Flying Pig Moment: For Once I Agree With Harpoon Siddiqui

The Toronto Star's resident shill for Islam says that during the copious media coverage of the Mandela memorial, one word--and fact--seemed to be taboo:

But the P-word, Palestinian, was studiously avoided, by both our politicians and the media, even though he was an unwavering supporter of the Palestinian cause and Israel was a staunch ally of the apartheid state. Also ignored was Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to attend the Mandela funeral.  

Mandela was close to Yasser Arafat, and the African National Congress to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Of course, we were bound to part company, and do so here:

Both groups represented majority indigenous populations that were oppressed and denied basic rights — because of skin colour in one case and religion in the other. Both waged armed struggles. Both were backed by the Soviet Union, Cuba and also much of the world but denounced as terrorist by Pretoria and Jerusalem, with the latter staying loyal to the former longer than the rest of the West.  

Yet there’s a big difference between the PLO and the ANC, notes James Reilly, professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.  

“Faced with a weak regional and international position, the PLO eventually accepted the reality of Israel in 1988, anticipating that in return Israel would accept the idea of a sovereign Palestine alongside the pre-1967 boundaries of the Jewish State.  

“But the ANC never accepted apartheid. Rather, it worked to bring apartheid to an end.

Sorry, Harpoon. Pals though they were, Yasser and Nelson were fighting for two entirely different reasons. While Nelson fought to end apartheid, Yasser fought to end Jewish sovereignty over land he felt Jews had no right to, even though Israel is their historical and religious homeland, and they were there first.

As for the media's avoiding the "P" word, I think they did so because harping on how palsy-walsy Mandela was with Arafat and Castro would have conflicted with the Mandela-as-saint narrative.