Israeli Ambassador Arthur Lenk heads home

HOWARD SACKSTEIN

Before he finally boarded his El Al flight back to Jerusalem, the Jewish Report subjected him to a frank exit interview. Here are his parting thoughts. 

Are you leaving South Africa with the same degree of relentless optimism that you came with? 

I am optimistic that Israel and South Africa have shared interests. I represent a country that has skills that are relevant for Africa in general, and South Africa, in particular. Whether in food security or water management, cyber technology or innovation, all of these are core priorities for South Africa and areas where Israel is a world leader.

After Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trip to East Africa last year, his recent visit to ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and his plans for a summit in Togo, we’ve seen a real change in Africa/Israel relations. 

Why has Israel not had the same degree of success in South Africa as it is having in the rest of Africa? 

One of the interesting similarities between Israel and South Africa is that we were both born out of tragedies, the Holocaust for Israel and apartheid for South Africa. One of Israel’s greatest successes was the ability of its leaders to look forward after the Holocaust; there was no choice, it had a country to build. One of the challenges for South Africa is not to forget the tragedy of apartheid, but despite it, to be able to lead forward.

You have to honour your history and celebrate your heroes, but you have lots of big challenges and Israel and the local Jewish community have a role to play. But some of the looking backwards has limited the engagement between Israel and South Africa. I hope that like Kenya and Rwanda, Israeli experience will be relevant for SA in the coming years. 

The ANC policy document speaks of competing forces on the African continent, singling out Israel and Morocco, and how this has led to a decrease in ANC and South African influence in the continent and the world. 

This is not a competition – a dialogue isn’t winner takes all. In international relations there is room for everyone. Some of the things we have been offering to the rest of Africa, we have offered to South Africa too.

Last year, rather than having our National Day we had Israel/South Africa Water Week. We brought the best water experts in the world to South Africa. That was a clear message from the government of Israel saying – we want to share our experience with you too. Both South Africa and Israel would benefit from more engagement. 

What has happened to trade between Israel and South Africa during the four years of your tenure in South Africa? 

Israeli exports to SA have increased every year and unfortunately South African exports to Israel have dropped. There are many reasons for this, but the main reason is that we are trying. 

Does South Africa not have enough to offer Israel? 

We are buying less coal from South Africa as Israel has transitioned to clean energy and natural gas. But if you don’t have trade promotions, if you don’t show Israelis what you have, we don’t buy. The rest of the world is coming to Israel to sell to us. We just had the Indian Prime Minister and the Rwandan President in Israel. The rest of the world is engaging more and more with Israel.

But if you don’t try, then trade drops. If you want radical economic transformation, you need more exports, and if you don’t try, then South Africa loses out.

We have had eight or nine agricultural seminars around the country. We did it because people came. The Israeli brand is very successful. It is so impressive to see how many Israeli companies are doing business in South Africa in the telecoms, health, education and security sectors.

When the SA government doesn’t prioritise opportunities and help for small and medium sized businesses, then those opportunities go to China or India or the Americans and Europeans. Israeli companies are not sitting around waiting for South Africa. 

During your time here, the Director General of your Foreign Ministry came to South Africa? 

In March 2016, our Director General came to SA and they signed an agreement of a work plan emphasising national priority areas such as water, agriculture, trade, science and technology. On a business-to-business trade level, there are no problems. Just last week a big Israeli company opened offices in SA in the area of cyber security. 

Startup Tel Aviv was another innovation during your term? 

We have reached out to young entrepreneurs offering a prize of a trip to the startup festival DLD Tel Aviv, to encourage innovation. The idea is to help find South Africa’s next Mark Zuckerberg or Yossi Vardi. If we can play a tiny role in showing how we have succeeded as a start-up nation, maybe that can help SA too. 

What advice can you give the SA Jewish community? 

I fear in recent years, there has been a pulling back when there is a need to engage, economically and politically. SA was a blessing for Jews from Eastern Europe, it offered opportunity. You guys are the living bridge between SA and Israel, the more you are part of SA, the more opportunity there is for you and for us. 

What do you wish had been different during your time here? 

One of the challenges of SA is that there is a lot of background noise, whether it’s the anti-Israel lobby or the very vibrant politics of SA. Sometimes people get scared of the noise, but the vast majority of South Africans are not interested in the noise at all. You just need to ignore the noise.

In a survey of black South Africans conducted last year, most South Africans have never heard of the conflict between Israel and its neighbours. Of those who have, the majority of people want engagement and dialogue and want to build SA. The challenge is getting past the noise and relentless optimism is the answer to that. 

We seem to have a major increase in South Africans going to live in Israel. 

As an Israeli going back to Israel, I think that’s great. Israel is an amazing place to live. There is no sacrifice to go live there. One of the challenges we have in the Israeli foreign service is that most diplomats and their spouses are happy at home and they don’t want to go off to Africa or South America. They are very happy in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ra’nana, because life there is great and the fact that more and more South Africans are seeing it, well that’s great too. 

What will you and your family miss about South Africa? 

I will miss travelling around this amazing, relevant, complicated, vibrant place and talking to people about what Israel has to offer them. I’m paid a salary to talk about farming in the Eastern Cape or desalination in the Western Cape or to go to Limpopo to talk about irrigation and how Israeli tech will help farmers be more successful…  and your steaks are better than ours. 

What is next for the Lenks? 

The five Lenks will be together again in Israel. We have three daughters in Israel, two at university and one about to go into the army next year. Ruth, my wife, will teach art at the international school near Netanya and I’m going to sit on the beach next month.

With that, Arthur Lenk packed his bag of relentless optimism and headed for the exit sign. As the movers shipped their boxes, they left behind a belief that it would be in South Africa’s strategic national interest to have warmer relations between the two countries.