September 25: In Support of Israel — Fidel Castro

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres both thanked the retired Cuban ruler Fidel Castro on this date in 2010 for comments he made in support of Israel’s right to exist and against anti-Semitism in a five-hour interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. In that interview, Castro, 83, criticized Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and urged Iran’s leaders to acknowledge the “unique” history of anti-Semitism and understand Israel’s existential fears. “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours,” said Castro. “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust. . . . I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims.” Castro also acknowledged Iranian fears of Israeli and American aggression: “Iranians are not going to back down in the face of threats. That’s my opinion.” Netanyahu’s office praised Castro for demonstrating “his deep understanding of the history of the Jewish people and Israel.” Peres sent a letter in Spanish describing Castro’s “unexpected words” as “a surprising bridge between a harsh reality and a new horizon” and thanking him “with all my heart. You showed that even those distant can be close.”
“Cuba is an island, surrounded by water. Israel is a political island, surrounded by threats. You tried to sail to bigger seas, to show that a small geographical size doesn’t have to reflect human smallness, and we are trying to prove that small political size doesn’t have to reflect the size of our values. Therefore, we want to see our neighbors as friends, and the better things are for them, the better things will be for us.” —Shimon Peres