ISRAELI LEADERS NOT ATTENDING NELSON MANDELA'S FUNERAL

It looks like the most prominent members of the Israeli government won't be going to attend the funeral proceedings of the late African president Nelson Mandela, who died this past week. Nor will the Dalai Lama be going. It's just as well, because as noted:

Since Mandela left office, his political party, the African National Congress, has become vociferously anti-Israel, hosting the notoriously antisemitic Durban racism conference in 2001 and siding increasingly with the Palestinian cause, including expressions of support for Hamas in Gaza. The South African government now prevents its ministers from visiting Israel and has encouraged its citizens not to go to Israel, either.

Even before this, Mandela's communist leanings and his chumminess with Yasir Arafat did not help matters much. It is a shame that a man who did have a part in ending apartheid in Africa had to side with communists as well.