While the world makes peace in the Middle East, SA picks a side: Mills and Hartley

Key topics:South Africa sidelined as Israel-Hamas hostages deal is signed.Ramaphosa’s stance seen as radical, ignoring peace efforts.Pretoria’s misaligned policy isolates it from global diplomacy..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Ray Hartley and Greg Mills*.As world leaders signed the peace deal on Gaza in Sharm-el-Sheikh, the SA government was not only absent, but silent, its script to isolate Israel having been shredded, not just by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, which Pretoria would presume, but by the likes of those hardly considered friends of Israel: Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif , President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and Qatar’s Tamim bin Hamad al Thani among many others. As it’s turned out, South Africa now appears more radical than Hamas.South Africa’s amateurish grasp of foreign policy has once more been exposed. As Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on the freeing of hostages after talks mediated by the US and Middle East countries, Pretoria has found itself isolated on the sidelines and hopelessly out of touch.Following the talks, US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed-upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.”He added in his inimitable way, “All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”South Africa, which worked hard under Presidents Mandela and Mbeki to present the country as a peacemaker, was out of the loop and still parroting the old Hamas line..Read more:.John Matisonn: Trump and Ramaphosa find common ground in Africa’s battle for peace - and minerals.The problem starts at the top. Tone deaf and out of tune, President Cyril Ramaphosa appears to be more radical than Hamas.Just four weeks ago at the UN, he continued to beat the war drums.“The world is appalled at the brutal acts of genocide and grave war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, aimed at eradicating the Palestinians from that narrow strip of land, and the illegal expansion of settlements in the West Bank,” he said to applause from the Iranian delegation.“The situation has been made worse by Israel’s stated intention to annex the entirety of the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” he said.This week, crowds chanting anti-Israel slogans greeted foreign visitors at O R Tamba airport as they gathered to welcome those who were deported for being part of an aid flotilla. As they shrieked their hatred for Israel, Hamas was shaking hands with it, agreeing to a peace deal. South Africa now appears more radical than the gold standard in Israel haters, out of tune with peace and out of touch with global events. In a statement on the successful negotiations, Hamas said, “We highly appreciate the efforts of our brothers and mediators in Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, and we also value the efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war completely and achieving a full withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip.”As it dawned on the hapless schlenterers at Dirco that an actual peace deal might be forged with South Africa a mere spectator, a statement was issued, albeit with lang tande, to borrow an old expression.“South Africa has taken note of the recent developments, intended to achieve a ceasefire and peace for Gaza and the region. These developments towards peace have the potential to alleviate profound human suffering and build much-needed confidence,” said a lowly spokesman. Apparently, this was not a matter worthy of ministerial, let alone presidential, comment.South Africa, determined to be partisan, even as a deal was being solidified, continued its radical posture. “We therefore emphasise that the release of Palestinian political prisoners, including children, and the abductees seized from the humanitarian flotilla must be urgently addressed.”And then a somewhat limp-wristed pitch to find a way into the spotlight. “Guided by a commitment to a rules-based international order founded on international law, South Africa stands ready to support all genuine inclusive efforts aimed at achieving this definitive and peaceful resolution.” Now Pretoria is citing and relying on the same rules-based international order that its close ally Russia has done its utmost to undo in its invasion of Ukraine.All this is evidence of South Africa’s misaligned non-alignment, a policy which has removed it from its role as peacemaker and turned it into a posturing radical spokesman with a partisan agenda.Other middle-influence countries, which South Africa once was, are shifting gear and approaching international relations with “Active Non-Alignment”, a policy which emphasises neutrality and playing power blocs off against each other for economic advantage.Jorge Heine, a former Chilean ambassador to South Africa and Research Professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, has analysed the position of 101 nations “caught between a U.S.-led Western bloc and another dominated by Russia and China” leading them to opt for “strategic neutrality”.“Unlike Cold War-era nonalignment, which focused on ideological distancing from superpowers, ANA is an active strategy—playing great powers against each other to maximise economic and political benefits. By refusing to align rigidly with any one bloc, countries practicing ANA increase their leverage, securing better trade deals, infrastructure investments, and diplomatic flexibility.”This is precisely the position which South Africa – dependent on the West for the export of its manufactured goods and on China for revenue from resources – ought to have adopted.But, instead, South Africa has aggressively pursued active misalignment, isolating itself from the US and making it a cheap date for China and other “struggle” causes, which it pursues with a partisan zeal that is often greater than that of the country they are trying to impress.This latest Middle East deal looks like the best opportunity for peace in many years. Already all living Israeli hostages taken by Hamas have been released. What will follow is Israel withdrawing its military forces and releasing Palestinian prisoners.It’s bad news for the radicals that seized control of South Africa’s foreign policy at Dirco to pursue an anti-Western agenda. Their irresponsibility has cost the country dearly, and it’s late in the day to turn it around..Read more:.Pretoria’s peace gamble: Can Ramaphosa bridge the divide between Russia and Ukraine?.What could happen now is for South Africa to normalise its relations with Israel by exchanging ambassadors, and to call President Trump to ask what we might do to assist in his process given our warm (and presumably commercially advantageous) relations with Tehran. We should also seek discontinuance in the genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice, by which the SA case would be withdrawn, a great (and expensive) failure as it’s turned out, whatever Pretoria might claim. Other steps towards rebalancing could include a visit by International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola to Israel (if they will agree to have him), and pivoting now to showing as much concern about human rights everywhere and not just Gaza, which includes Ukraine and countless African geographies. Perhaps then we will have the leverage to conduct active non-alignment.Until then, we sit on the sidelines, actively misaligned, increasingly irrelevant, and with no cards to play in either the peace game or our attempts to warm ties with the United States..*Ray Hartley is an independent commentator. He is the former Research Director of the Brenthurst Foundation and previously edited the Sunday Times, The Times, Rand Daily Mail and BusinessLIVE. He is the author of Ragged Glory: The Rainbow Nation in Black and White, The Big Fix and Ramaphosa: The Man Who Would be King among other works.* Dr Greg Mills is a Fellow at the University of Navarra in Spain and a founder of the Platform for African Democrats (https://www.pad.africa/). From 2005, he was for 20 years the director for the Johannesburg-based Brenthurst Foundation. His recent books include ‘Rich State, Poor State’, ‘The Art of War and Peace’ and the forthcoming ‘The Essence of Success: Insights in Leadership and Strategy from Sport, Business, War and Politics’, all published by Penguin Random House..This article was first published by Daily Friend and is republished with permission

While the world makes peace in the Middle East, SA picks a side: Mills and Hartley

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