Tony Leon shrugs off attack from anti-Israel lobby

It has been a busy time for Tony Leon, the erstwhile leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), but one he takes in his stride.

Leon has faced a barrage of criticism from numerous quarters for his recent pro-Israel comments, and for saying in a News24 interview that former DA leader Mmusi Maimane was “an experiment that went wrong”.

The two aren’t related but coincide with the release of his fifth book, Future Tense: Reflections on My Troubled Land.

The outspoken and bold politician-turned-diplomat-turned-communications specialist caused waves among the anti-Israel lobby with his recent controversial views on South Africa’s foreign policy – or lack thereof – and its anti-Israel fixation.

In an opinion piece in the Sunday Times on 28 March titled: “Israel a handy alibi for SA’s poor foreign policy”, Leon berates the government’s numerous dubious foreign policy decisions, notably its silence on serious global issues compared to its vocal condemnation and criticism of the state of Israel.

This “fervour” of anti-Israel sentiment, he said, was “infectious” noting the “swift condemnation” by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng for his pro-Israel comments in a webinar held in June last year.

Leon said the speed it took for the Judicial Conduct Committee (of the JSC) to find Mogoeng guilty of contravening articles of the code of judicial conduct and ordering him to apologise was “breathtaking”, pointing out how other judges’ cases have taken years. He accused the JSC of being “hypocritical, lax, and dilatory in its core tasks”.

Leon lauded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vaccination programme, which has resulted in 70% of the country being vaccinated, leading the world in this regard.

In his piece he said, “To the extent that South Africa has a foreign policy at all, beyond a series of outdated impulses and struggle-retro gestures, Israel is the one place where President Cyril Ramaphosa, International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor, and Pretoria’s paladins can shine their human-rights credentials.”

He cited examples of some of the government’s regretful decisions, including “Silence on the slaughter in Syria; assent to concentration camps for China’s Uighurs; no entry here for His Highness the Dalai Lama; no censure for Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea; and heralding stolen elections across the continent from Congo to Uganda,” and added that “at least Israel and its violations of the rights of Palestinians provides a handy alibi and a lonely exception to our generous support everywhere else in the world for ‘tyrannical leaders hated by their own populations’”.

Leon’s comments have elicited a seething-mad reaction from the anti-Israel chamber, which responded a week later in a burst of opinion pieces and letters in the Sunday paper.

One opined that Leon’s criticism of the country’s foreign policy and judiciary was “an attempt to defend Israel and its supporters in South Africa”. The writer said Leon used the “well-worn pro-Israeli tactic of ‘whataboutery’, deflecting attention from Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Another accused him of resorting to a “misleading narrative of virtue and victimhood”.

Leon this week shrugged off the attacks, telling the SA Jewish Report, “My view on the selectivity and myopia of current South African foreign policy is well founded and impeccably documented, as is the success of Israel vaccine rollout, whatever Netanyahu’s motives for it might have been. I hardly expected my view to go unchallenged, and I have no problem at all with the voluble and inevitable expression of a contrary view as contained in Sunday Times last week”.

Leon is executive chair of Resolve Communications, an advocacy company for reputational management and strategic communication. He is married to an Israeli woman, Michal.

The attacks on Leon come as no surprise to political commentator Daniel Silke, who said the African National Congress (ANC) and members of the anti-Israel lobby weren’t ready to take a giant leap into a more balanced environment regarding Israel.

“Israel is a useful rallying cry for the ruling party, which continues to beat Israel instead of having to confront tough foreign policy and global issues. This is a comfortable foreign policy angle for the ANC to employ, and plays into the old anger of Israel co-operating with the apartheid regime.”

Silke said it showed how the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement) had largely influenced and infiltrated the higher echelons of foreign policy in South Africa.

“South Africa is increasingly out of touch with the changing dynamics vis a vis Israel’s relationship with not only Gulf states but also a number of African countries. South Africa is becoming an outlier in terms of its blanket condemnation of Israel. She is isolated on the continent as far as Israel is concerned, and she will have to live with the consequences.”

He said the anti-Israel lobby faced “a crisis of credibility” by continuing to propagate a particular message that was no longer the consensus in the Middle East.

“The broader macro issues of how to deal with the Abraham Accords has made life difficult for an organisation like BDS. It’s undermined by the broader diplomatic events taking place. These developments are making it difficult for the anti-Israel lobby to continue to lambast Israel when any number of Arab nations have decided to take a more co-operative stance with Jerusalem. In future, it will either have to take a more radical line which will totally exclude it from the changes, or [engage in] a more pragmatic, constructive engagement with Israel.”

Meanwhile One South Africa Movement leader Maimane hit back at Leon for telling News24 at the weekend that he was “an experiment that went wrong”, calling the statement dehumanising.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Leon said the statement was made in an interview with News24 about his book, where he said “Mmusi was an experiment that went wrong as he had never committed to the party’s ideals before he joined it.”