US President Donald Trump’s flash coup in bringing fighting in Gaza to end end on Monday, along with the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, may still be on shaky ground but it’s a good moment for South Africa to grab and to reopen its embassy in Tel Aviv, which we shuttered a few years ago without ever breaking actual diplomatic relations. Now, Freedom Front Plus leader Corne Mulder tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge, is the time to go back and put official feet back on the ground. And, clearly, with an eye on Washington, where negotiations to reduced Trump’s punishing tariffs on SA are painfully slow.

"South Africa is not, on its own, going to change the course of events in the Middle East at the moment,” says Mulder. " (Events have) overtaken us and we must now get onto that wave and, and, and move with it. It gives us really an opportunity to not only reach out to United States in terms of, uh, repositioning of our international relations when it comes to Israel, because that is one of the major points of contention from the US side, but it gives us the opportunity to reach out. And I think opening the embassy would be a very, uh, a very sound step to take ... it would be very well received in Washington because I know they're expecting us to have a rethink in terms of our relationship with Israel and the latest developments give us that opportunity to move into that space.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

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