of intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, praised the Islamist group committed to Israel's destruction. The Iran News Agency, albeit prone to exaggeration, reported that Mr. Kasrils 'lauded [the] great victories of the Lebanese Hezbollah against the Zionist forces' and 'stressed that the successful Lebanese resistance proved the vulnerability of the Israeli army.' The comment received no attention in the South African media; nor, for that matter, did the international press seem particularly interested. And yet, the scandalous comment occurred immediately after the South African government had warmly received the visiting Iranian foreign minister and expressed support for Iran's campaign for uranium enrichment--in spite of the passing of a"