An important secondary question, however, is that of who continues to
supply most of the state’s oil and coal (Israel has its own
Mediterranean gas supplies) that keep the Israeli economy and war
machine running. It may surprise some that the main culprits have been
publicly critical of Israel’s actions, including BRICS members Russia,
Brazil, Egypt and China, as well as some who have condemned Israel
most furiously, such as BRICS member South Africa and, indirectly, Turkey.
Yes, thanks for this, Michael. Here in Johannesburg, it's the subject of
concern to many serious activists, hopefully ramping up in coming days
and weeks. Some snippets of an article below provide more details.
And 2024 coal import data was just published here
<https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/coal/061024-colombian-thermal-coal-miners-may-oppose-proposed-export-ban-to-israel>:
https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/coal/061024-colombian-thermal-coal-miners-may-oppose-proposed-export-ban-to-israel
"Israel imported 1.4 million mt of thermal coal in 2024 so far,
according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data. Colombia accounted for
855,700 mt – or 60% of all imports during this period. Other key
suppliers included Russia with 247,500 mt, South Africa at 169,200 mt,
the US at 86,100 mt and China supplying 53,000 mt."
https://links.org.au/south-africas-government-neoliberal-unity-constructed-shaky-ground
... /Debilitating BRICS+ controversies/: the
Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa bloc began its annual talk shops
in 2007. At the 2023 Johannesburg leadership summit, five new
governments — Iran, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and likely
Saudi Arabia — were invited to join (a sixth, Argentina, later
declined). But contradictions scream out, with the most extreme examples
being the New Delhi, Cairo, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi capitalist class
actively supporting Tel Aviv’s military. The former do so through
Delhi-Tel Aviv geopolitical and trade alliances
<https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2024/Jun/27/how-the-gaza-fallout-is-coming-closer-to-india>as
well as via bulldozers and bombs that kill Gazans
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boR1nJuKBus>directly. In the wake of
Yemen’s attacks on Red Sea shipping, the latter now reroute containers
<https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/26/720805/explainer-who-helping-israel-bypass-red-sea-blockade-imposed-yemen>sent
from Asia to Israel along their own highways. Alongside Jordan, on April
13 they also provided intelligence
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/04/17/israel-iran-attack-diplomatic-offensive-jordan-saudi-arabia/>used
by the US and Israel (“with the support of Russia” according
<https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/04/24/sy-hersh-they-knew-there-was-no-bomb/>to
Seymour Hersh) to defend an Israeli military base under attack by Iran,
in the wake of Israel bombing that country’s Syrian embassy on April 1.
Moreover, along with Egypt, military leaders from Saudi Arabia and the
UAE also met
<https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/06/15/israels-top-general-meets-with-arab-counterparts-in-bahrain/>generals
from the US Pentagon’s Centcom and the Israeli Defense Forces on June
11. As Haidar Eid wrote
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-war-world-abandoned-us-what-can-we-do>on
June 28, “Neighbouring Arab regimes have done nothing more than issue
timid statements of condemnation, while mediating between oppressor and
oppressed. Indeed, Arab regimes
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-arab-regimes-ignore-popular-support-palestine-peril>have
let Palestinians down since 1948, through a combination of cowardice and
hypocrisy.”
Such BRICS+ hypocrisy is partly explained by the profits their companies
are enjoying, for example India’s Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone
and the Shanghai International Port Group, which both facilitate lethal
arms imports through (privatised) Haifa Port berths (although these now
appear highly vulnerable to disruption by drone attacks). Meanwhile,
Moscow, Pretoria and Beijing continue to allow coal shipments amounting
to millions of tonnes and Brasilia hosts an Israeli Elbit arms company
branch (albeit an activist-inspired pause was imposed on one recent
deal). Even Ethiopia typically abstains on UN resolutions condemning
Israel. Of the BRICS+ capitals, only Tehran consistently opposes the
genocide. Will the DA’s look-West versus the ANC’s look-South
perspectives come into increasing conflict, especially as Putin hosts
the BRICS+ in October, or does the BRICS+ tilt towards Israel tell us
that an overarching sub-imperial agenda is /actually in play, /so DA
Zionists can relax?
However, it is also important to observe that new disincentives are
rising thanks to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping. Russian coal was
apparently unloaded
<https://www.maritimebell.com/liberian-flagged-bulk-carrier-attacked-in-red-sea>from
the MV Tutor ship in Israel’s south-Jordanian port neighbour of Aqaba on
June 9. Three days later the bulk carrier was sunk in the Red Sea (en
route to India), after being hit by a small remote-controlled Houthi
fishing vessel. On June 22, the Transworld Navigator coal ship was
attacked twice, having in 2022 traversed
<https://www.tradewindsnews.com/bulkers/russian-coal-cargo-to-china-proves-rich-pickings-for-greek-capesize-owner/2-1-1223562>from
a Russian coal export terminal to Israel. With the Houthis also claiming
to have the capacity to hit long-range shipping targets in the
Mediterranean, and Hezbollah easily capable of firing on the Ashdod and
Hadera terminals next to the Rutenberg and Orot Rabin coal-fired power
stations, no shipments to Israel can now be considered safe. (One
Russian load of iron and steel was reported to have been hit by
Hezbollah while in the Haifa Port on June 12, but it turned out
<https://www.turkishminute.com/2024/06/15/fire-on-turkish-ship-in-haifa-started-in-engine-room-not-a-missile-attack-report/>to
have been an engine room fire caused by inadequate maintenance.)
These problems of mixed BRICS+ loyalties may be exacerbated by DA leader
Steenhuisen’s Zionist posturing. Although now merely the new minister of
agriculture, Steenhuisen had in March expressed open support
<https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/hundreds-converge-in-bo-kaap-to-break-fast-with-muslim-community-a9fc826b-01af-47cc-b04c-7db78eab2754>for
Israel’s attacks on Gaza, blurting, “One side’s genocide could be
another side’s freedom fighting.” Typical of white South African
liberals, he is against Russia’s role in Ukraine, and the DA also
opposes troop deployment in the DRC. (This contrasts to the DA’s
opportunistic support since 2021 for South African troops’ deployment in
Mozambique, given the DA’s desired
<https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/The_Thinker/article/view/1175/754>contracts
not only for “Blood Methane” gas imports, but also for a resumption of
TotalEnergies’ procurement deals with white South African
subcontractors.) Other foreign policy hotspots in Africa, such as the
Horn (especially Sudan and South Sudan) and West Africa are also roiled
by conflict. But these are considered too far afield to entail a major
commitment by Pretoria.
Hence in spite of Lamola’s ascent, vital struggles lie just ahead over
SA’s schizophrenic anti-imperialism against the US and Israel in the
Middle East and against NATO expansion, alongside Pretoria’s sustained
(apartheid/post-apartheid) sub-imperial agenda favouring multinational
extractive-industry corporates as well as most forms of
Western-dominated multilateralism. For example, South African financial
elites successfully led the campaign
<https://www.cadtm.org/However-the-notable-intensity-within-the-new>within
BRICS against de-dollarisation at the Johannesburg summit last August,
in spite of some rhetoric to the contrary — and in spite of the world’s
desperate need for an alternative to US monetary and currency hegemony.
For Palestine activists, the most obvious site of tension is the ANC’s
leadership’s long involvement in Glencore coal exports to Israel:
Ramaphosa’s Shanduka Coal was until 2014 (when he became deputy
president) Glencore’s main South African Black-empowerment partner. His
brother-in-law Patrice Motsepe is the Swiss firm’s current lead partner,
dating to profitable exports during the era of Xstrata
<https://www.glencore.com/dam/jcr:27756a61-b398-41da-bdfc-3dde51a54ac3/Xstrata-2007-OM.pdf>(later
swallowed by Glencore) when the firm bragged, “outside of Europe, Israel
was the largest purchaser of the South African operations’ coal
production” of 20 megatons annually. Glencore senior board member Gill
Marcus was formerly Mandela’s early-1990s spokesperson, but on May 24 at
the firm’s annual general meeting in Switzerland, she ignored
<https://webcast.swisscom.ch/csr/#/webcast/6638adb49837e4711b502f35/en>a
shareholder’s plea to stop fuelling Israeli genocide
<https://londonminingnetwork.org/2024/06/glencore-showing-improvement-in-self-presentation/>.
A vibrant review of some of these sites of struggle could be seen on the
SABC Big Debate <https://youtu.be/pdiBbtMvoUE>TV show on June 27
regarding Pretoria’s inconsistent human-rights advocacy. Participants
generally agreed that civil society will have to work far harder to get
genuinely consistent state support given the incoming GNU’s propensity
to serve big capital. On this front, like others, we can expect an Elite
Transition 2.0, in which Lamola will help Pretoria with talking left,
yet simultaneously the walking right will logically speed up — unless
tripped up by international-solidarity activists.
...
On 7/14/2024 9:16 AM, Michael Karadjis wrote:
[Regarding the "multipolarista" debate here]:
It is well-known that Israel’s Gaza genocide is principally enabled by
the constant supply of tens of billions of dollars of killing
equipment by the United States, making it the principle accomplice in
the genocide, with Germany coming in a close second.
An important secondary question, however, is that of who continues to
supply most of the state’s oil and coal (Israel has its own
Mediterranean gas supplies) that keep the Israeli economy and war
machine running. It may surprise some that the main culprits have been
publicly critical of Israel’s actions, including BRICS members Russia,
Brazil, Egypt and China, as well as some who have condemned Israel
most furiously, such as BRICS member South Africa and, indirectly, Turkey.
According to S&P Global in late October 2023:
“With almost no domestic crude or condensate production, Israel has
been importing around 300,000 b/d of crude this year to process at its
two refineries in Haifa and Ashdod. Israel’s biggest source of oil is
the Kazakh-sourced CPC Blend crude /exported via Russia’s Black Sea
port of Novorossiisk/ and Azeri Light which is /shipped from Turkey’s
Mediterranean port of Ceyhan/. Together they accounted for over half
of Israel’s crude imports
<https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/101823-opec-plays-down-irans-call-for-oil-embargo-on-israel-after-hospital-blast>
this year” [emphasis added].
Full:
https://theirantiimperialismandours.com/2024/07/09/brics-and-israels-ongoing-energy-supplies/
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