Two sharp comments about the state of Israel resonated in the media here last week, Nov. 2. From the north, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu vehemently denied reports originating from the Gulf States and Lebanon that his country supplied Israel with intelligence which helped carry out the attack attributed to it against targets in Syria. “Turks have never cooperated with Israel against another Muslim state and never will,” he declared with determination.

A no less decisive remark was published from the south, by South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, comparing the black struggle against apartheid with the Palestinians’ struggle against the Israeli occupation. "The last time I saw a map of Palestine, I couldn't go to sleep. … It is just dots, smaller than those of the homelands," she said, referring to the Bantustans in which the apartheid regime tried to concentrate the black population to more easily control it.

The South African minister declared that given the lack of an agreed-upon solution to the Palestinian national struggle, her country was putting on hold all visits by its government ministers to Israel, and vice versa.

It’s interesting to note that in both these cases, the things were said in the course of visits by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in these countries. Even more interesting is that in both capitals, Ankara and Pretoria, and even Tehran, there was once a significant Israeli presence. All three — Turkey, South Africa and Iran — were in the past paramount strategic allies of Israel.