With fears of the war in the Middle East escalating into World War 3, BizNews speaks to Israel’s Ambassador to South Africa, Eli Belotsercovsky. He says: “…we have to fight back. And we will. And particularly after this attack, which endangered the lives of many, many Israelis, we will have to respond – and we will choose the time and the way to do it.” However, the ambassador says that the conditions for a World War “have not been created yet”. “I think that common sense will prevail. And those regimes like Iran that try to destabilise the world order, that try to bring more violence, to use terror as a tool to gain more political gains, I think that if we manage to prevent them from doing this and to block them, I think there would be no war.” Meanwhile, he describes the sombre mood in Israel on the eve of the 1st anniversary of the October 7 terror attack. He also deals with accusations that Israel is an Apartheid state, and dissects the clashing narratives about Israel’s war again Hamas, Hezbollah, and the clerical regime of Iran.
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Extended transcript of the interview ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Chris Steyn (00:04.406)
Is the Third World War about to break out. We speak to Israel’s Ambassador to South Africa, Mr. Eli Belotsercovsky. Welcome, Sir
Eli (00:15.628)
Thank you very much for having me. Good morning and happy Jewish New Year. Shana Tova. Today, the Jewish people all around the world celebrate the New Year. I certainly hope that the New Year will be much, much better than the previous one.
Chris Steyn (00:34.044)
Well, we have witnessed a missile attack from Iran on Israel. How is Israel likely to respond?
Eli (00:43.425)
Well, as you know, it’s not the first attack, unfortunately. On te 13th of April, we had the previous attack, during which we had 300 cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, UAVs, rockets and so on. So we had, unfortunately, this experience before.
On the 1st of October, we had a second attack in which 181 ballistic missiles were fired at civilian centers in Israel, basically putting in danger lives of millions of Israelis. Well, we were, in a way, lucky because we had good intercepting systems to prevent the missiles from killing people.
And also the population in Israel is very disciplined. They got the instructions and they preferred the instructions fully. So the level of damage was very low. But unfortunately we had one casualty who was a Palestinian man living in a village in the West Bank who was unfortunately killed during this attack.
And we declare regret it. But it only shows that the Iranian missiles, do not distinguish between Jews or Arabs or Israelis or foreigners. It’s just they’re aimed at killing. They’re aimed at spreading terror. And this is situation, of course, we cannot continually live in such circumstances. This is impossible.
Chris Steyn (02:44.304)
How is Israel likely to respond?
Eli (02:46.451)
Yeah, so we will we will choose the way and the means to respond again. We are not fighting against the Iranian people. Let’s make it clear. Our war is against the Iranian government, the clerical regime of Iran that is attacking Israel incessantly. Although, again, we don’t have any quarrel with Iran. We never had any problem, either territorial or natural resources or any other. But the Iranian regime has declared times and times again that its aim is to annihilate Israel, to destroy Israel. This is their prime target.
And of course, we have to fight back. And we will. And particularly after this attack, which endangered lives of many, many Israelis, we will have to respond and we will choose the time and the way to do it.
Chris Steyn (04:00.7)
Okay, well Israel has been fighting for its survival since its establishment. Is there ever going to be peace?
Eli (04:08.916)
But I truly believe that there is going to be peace. And we have seen a lot of progress since the early days of Israel. We have peace agreements with many Arab countries. We have the Abraham Accords that set the basis for the Arab-Roshemal between Israel and its Arab neighbours. So we are on the right track.
But we have also forces of evil like Iran, like its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, and the Houthis in Yemen that are being supported by Iran, that are being armed by Iran, and that serve Iranian purpose of an attempt to destroy Israel.
And again, we think that the international community has to unite to in order to prevent Iran from achieving its goal and to strongly provide strong disincentives for Iran for continuing this kind of terrorist foreign policy that aimed at the elimination of Israel. And I think once we have this cooperation and we are moving towards it, I think we will prevent Iran from disrupting any other attempts ar creating and there is a peaceful, stable region where people can prosper in order to.
Chris Steyn (05:47.644)
Now in a few days time it will be the first anniversary of the attack of 7 October. What is the mood like in Israel now?
Eli (05:57.487)
Well, it’s a sad month. Just yesterday we celebrated New Year, New Year Eve. And usually it’s a very happy celebration, full of hopes for the New Year. But I think this year is different. People are sad. There’s a lot of sombre mood among families. Everybody is praying for the return of the hostages. We still have more than 100 hostages in Gaza and no one knows in what condition they are. The youngest hostage, when she was kidnapped to Gaza almost a year ago, she was nine months. His brother was three years old. We have still some Holocaust survivors, very elderly people among the hostages. And also the memory of that attack of the very cruel attack that was perpetrated with some kind of medieval savagery against families when families were killed or children were killed in front of their parents. Parents were killed and murdered in cold blood and women were violated and murdered.
It was really an absolutely horrible, horrible experience and it affected…And I think many Israelis are still in trauma and still trying to overcome the impact of that experience. It was terrible.
Chris Steyn (07:52.368)
Meanwhile, Sir, how do you see the clash of narratives in this war and the role of public opinion?
Eli (08:01.659)
Yes. Well, this is a very important issue in my opinion, because what we see here is an attempt to destroy basically the truth. You know, there is a saying by one of the famous Greek playwrights, Aeschylus, who said, in war, truth is the first casual. And in a way, it’s true.
And we can see an attempt too, particularly in this conflict…at the end of the day, Israel was attacked without any provocation. On the 6th of October, we still tried to live in peace with the people of Gaza. There were many people who worked in Israel. There were many sick people that came to Israel for treatment. We had 11,000 more or less 11,000 sick people that came from Gaza to Israel to get the medical treatment. We provided Gaza with water, provided Gaza with electricity. So there was some kind of an attempt for coexistence.
Unfortunately, 7th of October came this massive brutal attack on Israel and today we are in a different situation. And I think regarding your question about the mood, I think many Israelis are still in a state of trauma.
Eli (09:54.289)
We still need to move to post-traumatic mood and try to digest and try to heal or start healing the wound. But at the moment, we are still in the trauma period and this war is going on in the South and the North, the missiles that have been fired and so on, do not contribute obviously to the situation.
And with regard to the narrative, unfortunately, we are, we are, all of us are in a way, a victim of an attempt to distort, to distort the reality, to present what is called today an alternative reality.
And we can see that Israel is being accused of occupation, although Israel is not in Gaza since 2004; we had withdrawn from Gaza. It’s accused of genocide, although we have an initial 20% of our people are Arabs. We had the Arab soldiers that were killed in order to protect the communities, Israeli communities in the south on the 7th of October.
So all these slogans, know, blockade, but Israel…actually people are maybe not aware of, but Gaza has a border with Egypt which is not controlled by Israel. So Israel cannot blockade Gaza.
And I think in South Africa, it’s very popular to accuse Israel of Apartheid. We have been hearing it over and over again, but Israel is a democratic country. In a democratic country, you cannot have an Apartheid. And it’s strange that it comes from South Africa, particularly into taking the fact that many South Africans during Apartheid times studied in Israel and got scholarship from Israeli government, including the ministers in the South African government.
This is something that all these slogans, kind of, there is an attempt to steal the show with all these slogans, but it’s just trying to distort the reality. The reality is the way it is. We know it.
Eli (12:21.029)
Israel is not occupying Gaza. It has withdrawn from Gaza. Israel is fighting for its survival. And we are going to continue until we can live in peace with our neighbours. That’s our only goal. Living in peace and letting our children enjoy their childhood and not run to bomb shelters every second day because of missile attacks.
Chris Steyn (12:50.108)
Now, what is Israel’s position on the continued criticism it is getting from international role players and particularly South Africa?
Eli (13:01.638)
Yeah, well, we deeply regret it. I think again, there is an attempt to kind of present Israel in a negative light. We had seen this for, or it’s been going on for many years. It’s difficult to say maybe part of it is because of a deep rooted anti-Semitism that still unfortunately exists mainly in Europe, not so much in South Africa, and also some kind of image that the Palestinians have been acquiring as a people under oppression or under occupation or that sort of presentations of the Palestinians.
But I think that people have to distinguish between the war of Israel, which currently is waging, is not Israel against the Palestinians. It’s Israel against Hamas. It’s not the war against Lebanon. It’s Israel against Hezbollah. And it’s not the war against the people of Iran. It’s war against the clerical regime of Iran that is trying to destroy Israel.
So these are the facts. This is not some sort of propaganda. This is the fact. This is our position. And I think it’s true that Israel is having very often, it has a very difficult time in the UN and other international organisations because there is a group of countries that are trying to, no matter what Israel does, but they’re trying to bash Israel left, right and centre.
But I think we also get a lot of support, a lot of, after this attack, we got a lot of messages of solidarity, also from many people in South Africa; by the way, a lot of condemnation for the Iranian attack. We had countries like the US and others that stood side by side with this, during this attack and previous attack.
Eli (15:28.283)
I think eventually we will prepare and I think people will understand better the threat that comes from Iran. By the way, not only for Israel, but also for the free world in general, because we have seen Iranian operatives in Europe and South America. Iran was behind the attack on the Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994, Israeli embassy in 1992. We see that Iran is trying to destabilise the world. It helps Russia, sends missiles to Russia, and it’s working against Ukraine and so on. So I think the main message here is Iran has to be stopped.
Chris Steyn (16:24.144)
Now what would you say to people who are living in fear that the next world war is about to break out?
Eli (16:32.78)
Well, I still think that the conditions for the World War have not been created yet. I that there are enough reasonable people, there are enough governments that are democratic, that understand that nobody… this is a lose-lose case, this kind of a war. Nobody is going to gain out of it. We all are going to lose it. Doesn’t matter.
And I think that the common sense will prevail. And those regimes like Iran that try to destabilise the world order, that try to bring more violence, to use terror as a tool to gain more political gains. I think that if we were managed to prevent them from doing this and to block them, I think there would be no war.
Chris Steyn (18:02.704)
Thank you. That was Israel’s ambassador to South Africa, Mr. Eli Belotsercovsky, giving BizNews viewers an update on the war in the Middle East. Thank you, I’m Chris Steyn.
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