Fidel Castro's lash against Israel a calculated move
BY MYRIAM MARQUEZ
mmarquez@MiamiHerald.com
In another example that the Cuban regime likes U.S.-Cuba relations just
the way they are, Fidel Castro issued one of his reflections:
``The hatred felt by the state of Israel against the Palestinians is
such that they would not hesitate to send the one-and-a-half million
men, women and children of that country to the crematoria where millions
of Jews of all ages were exterminated by the Nazis,'' Castro sneered in
a statement released by Cuban officials at the ill-named U.N. Human
Rights Council last week. ``It would seem that the Fuhrer's swastika is
today Israel's banner.''
To understand why Castro remains in charge of Cuba after 51 years (the
wizard behind the iron curtain that dictates what brother Raúl may do)
think in opposites.
Say one thing, mean another. Add one plus one and get zero.
CAUSING A STIR
For Castro's ``reflection'' on Israel's investigation into its deadly
raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla of agitators armed with bats was
intended to create a tsunami of debate on U.S.-Cuba policy just as
Congress once again takes up the travel ban.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz set Cuba straight: ``These outrageous
anti-Semitic comments are an insult to the millions of Jews who were
systematically killed or tortured by the Nazis. These aren't just the
comments of some doddering anti-Semite who is losing his faculties.
These malicious comments were officially distributed by Cuba's
government. . . . This is yet another glaring example of why we should
not expand relations with the Cuban government.''
Bingo.
Thank you, Fidel.
Just as Miami's Cuban exiles passionately debate a letter signed by 74
dissidents in Cuba calling for Congress to allow American tourists to
the island, Fidel drops his anti-Semitic bomb, ensuring that any
politicians on the fence about the U.S. travel ban would stay put.
It's always been about timing with Fidel. Ask Bill Clinton, who tried an
opening and got the rafter crisis and the shoot-down of the Brothers to
the Rescue planes. When Jimmy Carter opened relations, Castro dumped his
crazies and criminals on us in the Mariel boatlift to smear the image of
legitimate political refugees.
KEEP THEM ISOLATED
All of those plots and conspiracies acknowledged, we still have this
nagging fact: It's to the Castro brothers' advantage to keep the United
States at bay. To not have Cubans working at hotels and talking with
Americans who haven't been screened for revolutionary purity. To not
have relationships form between people that the government can't control.
So now we're in the ``dueling dissidents'' stage of this 51-year arc of
tyranny.
After the Cuba Study Group released the letter signed by 74 dissidents,
defenders of the travel ban released their lists.
First, it was a couple of hundred former political prisoners who left
Cuba. Then Cuban-American members of Congress hit a gusher of hard-line
discontent inside the island: 494 dissidents signed a letter penned by
former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez, AKA Antúnez -- who
some call the ``Nelson Mandela of Cuba'' -- calling on American tourists
to stay at home until the two Castros are gone.
In the middle of the dueling dissidents, the name-calling and the
accusations of communist spies in Miami, are the Cuban people. Still
standing in line with their little card in search of meager food
rations, waiting for well-paying jobs they can't have because the time's
still not right. The wizard has spoken.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/19/1690161/castros-lash-against-israel-a.html
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