The Russell Tribunal, the latest tool for use against Israel by the anti-Israel brigade – which is incidentally, according to Ronnie Kasrils (The Star Opinion and Analysis, August 23), not anti-Semitic – is so tiresome it is hardly worth a mention.

With Brother Leader exposed in Libya and the Syrian dictator slaughtering his unarmed citizens and thousands of Palestinians to boot, it boggles the mind that there are still those who focus on Israel and think they are taken seriously.

But, let me comment on Kasrils’ opening remarks which are myths to set the scene for the myths that follows. According to him, “South Africa has an international image as a leading centre for solving seemingly intractable problems”, and “the world expects South Africa to be the champion of human rights in Africa and abroad”.

Now where does he get that from, apart from the recesses of a mind anchored in the past?

The world looks at track record not ANC fantasy and, therefore, has come to expect the exact opposite from South Africa, whose record includes support for Robert Mugabe, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gadaffi and now Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

There are plenty of real abuses of human rights to be concerned about, if Kasrils was in any way acting in good faith, without dredging up the standard misrepresentations and half truths to defame Israel, to defuse focus from the dictatorships which surround her.

And by the way, Kasrils is no Bertrand Russell or Jean-Paul Sartre.

Sydney Kaye

Cape Town