Why the king of the Zulus is pleading for South Africa's ANC to maintain ties with Israel
Israel's strategy to gain the acceptance and friendship of the world is making headway against the receding tide of hostility sponsored by leftist, progressive, and politically correct regimes. The strategy is simple to enunciate: become essential to the health and prosperity of others so that friendship is rewarding and a cutoff of ties imposes costs.
Witness King Goodwill Zwelithinii, "the constitutionally[] recognized monarch of the 12 million Zulus who make up South Africa's largest ethnic group." Via The Algemeiner:
The king of South Africa's Zulu nation has urged the country's ruling African National Congress (ANC) to retain close ties with Israel, following last month's vote by the ANC at its national conference to downgrade the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv to a "liaison office."
Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithinii.
The king:
... told a delegation of the ANC's senior leadership that he had developed a close relationship with Israel and the South African Jewish community since his 2009 decree introducing medical circumcision for boys in a bid to halt the spread of the AIDS virus.
According to the World Health Organization, there is "compelling evidence that male circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men by approximately 60%." More than 700,000 males have been circumcised since the decree was issued by the king.
"There are two clinics that have been built by Jewish organizations in this kingdom," the king told the ANC delegation, whose members included the new party president, Cyril Ramaphosa, at last week's meeting. ...
"They came here because I requested them to come," the king said. "They (the South African Zionist Federation and South African Friends of Israel) built these clinics the day I announced circumcision on December 6, 2009." The two clinics, in Mathubathuba and Emondlo, provide HIV-related health services and education for the surrounding communities.
The same strategy, applied to other areas of endeavor, applies to economically advanced counties, too. Israel has become the world's second largest hi-tech venture capital success story after the United States. Countries that boycott Israel will cut themselves off from future valuable technologies, investment opportunities (going two ways), and access to devices. The same goes for advanced medical innovations, another area in which Israel is a leader.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is planning a new city, named Neom, to be built at the northwest corner of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the top of the Red Sea, where it abuts Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, so as to allow free access to Israeli personnel, capital, and technology, to be applied in a city where all the sharia rules imposed on the rest of the kingdom do not apply.
Once again, modern Israel is becoming, as the Prophet Isaiah said, "a light unto the nations." It is a strategy for the ages.