[Today Eisenhower Media Network is having a “Press Briefing: Imminent Threat — or Ruse? Intel on Iran a Flashback to Iraq?“]
While some have expressed surprise at the lack of cohesion in BRICS regarding the U.S.-Israeli government attack on Iran, Bond has been noting its contradictions for years:
PATRICK BOND, [email protected]
Bond is distinguished professor and director of the University of Johannesburg Centre for Social Change in South Africa. His most recent article is “Which BRICS Bark at Imperialism — and Which Are its Running Dogs?“
Bond writes: “Does the critique of [Indian leader] Modi’s allegiance to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu apply more broadly, when we consider the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) bloc, now adorned with five (or six) others? In 2023 at the Johannesburg summit, new BRICS were added: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with Saudi Arabia an ambiguous invitee (Riyadh has never formally accepted). In early 2025 another new full member joined: Indonesia. …
“From hype to hope to helplessness seems like the inevitable emotional slide-away for BRICS-watching multipolaristas. By March 11, one of the most ebullient of multipolar journalists, Thailand-based Brazilian journalist Pepe Escobar, despaired — on Danny Haiphong’s podcast — that the BRICS bloc was now spalling beyond repair. …
“Since the outset of the BRICS bloc in the late 2000s, and even more so since the genocide began in late 2023, its capitalists and state agencies have increasingly linked themselves to Israel’s apartheid economy:
+ “Since late 2023, more than 3 million tonnes of South African coal has been sent from mines owned jointly by Glencore and by the richest black South African, Patrice Motsepe (President Cyril Ramaphosa’s brother-in-law and potentially, his replacement in spite of recent denials) – providing the primary supply for 15 percent of Israel’s grid electricity by late 2025. …
+ “Russian-speakers in Israel, estimated at from 1.5 million to ‘nearly two million’ (according to Putin), provide the genocidal military with around 30,000 soldiers, and in addition to wheat and metals, Russia sells coal. …
+ “Chinese drones (tens of thousands by now) made by DJI and Autel buzz Gaza and the West Bank, and are used to drop grenades on civilians (as Al Jazeera reported), in spite of activist and human-rights NGO demands their supply be halted (even before a DJI Avata helped kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in October 2024). …
+ “Brazilian parastatal Petrobras supplies oil, at one point meeting 9 percent of Israeli needs directly, and from 2024 operating via Italian middlemen. …
+ “New Delhi assures a strengthened Israeli-Indian military alliance, the September 2025 Bilateral Investment Treaty, and Modi’s ‘Special Strategic Partnership’ solidaristic visit to the Knessetfeaturing ‘immense progress’ in ‘defence, security, and more’. …
+ “The UAE has, since the 2020 Abraham Accords, rapidly increased annual trade — led by Emirati exports including oil and diamonds – to more than $2 billion. …
+ “Egypt has made recent oil deals with Israel, agreeing in 2025 to facilitate $35 billion worth of Leviathan gas field exports, while not only opposing Iran’s firing on U.S. bases in the region, but also offering U.S.-German military logistical support for the Israeli genocidaires. …
+ Given extremely warm Addis-Tel Aviv relations, Ethiopia abstained in 2024 and 2025 UN votes condemning Israeli’s occupation of Palestine. …
“Subimperial BRICS bloc is the rabies-addled ‘dog that didn’t bark,’ when confronted by even Trump’s excesses of imperialism and Netanyahu’s genocide. But occasionally when some in the pack do bark left, we should not be distracted or surprised when – as any Palestinian knows — they simultaneously bite right.”
See inverview from 2023 in which Bond argues that BRICS members “Talk Left, Walk Right.”