Fidel to Ahmadinejad: 'Stop Slandering the Jews'

[rabs]

X-posting in case story gets bumped from LBN. First of a two-part series and a real eye-opener.

----------------------------------


A couple of weeks ago, while I was on vacation, my cell phone rang; it was Jorge Bolanos, the head of the Cuban Interest Section (we of course don't have diplomatic relations with Cuba) in Washington. "I have a message for you from Fidel," he said. This made me sit up straight. "He has read your Atlantic article about Iran and Israel. He invites you to Havana on Sunday to discuss the article." I am always eager, of course, to interact with readers of The Atlantic, so I called a friend at the Council on Foreign Relations, Julia Sweig, who is a preeminent expert on Cuba and Latin America: "Road trip," I said.

I quickly departed the People's Republic of Martha's Vineyard for Fidel's more tropical socialist island paradise. Despite the self-defeating American ban on travel to Cuba, both Julia and I, as journalists and researchers, qualified for a State Department exemption. The charter flight from Miami was bursting with Cuban-Americans carrying flat-screen televisions and computers for their technologically-bereft families. Fifty minutes after take-off, we arrived at the mostly-empty Jose Marti International Airport. Fidel's people met us on the tarmac (despite giving up his formal role as commandante en jefe after falling ill several years ago, Fidel still has many people). We were soon deposited at a "protocol house" in a government compound whose architecture reminded me of the gated communities of Boca Raton. The only other guest in this vast enclosure was the president of Guinea-Bissau.

I was aware that Castro had become preoccupied with the threat of a military confrontation in the Middle East between Iran and the U.S. (and Israel, the country he calls its Middle East "gendarme"). Since emerging from his medically induced, four-year purdah early this summer (various gastrointestinal maladies had combined to nearly kill him), the 84-year-old Castro has spoken mainly about the catastrophic threat of what he sees as an inevitable war.

~~~~~~~~~~ snip ~~~~~~~~

Castro's message to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, was not so abstract, however. Over the course of this first, five-hour discussion, Castro repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism. He criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and explained why the Iranian government would better serve the cause of peace by acknowledging the "unique" history of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence.

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/0... /

[flamingdem]

1. To me this is newsworthy, to others it's the rantings of an old dictator

in this case he one of the few who can have an impact.

Plus, with Alan Gross in prison there over a supposed
donation to the Jewish community (that they deny knowing
about at all), the timing is interesting.

I do wonder what he knows that we don't know. Hugo has
got to know a lot about Iran.

[EFerrari]

3. Anyone who underestimates Fidel Castro after all these decades

is not worth listening to.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Great article. That's one lucky reporter.At first I was terrified he is the son of Lucianne Goldberg

and had to go look him up to get the right facts on him.

Boy, would that have been a wrong number!

Thanks for the link.

[struggle4progress]

4. Report: Castro blasts Ahmadinejad as anti-Semitic (The State)

http://media.thestate.com.nyud.net:8090/smedia/2010/08/31/10/901-Cuba_Fidel_Castro.sff.embedded.prod_affiliate.74.jpg
... Fidel Castro, left, stands with U.S. journalist of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, second from right, and Cuban Jewish Community President Adela Dworin, third from right, at the National Aquarium in Havana, Cuba, Monday Aug. 30, 2010... is a national correspondent for the magazine who has written on the Middle East and Iran
- Estudios Revolucion, Cubadebate /AP Photo

Wires - Wire - World
Tuesday, Sep. 07, 2010
By WILL WEISSERT - Associated Press Writer

... Goldberg ... said Castro ... related ... a story from his childhood that has been detailed by some biographers: that he overheard classmates saying Jews killed Jesus Christ.

"I didn't know what a Jew was. I knew of a bird that was a called a 'Jew,' and so for me the Jews were those birds," Goldberg quoted Castro as telling him. Castro later added, "This is how ignorant the entire population was."

According to Goldberg, Castro said, "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims" ...

http://www.thestate.com/2010/09/07/1453777/report-castro-blasts-ahmadinejad.html