A WISER FIDEL CASTRO

Surprising words from someone who, in the past, always sided with the Palestinians.
　
FIDEL CASTRO’S VIEWS ON JEWS
　
Mail Online
September 8, 2010
　
Speaking to Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter for The Atlantic, Fidel Castro lifted the lid on his current political views - even questioning his own actions in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
　
He also criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his anti-Semitic views and urged him to back down from his pro-nuclear stance.
　
Goldberg was on holiday last month when an official from Cuba called to say Castro had read his recent article about Israel and Iran and wanted him to come to Cuba.
　
Goldberg asked Julia Sweig, a Cuba-U.S. policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, to accompany him, and the pair spent portions of three days talking with Castro.
　
Goldberg said their first meeting lasted five hours and featured appearances by Castro's wife, Dalia, his son Antonio, and several bodyguards, two of which held his elbow to steady Castro when he moved.
　
'His body may be frail, but his mind is acute, his energy level is high,' wrote Goldberg, who also noted Castro's self-deprecating humour.
Golberg said Castro, who himself has been a fierce critic of Israel, 'repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism,' chiding Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust.
　
Castro said that Iran could further the cause of peace by 'acknowledging the "unique" history of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence.'
　
The grey-bearded revolutionary related to Goldberg a story from his childhood that has been detailed by some biographers: that he overheard classmates saying Jews killed Jesus Christ.
　
'I didn't know what a Jew was. I knew of a bird that was a called a 'Jew,' and so for me the Jews were those birds,' Goldberg quoted Castro as telling him.
　
Castro later added, 'This is how ignorant the entire population was.'
According to Goldberg, Castro said, 'I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims.'
　
Castro also said that the Iranian government should understand that the Jews 'were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God'.