And did he say "Mandela told him Yitzhak Rabin deserves his Nobel Peace Prize" if Israel retreats to the 1949 borders. I hold no praise for revisionist antisemites.

Mandela's good friends - Arafat, Gaddafi, Fidel Castro, Mugabe. Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are.

#1,3, not mine.

Why laud Mandela when he hates Israel. We should not be singing his praises after what he accused us of -we are soft in the head. Our sages of old used to say "if I am not for me, who is for. Me"- Mandela was not and we should cast aside his legacy - let his own praise him and we should concern ourselves with our own chaotic situation when the world rises up against us because of the likes of Mandela!

If Mendela thought Rabin deserved Nobel, just why are we mourning him?

The things you mention are pretty pointless to bring up unless you consider the whole context. Until 1994, South Africa was an oppressive dictatorship (not a formal one-party state, but more than 90% weren't allowed to vote) with institutionalized racism. There was no lack of support from the likes of Reagan, Thatcher and Begin to uphold this system by the way. For a country that has had less than 20 years of freedom and democracy, things are looking fairl promising for South Africa.

Prior to the world boycott of the 1980's Whites were almost 100% employed and Blacks had under 15% unemployment mainly because of the influx of cheaper labor from neighboring countries. The boycott that Mandela initiated while in prison caused the level of unemployment among Blacks to rise to 25% and millions of others became poorer. South Africa never recovered ever since and it also made millions of Whites poor. I know this because I have visited South Africa many times for long periods since 1984.

Really charismatic...

Yeah, right. The savages got control of the formerly civilized South Africa. I guess Reagan, Thatcher and Begin understood something that those who confuse dreams with reality don't. Too bad.

Except for the police machine-gunning striking union members and the unchecked crime rate, black on black tribal violence, the annual hatefest in Durban and the white retreat behind gated communities with armed patrols and white flight generally -- oh yeah, South Africa's future is really promising.

Sucking Arabia, Sudan, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen, Gutter, Somalia, Mali, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Lebanon.......................

You can't look at today's South Africa, compare it to the western World and then pass judgement. Look towards the future instead. After decades of the most inhumane system mankind has ever practiced, the wounds are still fresh. The country is still in a transition process. Stop closing your eyes to how bad it was before 1994, when crimes(committed by the state, police and army, of course) were far worse than today. At least today, the South African police is FIGHTING crime instead committing it. And while problems persist, there is no doubt in my mind that South Africa's future is better than its past.

Africa hasn't seen many great leaders and even fewer humane ones. South Africa is a hugely complex country which was on the brink of descending into bloodshed, anarchy or dictatorship. Mandela was a shining light to all Africa. Even when things are tough you don't have to lose your humanity. We should pray for a Palestinian Mandela.

Are we to understand that Mr. Liel considers Erdogan to be the second "greatest person" he ever met. He was after all an Israeli ambassador to Turkey.

No surprises here. Mandela had more humanity in his little finger than in the entire bodies of those bleating about Arabs 'stealing' Jewish territory while applauding European theft of African land. But then hypocrisy is your stock-in-trade.

The statistics speak for themselves. In 1988, before the fall of Apartheid, the life expectancy in South Africa was 62 years. Today it is 52 years. And I don't need to remind you of the trends in violent crime and homicide, and AIDS do I? If you're a black city dweller, a white farmer, or a striking worker in South Africa, God help you. There is an end game to South African trajectory, and it's called Zimbabwe.

The African leader generally regarded as the shining light of Africa was Haile Sellasie. Mandela is the creator of the continent's newest basket case and failed state, You might wish to claim otherwise, but facts and stats can be terribly obstinate things.

There are those of us who do not forget that his prison time was earned for blowing up school buses and theaters. He was the Arafat of Africa with blood drenched hands. If you can rehabilitate a monster such as Arafat, then you can forget the bloodshed , and the "necklassing" that accompanied Mandela's rise to power. But some of us have sound minds, and we long know that we cannot forgive the spilling of other;'s blood, it is not in our right.

Read Mandela's autobiography "Long walk to freedom" and learn the truth about the man. I would also add that none of you realize the amazing humanity of the man who steered his country to democracy without a bloodbath of recriminations against the Whites