In all seriousness though, as Cuba moves along the Vietnam or China-path of rediscovering capitalism, we should expect more foreign policy surprises like this. Vietnam made it's rapprochement with the U.S. and now uses Uncle Sam to counter-balance China. China made friends with the U.S. several years before it's economic turn, and followed it up with supporting right-wing extremists and fascists like Savimbi and Pinochet.
Quote:
"I asked him, during the course of our first conversation: "Do you think the State of Israel, as a Jewish State, has a right to exist?"
Fidel Castro answered, "Si, sin ninguna duda" -- "Yes, without a doubt."
When I followed-up by asking if he -- or, more to the point, his brother's government -- would reestablish relations with Israel, he gave a simple procedural answer -- these things take time -- rather than a condemnation of the idea. He went on, as I detailed in an earlier post, to express great sympathy for persecuted Jews throughout history, but he also said -- and this is truly notable -- that he understands how such suffering could inform the decision-making of Israel's prime minister: "Now, lets imagine that I were Netanyahu," Castro said, "that I were there and I sat down to reason through (the issues facing Israel), I would remember that six million Jewish men and women, of all ages were exterminated in the concentration camps." He also -- and this, too, might be considered notable -- expressed great admiration for Netanyahu's father, Ben-Zion, the world's foremost historian of the Spanish Inquisition, and a hardline Likudnik, who is today 100
years old but still arguing for his beliefs (he is also one of the subjects of my recent cover story on Iran and Israel). Fidel expressed a desire to talk to Ben-Zion Netanyahu, saying that he was "impressed by his character, his knowledge and his history."