Fidel Castro firmly backs Israel's right to exist

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

NEW YORK (AFP) – Fidel Castro, the longtime president and leftist icon who stepped aside during a health crisis but still leads the Cuban Communist Party, has told a reporter that Israel definitely has the right to exist.

"Yes it does, without a doubt," Castro, 84, told visiting US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine, according to a new article published Wednesday.

In the same interview Castro criticized Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and said in an interview Tehran should acknowledge Israel's fears for its own survival.

Asked if Cuba was ready to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, Fidel Castro said that those things took time, the report added.

The former Cuban president who handed over power to his brother Raul in 2006 said Iran should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism.

"This went on for maybe two thousand years," Castro was quoted as saying. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything."

"In my judgment here's what happened to them: Reverse selection. What's reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation."

"The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust," he said.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Of course Israel has every right to exist, but the Zionist State that controls it must be abolished. Fidel, by no means, isn't speaking out against this.

[Peace on Earth]

"No one blames the Muslims for anything"

Fidel, really?

Other than that, not a very shocking opinion.

[GreenCommunism]

fidel doesn't live in the united states . he probably means muslims are not blamed for stupid irrational bullshit as often as the jews are.

[RadioRaheem84]

fidel doesn't live in the united states . he probably means muslims are not blamed for stupid irrational bullshit as often as the jews are.

yeah like bankrolling both communism and finance capitalism. :rolleyes:

[GreenCommunism]

well they control the federal reserve ,i suppose they can print money like they want to.

[FreeFocus]

Muslims aren't blamed for anything? Really?

Fidel's been pissing me off as of late. Israel is an imperialist settler state, it's a colonial outpost. This doesn't change. While no state has the right to exist, settler states have even less of a right, for they are conceived in ethnic cleansing, racism, and genocidal acts.

[freepalestine]

it would be better to read castro's interview in full.

[cska]

it would be better to read castro's interview in full.

+1. I have seen Fidel Castro misquoted far too many times.

[Wanted Man]

How weird. AFP reports on a "new" article, yet this one is full of quotes from 2 weeks ago (http://www.revleft.com/vb/fidel-castro-gone-t141388/index.html).

[khad]

Learn to read the forum, people.

What Fidel really said:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/fidel-castro-really-t141571/index.html

[Aesop]

Of course Israel has every right to exist, but the Zionist State that controls it must be abolished. Fidel, by no means, isn't speaking out against this.

Thats not what it says in the article. I can understand that you support fidel, however this does not make him immune from critical appraisal.

[Obs]

"Yes it does, without a doubt," Castro, 84, told visiting US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine, according to a new article published Wednesday.
Ooohhhhhhh. But yeah, read the whole interview instead of these stupid tidbits.

[manic expression]

It's funny how some leftists see Jeffrey Goldberg's name on an article and then somehow convince themselves that he's a reliable source. Maybe it's because they, like Goldberg, have an axe to grind, and apparently it's the same axe.

[REDSOX]

Again someone who is a leftist quoting the bourgeois again. Just fucking stop it all right

[RadioRaheem84]

"Yes it does, without a doubt,"

- Castro

where is this quote in the original article?

[Franz Fanonipants]

Old dude says a thing.

[Rafiq]

NEW YORK (AFP) – Fidel Castro, the longtime president and leftist icon who stepped aside during a health crisis but still leads the Cuban Communist Party, has told a reporter that Israel definitely has the right to exist.

"Yes it does, without a doubt," Castro, 84, told visiting US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine, according to a new article published Wednesday.

In the same interview Castro criticized Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and said in an interview Tehran should acknowledge Israel's fears for its own survival.

Asked if Cuba was ready to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, Fidel Castro said that those things took time, the report added.

The former Cuban president who handed over power to his brother Raul in 2006 said Iran should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism.

"This went on for maybe two thousand years," Castro was quoted as saying. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything."

"In my judgment here's what happened to them: Reverse selection. What's reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation."

"The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust," he said.
This is a lie! Last night in a Larry king interview ahmadinejad said he recieved a memo from Castro saying these words were untrue.. I'm not defending mahmoid but this shows his word were twisted

[Lenin II]

where is this quote in the original article?

The author (Jeffrey Goldberg, a Zionist rightist) claims he answered, "Si, sin ninguna duda" in the interview. Apparently there's no transcript I can find.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/fidel-to-ahmadinejad-stop-slandering-the-jews/62566/

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/fidel-castro-and-israels-right-to-exist/63369/

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/report-cubas-fidel-castro-backs-israels-right-to-exist/19645654