Close Ties

WHEN THE HISTORY books come to the twentieth century a long and sorry chapter must inevitably be devoted to the relationship between Israel and South Africa. The chapter, will no doubt be used as a case study in the depths to which governments can sink--a study of the Israel-South Africa bond also provides an invaluable survey of the complexities of modern politics, which, in the end, turn out to be no more entangled than the average murder mystery.

About 70 percent of South Africa's 28 million inhabitants are Black, but this majority is forced to live on 14 percent of the land, the ruling government of whites--using apartheid statutes and arrest, torture, secret trials and imprisonment unmatched anywhere in the world--excludes the Black majority from the voting process altogether. For Blacks in South Africa, life means misery, dire poverty, complete political disenfranchisement, slave labor and rule by terror. The white government, moreover, occupies the neighboring state of Namibia in violation of international law and regularly launches raids into Angola.

As the only country in the world where racism is openly proclaimed as the official policy, and as the industrialized country which imprisons the greatest proportion of its population (greater than even the USSR). South Africa is ostracized by virtually the entire world community. South Africa has been excluded from regular sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations since 1974, banned from the Olympics and other international organizations, and there has long been an attempt to limit or ban international trade with the apartheid state.

More and more often, countries denouncing South Africa at the U.N. include attacks on Israel as part of their condemnation. That Israel has close military and economic ties with South Africa is beyond dispute. What is at issue is the nature, meaning and importance of those links. Before analyzing what Israeli support of apartheid means, we should be clear on just how close the two countries are.

ACCORDING to The Economist, in 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger '50 "secretly asked the Israeli government to send troops to Angola in order to co-operate with the South African army in fighting the Cuban backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. [The American Congress had just outlawed direct U.S. involvement.] The Israelis temporised, reluctant to do this. Eventually, however, they sent South Africa some military instructors specializing in anti-guerilla warfare, plus equipment designed for the same purpose. In return, the Israelis took Mr. Kissinger's request as the green light for an Israeli-South African partnership."(1)

Following the Kissinger lead, South African Prime Minister John Vorster--who had been imprisoned during World War II for his out-spoken support for Nazi Germany--paid an official visit to Israel in May 1976. The Economist reported that the South African head of state "signed a row of economic and military collaboration agreements that centered on South Africa's willingness to finance some of Israel's costlier military projects. Israel was to reciprocate by supplying weapon systems and training."

One specific form of cooperation was described: "South Africa will for its part, put up the money for the next generation of Israeli warships. As a return on its investment South Africa will cream off the first four or five new boats as they are produced in 1979-80. Forty South African engineers and technicians are now watching over the work at the Haifa shipyards." (2)

The Vorster trip also resulted in the creation of a Joint Ministerial Committee to promote closer economic ties between the two nations. South Africa made an exception to its ordinarily strict investment regulations by allowing South African Jews to invest up to $60 million in Israel. More official economic ties were strengthened in 1980 when the apartheid government extended a $200 million loan to Israel and sold $25 million in Israeli bonds in South Africa. (3)

Although the Economist, like other sources, stresses that "Israel entered into this expansive partnership on the strength of a nod from the ford administration," it would be a serious mistake to ignore the older links between Israel and South Africa. A 1957 Commentary article. "The Jews of South Africa," estimated that 120,000 Jews, mostly from Lithuania, made up about 4 percent of all white South Africans. The article also called South African Jews "the wealthiest Jewish community in the world per capita, and one playing a part in the life of South Africa, and in the Zionist movement, quite out of proportion to its size." (4)

The cultural, economic and political influence of South African Jews undoubtedly played a role in the development of ties between the two nations. Hundreds of South African volunteers fought alongside Zionists during the crucial months leading up to the establishment of Israel in 1948. South Africa's Prime Minister Daniel Malan was the first Western head of state to visit Israel (in 1953). When Israel, in conjunction with England and France, attacked Egypt in 1956. Jewish South African reserve officers were allowed to serve in the Israeli army, and South African funds and goods were sent. (5)

At the start of the 1967 war in the Middle East, South Africa repeated its earlier performance, relaxing its laws on money transferals so that citizens could contribute over $20 million to the Israeli war effort. South Africans again fought in the Israeli army. (6)

During the 1968 meeting of the Israeli-South African Man-to-Man Committee, a session in Jerusalem dubbed the "millionaires' conference", the Israel-South Africa Trade Association was formed to boost trade between the countries. Israeli exports to the apartheid state during those years jumped from $4 million to $48 million between, 1967 and 1979. (7)

CRUCIAL to the Israel-South Africa connection is the United States, which is included by many critics as the third bulwark of a modern "axis" of economic gain and military repression. The international polished diamond industry offers an important example of the trade axis. As one analyst observes, "South Africa is the world's largest producer of gem diamonds while Israel has the world's largest diamond polishing center and the U.S. the world's largest diamond market...Israel's biggest import from South Africa is raw diamonds exceeding $100 million a year." (8) The U.S., of course, is where the diamonds end up.

In the area of arms, a shameful pattern of cooperation develops, with the U.S. role growing ever more pronounced. In May 1971, Israel volunteered to replace three crashed South African warplanes. In 1973, the head of South Africa's Bureau of State Security (BOSS) visited Israel (9) BOSS is known internationally for what can only be Gestapo-like practices of spying on citizens, torture, imprisonment without trial, and outright murder of South African Blacks. It is among the most feared and hated secret police forces in the world. (10)

A 1983 MERIP report, using data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, catalogs a number of military links:

Israeli-supplied conventional arms sales and licensing agreements with South Africa include the following: Reshef-class gunboats armed with Gabriel missiles; Dabur coastal portal boats; hardened steel for South Africa's armored corps; self-propelled 105 mm howitzers; air-to-air rockets; anti-tank missiles; assault rifles; radar bases; and surveillance equipment...45 percent of Israeli arms exports between 1970 and 1979 were naval ships. South Africa purchased 35 percent of the ships exported. (11)

The U.S. government, while pretending to adhere to a 1963 United Nations embargo on military trade with South Africa, has in fact used Israel (which has refused to join the embargo) as a conduit for arms sales to the apartheid state. In 1978, American artillery shells destined for Israel ended up in South Africa. (12) An article in Columbia University's Journal of International Affairs cites U.S.-made 106-mm recoiless rifles which the South African Army got from Israel. Likewise, the South African Air Force has reportedly acquired from Israel some 25 U.S.-made Augusta-Bell 205 A helicopters. (13)

THE 1975 KISSINGER EFFORT to cement Israeli-South African military ties has worked as planned. While Israeli leaders deny that their forces are advising or patrolling with South African forces, there is much evidence to the contrary. The Rand Daily Mail of South Africa in 1981 reported that Israelis were training South African-supported UNITA guerillas, a terrorist group which has attacked a number of civilian targets in Angola.

Israel's role in funneling U.S. arms to embargoed states did not begin with South Africa. In 1979, Israel declared 11 of its American-made Huey helicopters to be obsolete, then claimed they "went astray" while en route to Singapore. The helicopters eventually turned up in the hands of the Rhodesian army, which was trying unsuccessfully to maintain white control over what is now the African country of Zimbabwe. (14)

Perhaps the most famous and oft-cited example of collaboration between America, Israel and South Africa can be found in a series of charges and counter-charges leveled in 1979. On September 22 of that year, a U.S. Vela Satellite linked to the Los Alamos Observatory recorded an atmospheric nuclear explosion in the South Atlantic. A radio telescope at the U.S. observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Navy Research Laboratory both picked up signs of the blast as well. At a CIA briefing to Congress, it was revealed that a South African naval task force had been in the area in question at the time. That part of the sea is avoided by all shipping vessels.

A month later, ABC News reported that something had happened, and the previously silent State Department, Pentagon and CIA acknowledged that a nuclear bomb had indeed been detected. But the White House, after forming a task force to cope with a public outcry, officially concluded that the Vela Satellite, after correctly identifying 41 nuclear explosions between 1969 and 1979, had made an error on its 42nd detection. British scientists reported that at the U.S. National Technical and Information Services, which records date on nuclear explosions, ordinary information for the period in question was missing.

The plot thickened. It became know that just after the day of the probable explosion. Col. Amos Horey, a nuclear scientist with the Israeli armed forces had visited South Africa and met with Abraham Rouse, the head of South Africa's Atomic Energy Board. Israel had reportedly already effected an exchange of South African enriched uranium for Israeli nuclear technology. A British team of investigative reporters, after surveying the evidence available at the time, concluded that the 1979 nuclear blast was an Israeli-South African warhead fired from a Belgian and American-made howitzer. (15)

In addition to denying charges that Israel had nuclear ties with the apartheid state, the Israeli government withdrew the press credentials of a CBS reporter and censored a book by two Israeli journalists. (16)

Notes

(1) Economist, Nov. 5, 1977

(2) Ibid

(3) Azim Hussain "The West South Africa and Israel. A Strategic Triangle," in Third World Quarterly, Jan., 1982, p. 71.

(4) Dan Jacobean, "The Jews of South Africa." In Commentary, Jan., 1967.

(5) Hussian, p. 70.

(6) Ibid

(7) Ibid

(8) Ibid.

(9) Esther Howard, "Israel: The Sorcerer's Apprentice," in Middle East Research and information Project Reports Feb., 1983

(10) Gorden Wintor, Inside BOSS.

(11) Howard, p. 23.

(12) Ibid.

(13) Michael Kiaro "Evading the Embargo: Micit U.S. Arms Transfers to South Africa," in Journal of International Affairs, Spring Summer, 1981.

(14) Howard, P. 24.

(15) Husain, pp. 58-59 Howard pp. 23-24.

(16) Husain, p. 50