{"id":4426,"date":"2025-04-24T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T10:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/reset-relations-with-israel-urges-leading-south-african-think-tank\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T05:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T05:20:18","slug":"reset-relations-with-israel-urges-leading-south-african-think-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/reset-relations-with-israel-urges-leading-south-african-think-tank\/","title":{"rendered":"Reset relations with Israel, urges leading South African think tank"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><\/figure>\n<p>As South Africa encounters a significant setback in its genocide case against Israel, the Brenthurst Foundation, a prominent South African think tank, has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s government to reset its relations with Israel. The Israeli government has successfully secured a six-month postponement in proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), extending the timeline to 12 January 2026.<\/p>\n<p>This extension follows Israeli objections that South Africa attempted to present evidence without granting Israel access to it. The case against Israel is viewed as a key factor in the Trump administration\u2019s increasingly hostile actions towards South Africa, with lawmakers considering targeted sanctions against senior African National Congress (ANC) officials. Senior Washington advisers have suggested that dropping the ICJ case could be the first step towards normalising relations between Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s government and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>However, South Africa has indicated that, despite pressure from the Trump administration, it does not plan to back down.<\/p>\n<p>The six-month postponement in the case presents an opportunity for South Africa, according to Ray Hartley from the Brenthurst Foundation, to reset its relations with Israel. In an interview with\u00a0<em>National Security News<\/em>, Hartley urged South Africa to review its entire approach to countries involved in human rights abuses, advocating for a consistent policy.<\/p>\n<p>Hartley also recommended that South Africa reopen its embassy in Tel Aviv and appoint an independent voice within the African National Congress to the position.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding South Africa\u2019s strained relationship with the Trump administration, Hartley supports the appointment of Mcebisi Jonas, a veteran politician and businessman, as a special envoy to the US, and the suggestion that Roelf Meyer, former chief negotiator for South Africa\u2019s Constitution, could become South Africa\u2019s ambassador in Washington. Meyer, he said, really has the ear of Ramaphosa and has credibility. \u201cThat would be an exceptionally smart move,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Brenthurst Foundation urges Ramaphosa to reset relations with Israel - Ray Hartley\" width=\"801\" height=\"451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3fSLfyOhVbk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Key Quotes from the Interview:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A consistent foreign policy on human rights abuses<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor instance, Sudan is currently experiencing a widely recognised genocide, with the Rapid Support Forces killing tens of thousands in the south. This situation warrants attention and should be addressed alongside other crises, such as those in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey could, for example, say that they\u2019re going to review their entire approach to all countries that are involved in human rights and other abuses so that they have a consistent policy, and it will give them a way out\u2014to put it back into the political domain for discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>South Africa could send a signal to Israel and the United States:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there are many other ways in which they could send a signal. They\u2019ve got Mcebisi Jonas appointed as the special envoy, and I know there\u2019s been a big kerfuffle about what he said about Trump in the past, and so on. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s really going to be a major factor. I think he\u2019s the kind of personality who could quite quickly convince them of his bona fides.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are things that could be done\u2014much more low-cost things\u2014like reopening some kind of diplomatic relationship, reopening the embassy in Tel Aviv. There wouldn\u2019t really be a political cost for that. Egypt has an embassy in Tel Aviv, Russia has an embassy in Tel Aviv, China has an embassy in Tel Aviv\u2014we\u2019re the only country that doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ramaphosa\u2019s persistent weakness:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was the intention to rename Sandton Drive \u2018Laila Khalid Drive\u2019, after the Palestinian hijacker\u2026 He should have picked up the phone and called the mayor and said, like, by this afternoon, I\u2019d like you to announce that you\u2019re not doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mcebisi Jonas as Special Envoy to the United States:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think what\u2019s more important is what he puts on the table. If he puts on the table stuff that\u2019s consistent with that view, then it\u2019s going to turn out badly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if he goes there with some kind of offering, with some kind of movement\u2014maybe on some of these issues that I\u2019ve been talking about\u2014that will quickly erase that past statement, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Roelf Meyer as a potential ambassador to Washington:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think somebody like Roelf Meyer, who really does have the ear of Ramaphosa and can pick up the phone at midnight\u2014because of the time zones\u2014and talk to the President if he needs to, is quite a good idea. I think he has credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As South Africa encounters a significant setback in its genocide case against Israel, the Brenthurst Foundation, a prominent South African think tank, has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s government to reset its relations with Israel. The Israeli government has successfully secured a six-month postponement in proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), extending the timeline<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4429,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4426\/revisions\/4429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/national\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}