The south Africa lobby - Media Review Network

by Jeffrey Blankfort

(source: MONDOWEISS)

I wrote this for Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Review in 1990. I thought of it when I read Yoel Marcus in Haaretz that if there had been 5 million Afrikaners in the US, there would still be apartheid in South Africa.

If South Africa had a lobby as powerful as the Israeli lobby…

* Nelson Mandela would not be free.
* There would be no sanctions against South Africa.
* South Africa would be the largest recipient of US aid.
* The African National Congress would still be outlawed.
* Congress would have endorsed the idea that apartheid is not racism.
* Pro-apartheid forces cloaked as peace-makers would try to control the anti-apartheid movement.
* Public television would require "balanced" reporting to counteranti-apartheid programs.
* Journalists. academics and others who criticized apartheid would be targets of character assasinations.
* The struggle of the Boers against the British for control of South Africa would be considered a "national liberation struggle."
* South Africa would ultimately be defended as the only "democracy" in Africa.

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The aspiration of the Media Review Network is to dispel the myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and to foster bridges of understanding among the diverse people of our country. The Media Review Network believes that Muslim perspectives on issues impacting on South Africans are a prerequisite to a better appreciation of Islam.