From South Africa to Palestine: Trump’s war to defend apartheid

US President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending assistance to South Africa was framed as a fair intervention. He placed himself as a defender of an Embated minority, Exercising sanctions To punish a government, he accused of racial discrimination.

His goal? A Land-Reform policy aimed at setting the anchored economic and structural inequalities leaving apartheid.

For his supporters, the story was simple: White farmers under siege, land confiscated for no reason, another struggle in the so -called war against Western civilization.

But the truth is far more insidious. This is not about justice. It’s about shielding the last remnants of apartheid that set up new builder colonialism and preserve a world order built on racial and territorial supremacy.

Trump did not act alone. Behind him stood two powerful forces: a network of libertarian billionaires with ties to South Africa from the apartheid era and the pro-Israel lobby, both long invested in maintaining systems with racial and territorial dominance.

Elon Musk clings greatest among them. More than just the billionaire face of Tesla and Spacex, he is a key figure in the so -called “PayPal Mafia”A densely composed circle of ultra-welfare libertarians, many from South Africa’s white elite.

Peter Thiel, one of Trump’s most influential backers, was trained in a South African city where Hitler was still open. He advocates supremacy over economic power over democracy and has even questioned whether women should have had the right to vote.

David SacksAnother important figure in Musk’s inner circle, was born in Cape Town and raised in the privileged world of the white South African diaspora. Roelof Botha, the former CFO of PayPal, has an even more direct connection to Apartheid’s old guard: his grandfather, Pik Botha, was the last Foreign Minister of South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Colonial Project

These men are not outliers. They are the modern heirs of a colonial project that was never really held. Raised within a system that treated racial and economic hierarchy as a law of nature, they are now exerting their wealth and influence to protect its heritage.

Their opposition to South Africa’s land reforms has nothing to do with justice. It’s about protecting a status quo where earth remains in white hands, long after the official death of apartheid.

Ironically, Musk’s public embrace of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Nazi images has done little to bend his status among pro-Israel elites. When he looked to give A Nazi Honor During a speech in Washington last month the outrage broke out – but instead of condemnation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) defended him.

Trump’s attack on South Africa has nothing to do with financial freedom or justice. It’s about defending the consequences of apartheid

Netanyahu called Musk “a Big friend of Israel ”, while ADL – usually quickly to fire pro -palestinian activists as anti -Semitic – neglected the incident as just an” awkward gesture. “

This selective indignation is no accident. Musk may flirt with Nazi images, but as long as he supports Israeli apartheid, he remains politically useful.

To stand together with this billionaire class is Miriam AdelsonTrump’s biggest economic backman and one of the architects of his pro-Israeli policies. She has poured more than $ 100 million. More than Any other donor and made her expectations clear.

In a recent conversation, she talked about Trump’s “unfinished business” in Israel where she openly spoke for annexation of the West Bank. For her, Trump is the key to fulfilling a vision of Israeli expansionism that has been decades in creation.

It is no coincidence that these two forces – libertarian billionaires with South African roots and the pro -Israeli lobby – are adapted to Trump’s apartheid -reinforcing politics. Their alliance is not new; It is deeply rooted in history.

Shared ideology

For decades, Israel and Apartheid South Africa were bound by a shared ideology and mutual interests. When the world returned to South Africa, Israel remained its most loyal allies.

In 1976, Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, his South African counterpart, was roasting, John VorsterA former Nazi sympathizer and leader of a pro-hitler militia who declared that the two nations were facing a joint fight against “foreign-inspired instability”.

Behind the scenes, their relationship ran even deeper. Israel helped build South Africa’s arms industry and provided technology in return for funding.

Together, the military systems, intelligence networks and most judgmental, South Africa’s nuclear program developed. It was an open secret: Israel delivered know-how, South Africa delivered the money.

The ideological tape was just as explicit. South Africa’s apartheid government made no effort to hide its worldview, Leader In an official publication that “Israel and South Africa have one thing above all else in common: they are both located in a predominantly hostile world inhabited by dark people”.

This alliance collapsed only when apartheid officially ended. But the underlying ideology – the belief in racial superiority, the right to a selected group to seize land and rule over others – did not disappear. It evolved, found new masters and got new political patrons.

Thrown as victims

Trump’s attack on South Africa has nothing to do with financial freedom or justice. It’s about defending the consequences of apartheid.

The essence of his executive order is South Africa’s Expropriation ActA law designed to correct centuries of racialized soil conditions.

For generations, black South Africans were systematically driven from their country, forced into barren “homeland”, while white settlers claimed the country’s most fertile soil. Even today three decades after the fall of the apartheid, around 75 percent Of South Africa’s private agricultural land remains in white hands, despite the fact that white South Africans make up only seven percent of the population.

The Expropriation Act does not require seizures of mass areas. It simply establishes a legal framework to follow abandoned land or land acquired through racial privilegeunder strict conditions.

Trump’s response? Sanctions. South Africa must be punished for trying to correct historically wrong. White land owners must be thrown as victims.

Still, this same Trump, who condemns redistribution in South Africa, has spent his political career supporting and legitimizing Israeli country that intervenes in Palestine.

His hypocrisy doesn’t end there. He denies South Africa the right to decide how to handle land within his own borders while pushing for us control over land beyond his own. He has floated the idea of ​​buying Greenland from Denmark, entertaining the seizure of Canada, discussing the acquisition of the Panama Canal and now undoubtedly about owning Gaza.

Extreme ambitions

Trump has adapted to Israeli’s most extreme territorial ambitions and declared that Israel is a “Little Little Plet” in the Middle East and should be expanded.

He stands next to Israeli extremists such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who openly called for Israel’s extension from the Nile to Euphrates and settlers like Daniella Weissthat sees for themselves to annex parts of Saudi -Arabia. The same man who insists that South Africa must not change its colonial earth ownership patterns is eager to draw cards that fit his own imperial ambitions.

In Israel, right-right leaders are talking openly about Expansion beyond the West Bank – Into Jordan, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia. This is not fringe ideas. They are mainstream.

The real question is whether the world will again allow colonialism, racism and apartheid to dictate its moral order

The latest polls show that around 80 percent of Israelis Support the forced transfer of Gaza’s population, while only three percent of Israeli Jews believe it is immoral.

Trump is not just an accomplice in these policies. He is their master.

He claims to protect white landowners in South Africa while embarrassing illegal settlers in Israel. He offers asylum To Africans while Blocking Palestinians from entering the US.

The irony was not lost on South Africa’s Foreign Ministry, which responded to bite sarcasm: “It is ironic that director Order provides refugee status in the United States for a group in South Africa that remains among the most financially privileged, while vulnerable people in the United States from other parts of the world are deported and denied asylum despite real difficulty. “

Resistance action

It was no coincidence that South Africa took the lead in bringing Israel to the international court and accused it for genocide in Gaza. More than just a legal struggle, the case is a trassing act of resistance – one that emphasizes South Africa’s unwavering obligation to settle oppression, highlighting the deep, insoluble bonds between the fighting against apartheid and colonialism.

But for this counter -action it is now in return. The Trump and the Israel lobby are determined to make it pay.

South Africans know apartheid when they see it.

John Dugard, a famous South African lawyer and former UN Human Rights Monitor, drew a sharp parallel: “Apartheid was about land.” It was about reserving the best parts of the country for whites, while the relegated black South Africans to the most barren, least habitable areas. The same removal has unfolded in Palestine, he noted.

Ronnie Kasrils, a Jewish South African and former Cabinet Minister, was equal More direct: “Apartheid was an extension of the colonial project to remove people in their country.” This is precisely what has happened in Israel and the occupied territories – the systematic use of force and legal manipulation to facilitate removal. “That’s what Apartheid and Israel have in common.”

Nelson Mandela, who understood the common roots of colonial submission, left no room for doubt. His words remain a collection Cried for justice: “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

The question before the world is not only whether South Africa will be sanctioned to dare to challenge apartheid’s persistence, nor whether Israel will be awarded full sovereignty over occupied land. The real question is whether the world will again allow colonialism, racism and apartheid to dictate its moral order.

Because from Johannesburg to Gaza, from Pretoria to the West Bank, the battle is one.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of the Middle East.