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Essay:anti-Israel bigotry: the Apartheid slur part4 (view source)
Revision as of 02:25, October 17, 2011
, 02:25, October 17, 2011→A few simple historic & present facts about wonderful Israel VS Arab nations/Arab-Palestinians
=====A few simple historic & present facts about wonderful Israel VS Arab nations/Arab-Palestinians=====
=====A few simple historic & present facts about wonderful Israel VS Arab nations/Arab-Palestinians=====
From material published in Sun News:
<blockquote>
* Israel is a multi-ethnic Jewish democracy, with a thriving Christian population and 20 percent Arab population, all free citizens. Since 9/11, Muslims slaughtered "infidels" in 7,500 deadly, ethnic-cleansing jihad attacks.
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Islamic states, China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, are apartheid, with severe domination over their citizens, torture, beheadings, amputations, honor killings; death to women, homosexuals, apostates, and rioters who oppose dictatorships.
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* When Israel became a state in 1948, seven Arab nations attacked for the entire Mandate. 160,000 Arabs who stayed, became Israel's million citizens. Those who followed Arab orders became political pawns to acquire Israel. Acceptance of peace would have meant two states, no refugees, no Nakba.
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* 10,000 Jews became refugees of the Mandate; 950,000 Jews fled Arab persecution, absorbed by Israel and France. No pawns.
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* Arabs are still killing Israelis, using its citizens as shields. Israel's care to target military is confirmed; so is their right to self-defense.
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* Israel is first worldwide in rescue missions and humanitarian aid to all nations — Haiti, Turkey, Greece, Ethiopia, etc. Innovations and achievements in science, medicine and literature reap Nobel prizes. Israel leads in humanitarian programs and healthcare to needy countries, and leads in hi-tech and biomedical innovation, research and development. Israel conducts courses annually for emerging nations, helping in desert agriculture, water management, emergency and disaster medicine. The Koran commands Islamic charity to Islamic countries only.
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* When Israel administered the "territories," they became the 4th-fastest growing economy in the 1970s, rising per-capita income, plunged unemployment, plunged infant mortality. Israel ended the "occupation"; the areas are run by terrorist Hamas and Fatah. Israeli "settlements" (housing developments) were built in undeveloped, uninhabited areas and are perfectly legal.
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There is no greater ally to the US than Israel, a bulwark for democracy.<ref>http://www.cleveland.com/sun/all/index.ssf/2011/07/letter_writers_revisionism_of.html</ref></blockquote>
Material published in 2006 in 'Humane Israel'<blockquote>Beautiful Compassionate Humane Kind <i>Zionism / Israel</i> VS Evil, Racist <i>Arabism, Islamism</i> Kindness, Tolerance, multi racial, multi color cosmopolitan open, free & democratic: <i>Zionism - Israel</i>
Vs.
Racist, fascist, totalitarian, ethnic cleansing, cruel, oppressive: <i>Arabism, Islamism</i>
<br><br><i>Zionism - Israel</i> has established a Multi-racial Multi Colored Cosmopolitan society, not only Israeli Arabs are integrated but all colors from black through Latino Chinese, (Vietnamese that have been rescued when no one wanted them) to the whitest of whites are all part of the same Israeli system.
<br><br><i>Arabism, Islamism</i> - fascism & racism not only persecutes minorities in all Arab & Muslims countries, be the Kurds in Arab countries or in Iran, Chinese under Indonesian Muslims, any non Muslim in Saudi Arabia, the Christians (copts.com) in Egypt, or Christians & Druze ethnic groups in in Lebanon, Kurds and Druze in Syrian dictatorship, or the Berbers ethnic group in Morocco, Algeria, etc. or the native Africans on Arab controlled countries such as Egypt (on Nubian native Egyptians), etc. but the horrific racist bloody Arabization even invaded foreign countries such as Sudan, Chad where they (Janjaveed Arabs) carry out that most cruel genocide and slavery, the largest human calamity since WW2.
<br><br><i>Zionism - Israel</i> has rescued around 900,000 Jews from Muslim countries that escaped persecution and integrated them into the cosmopolitan multi racial Israeli society.
Arabism & Islamism has led the Arabs (now known as Arab Palestinians) in 1948 to evacuate the holy land with fake stories of "massacres" (instead of telling the truth about BATTLES!) promises of "victory" in ethnic cleansing out the land of the Jews, now not only did not integrate them in all those camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, etc. but even persecutes them (you do not want to be a "Palestinian" in viciously racist Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, etc... Just ask anyone that works/worked there), does not let any Israeli attempt to improve their conditions, so they can so terribly [continue to] use their Arab "Palestinian" brothers as weapons in their fascistic anti Israel campaign.
<br><br><i>Zionism - Israel</i> has a beautiful democratic society, where not only Arab women where the FIRST ever to vote, but Arabs, Muslims are not only represented in all branches of government equally, in some cases at preferred status because of Israel's affirmative action system.
<br><br><i>Arabism, Islamism</i>, in most moderate Arab Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, fascism is that strong that Jews in GENERAL are not even allowed to enter, not only Israelis... (in moderate Indonesia & Malaysia, you can't enter with an Israeli passport). Not to mention 'Judenrein" 'Palestine', with its totally ethnic cleansing reality and even officially charter, especially Hamas'.
<br><br><i>Zionism - Israel</i> that is forced to fight Arab Muslim terrorists who target civilians by the masses in their genocide campaign, try to do it most humanely possible, be the huge sacrifice in the norm of announcing before an anti terror action, Israel pays dearly in pursuing after 'Palestinian' terrorists, so did she paid so dearly in Lebanon, as Arab Islamic Hezbollah terrorists that -- like 'Palestinian' Hamas -- used civilians as shields got away, ONLY because of Israel's concern for non combatants.
<br><br><i>Arabism, Islamism</i>, let alone their intentional targeting of non combatant Israelis, Americans, British, Iraqis, Australians, Spaniards, etc. but their cruelty on their owns is so great, as they are the only ones interested in Arab civilian casualties so they can play the "victim", which is why they cause their brothers & sisters to die. They prefer [dead] kids above all, thus, they shoot out of most crowded civilian places and prepare their cameras to capture the fallen Arabs. the bloodier the image, the "better."
<br><br><i>Zionism - Israel</i>. Impressive open and free press (13 languages) for all kinds of opinion. Furthermore, it actually has (one of the) most self-criticism systems, even by any Western criteria. Some criticize Israel from within even though it really fights for its survival, but the super-morality critics -apparently- want even better terms.
<br><br><i>Arabism, Islamism</i>, let alone most Arab Muslim countries are total totalitarian, any criticism can cost your torture and death, but even if you are in a supposedly 'democratic' moderate Lebanon and write something against a foreign invader & its occupation, like brutal Syria, you are in much chances of getting shot dead (see assassinations by Syria/Hezbollah).
<br><br><i>Zionism - Israel</i> a true and open society. A free humane island in the middle east. Its prisons are under tight scrutiny, to make sure its humane, if there would be any rare case where it isn't, it would be immediately publicized, dealt with and fixed. Its Arab citizens enjoy even more rights than Israeli Jews, since they do not have the obligation to serve in Israeli army, yet, have all the benefits nevertheless. It not only aids foreign nations but even its Arab enemies, from treating for free, wounded "Palestinian" kids (that were sent by Arab adults for violence, as in Hadassa hospital, for eaxmple), to foreign Arab Muslim nations, see: http://israaid.org.il/ , http://israel21c.org/
<br><br><i>Arabism, Islamism</i>, is not only oppressing its own people, torturing its prisoners and you will never even know/hear about it from the tightly closed nations. The terrible treatment of women & honor killing is standard all over Islamo Arab world, especially in "Palestine." The vast crimes against humanity in the oppressive Arab Muslim world is [almost] not published, precisely because of its totalitarianism. Asides from being oppressive regimes including the "moderate" ones, on their entire population, on the non Muslims the second class - "dhimmis," but Arabism & Islamism even exports its wahabbi totalitarian & rapid anti-west hatred philosophy outside its borders, oppresses, enslaves, mass rapes, commits genocide on the Africans in Sudan and Chad. So is radical fanatical Islamic Republic of Iran & its Mehdi (Mahdi) army instigating, arming, fighting & mass murder internationally, including in Lebanon, Iraq & among 'Palestinians'.<ref>http://www.geocities.ws/humaneisrael/</ref></blockquote>
=====From a critic of Israel on the falsehood of "apartheid"=====
A harsh critic of Israel, South African born, editor of various publications, Benjamin Pogrund, explained [Sep. 23, 2011] why some S. Africans "condemn" Israel (and Zionism)... He cites the dark side of historic joint violence-training of some S. Africans with Arab-Palestinians. And despite of his strong chastising what he calls Israel's "occupation," [he gives some brief historic skeches, how Israel got to that point though], he clarifies, however, how that vilification of Zionism and Israel is not true, no matter how many times its repeated.
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I was born and grew up in South Africa, spent most of my life here immersed in the racial travails of the country, and now live in Israel, in Jerusalem, where I have been involved with pursuing dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. I am closely linked to both countries, in heart and mind.
<br><br>
Coming here now, I believe that I can understand why so many South Africans condemn Israel and favor Palestinians. Among ANC members, and especially Umkhonto we Sizwe veterans, there is the history of shared military training with Palestinians during the apartheid era. Going beyond that, the basis of the struggle against white domination and apartheid was to oppose ethnicity and tribalism. The goal was a single, united, non-racial South Africa and that is what we have.
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Israel seems to run counter to this. I read and hear it being condemned as an apartheid and racist state. It is even said to be worse than apartheid. Its founding ideology, Zionist, is rejected as racism. It is pilloried as colonialist, as a pitiless oppressor of Palestinians, denying them fundamental human rights and killing them en masse whenever it wants to, and guilty even of genocide.
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But merely to believe these charges doesn't necessarily mean they are true. Saying them repeatedly doesn't make them true. Yelling slogans that Israel is apartheid and Zionism is racism doesn't make any of it true. And they are not true.
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I have no doubt that many critics of Israel speak out of sincere belief. But I find a great lack of knowledge in South Africa about the present and the past in the Middle East, and this leads to misunderstandings. It also opens the way to manipulation: there are people here who are not only ignorant but also malevolent; it is depressing to read their distortions about Israel, and even more to find that they have an audience.
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It is worth recalling the basics of the conflict …
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One, Britain, with its Balfour Declaration in 1917, promised Jews a national home in what was called Palestine, with due regard to the rights of Arab inhabitants. Five years later, despite Jewish opposition, Britain hived off 77 percent of Palestine and created an Arab state – today's Jordan. Britain spent nearly 30 years trying to bring together Jews and Arabs in Palestine. It failed, and ended up hated by both sides. It threw the problem to the United Nations General Assembly which investigated, decided there was no chance of Jews and Arabs living together, and voted for partition: a state for Jews and a state for Arabs.
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Two, Jews accepted the UN decision, Arabs refused. Arabs attacked and killed Jews, and Arab armies invaded. The Jews fought back, won, and in the process added another 20 percent to the land allocated by the UN.
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Three, this was victory for Zionism. It has been the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, as valid and successful as the liberation movements which emerged in Europe during the 19th century and the liberation movements in Africa and Asia during the 20th century.
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The aim of Zionism was to create a state for Jews, giving freedom and a haven after centuries of persecution. It has achieved that in Israel where a Jewish majority rules.
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No one objects to Saudi Arabia having only Muslims as citizens. No one objects to Pakistan declaring itself an Islamic state as do many other Muslim states. In Africa, does Ghana or a host of other countries, easily allow whites as citizens? They are all ethnic states. Israel is also an essentially ethnic state. Is it any less valid? Why is it singled out for condemnation?
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Four, a consequence of Israel's war for survival in 1948 was that about 750,000 Arabs fled the country. Many left because they were frightened as war approached or swirled around them; many were expelled by the Israeli armed forces. No doubt they meant to return home when the fighting ended. But the victorious Israelis did not allow that: they feared a fifth column in their midst and they also followed the example of the previous year when India and Pakistan had split: in those countries, communal violence spawned 13 million refugees who left their homes and never returned; their properties were seized.
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In the refugee tragedy created by the new Israel the UN gave Palestinians a unique international status which has never been done for anyone else: not only were the original 750,000 ranked as refugees but also their descendants so the number spread around the world is now about 4.5 million, and growing by the day. More than 60 years later, Palestinian refugees remain in limbo. Many hundreds of thousands are denied elementary rights in host countries, such as in Lebanon. Refugees have suffered for too long and their plight must be ended. It needs international coordination. Israel must share in that because it is part of the problem.
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Five, there is, however, not the slightest chance that the refugees will be able to return to their original homes. The oft-declared "right of return" is a false hope, a bit of propaganda theatre used cynically by those who want to see Israel destroyed. It is a cover for their true intentions – the destruction of Israel - and too many others go along with it because they do not realize what it means. It's a non-starter for the simple reason that the return of Palestinians en masse would end the Jewish majority and hence the Jewish state – which is the purpose for which Israel was created, by Jews and the United Nations.
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Six, the 176,000 Arabs who remained in 1948 have flourished and now number some 1.3 million. So much for the wicked accusation that Israel practises genocide. They have the vote and elect Members of Knesset (Parliament), both Arabs and Jews. Every South African, remembering apartheid, will know the significance of that. They have full civil rights. Every South African will know what that means. They have equal health benefits: the same hospitals, clinics, doctors and nurses. Every South African will know that was inconceivable under apartheid. The equality shows in the two basic reflectors of national health, the infant mortality rate and life expectancy: vast improvements over the years have closed gaps between Jews and Arabs; both enjoy levels of health among the best in the world.
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Education is complicated. I haven't read anything in South Africa which shows any understanding of it, only ranting that Israel discriminates against Arabs. It starts with separate schools – an inheritance from the Ottoman era 100 years ago and the British mandate. A system was set in place which Israel has maintained and is now very difficult to get away from because Arab children study in Arabic and Jewish children in Hebrew. Any child is free to go to other schools but very, very few do so because of language. There are also deep divisions among Jews, with separate schools for secular and religious, and still more separation among different streams of the religious.
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In funding, public schools receive a "basket" of teaching hours based on student numbers – regardless of religion, ethnicity or anything else. The government pays each year. Then parents and local municipalities put in cash, for more teachers or piano lessons, or whatever, and differences grow between wealthy and poorer areas. Arabs towns are poorer and have lower tax collection rates and the lesser resources show up in the schools and in results. But nothing is straightforward: an Arab Christian school, with mainly Muslim students, regularly scores the highest matriculation results; the worst current achiever is a Jewish ultra-Orthodox school. There are also private and Jewish ultra-Orthodox schools: they receive government funding calculated somewhat differently but also based on student numbers plus the extent to which the schools adopt the core curriculum set by the government.
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In religion, the right of each group to administer its own affairs is also inherited from the past. This too is complicated. Take the Jews: a Jew cannot marry a Christian or a Muslim. That seems like discrimination akin to apartheid's prohibitions in the Mixed Marriages Act. But it isn't. Instead, the situation is that Orthodox rabbis control Jewish marriage: they will marry any Jew to any Jew as long as he/she is Jewish from birth or has undergone an Orthodox conversion. Those who want to avoid the rabbinate can fly one hour to Cyprus and marry there in a civil ceremony; they return to Israel and the marriage is recognized in law. Among Muslims, Islam allows only Muslim-to-Muslim marriage – so a non-Muslim partner must first convert to Islam. Christians can be married in the churches, but some Orthodox churches will not marry a couple in which one partner is Protestant.
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Land is much misunderstood and false accusations are made. It is, once again, a complex issue shaped by past practices. The basic picture is that 93 percent of the land in Israel is owned by the state and anyone can buy or rent it. But 13 percent of the 93 percent is restricted for Jewish use only. This is land owned by the Jewish National Fund, set up at the start of the last century to buy land for Jews. The fund's success provided a basis for the UN's decision to create a Jewish state. In recent years several Arab families have sought to buy into Jewish communities living on JNF land and have been rejected. The issue has been before the Supreme Court: some argue that the JNF's charter is inviolate and the land must remain Jewish forever; others insist that the charter must be changed to open the land to everyone.
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...There is a great deal of consciousness about the gaps between Arabs and Jews. A range of NGOs work for change. Interestingly, the current government, although right-wing, has pledged huge amounts of money to upgrade Arab existence and also pushes national service so that Arab young men and women can work in hospitals and community centres in lieu of army service and earn the benefits of non-combat soldiers.
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So the picture of the Israeli Arab community is a mixed one. Discrimination yes, but also some closeness with, for example, an Arab judge on the Supreme Court, and senior doctors and university teachers throughout the country. Theatres, cinemas, parks, beaches are open to everyone.
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The extent of separation in schools and housing does, unfortunately, breed and perpetuate division. Social discrimination is one result. But none of this is remotely like the institutionalized racist laws and restrictions of apartheid South Africa. Anyone who levels that accusation against Israel has either forgotten what apartheid was, or does not know Israel, or is inventing it.
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This is Israel within the 1948/49 borders. The story is very different when it comes to the West Bank. It is linked with Israel but is separate from it. The story again starts with history: in 1967, in making pre-emptive strikes against Egypt and Syria, Israel sent a message to Jordan's King Hussein on the eastern border: stay out of this, we have no quarrel with you. But Hussein believed the great lies that Egypt was feeding him – that it had destroyed Israel's air force whereas the opposite was true – and attacked. To general astonishment, the Israeli army defeated Jordan, evicting it from Jerusalem and the West Bank which it had seized in 1948.
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At first, Israel was interested in exchanging land for peace. Remember, it was still in a state of war with the Arab countries it had defeated 19 years earlier and they did not recognise its existence. The Arab League met in Khartoum and issued a statement on 1 September 1967: No peace with Israel, no recognition, no negotiations...
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Jewish settlement began and has grown...
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I am among the many Israelis who oppose the occupation and who believe that we must get out of there. Nothing about occupation is pleasant...
The fundamental point is that it is an occupation. Accusing Israel of practising apartheid on the West Bank is inappropriate and irrelevant. The charge confuses and distracts. Occupation is wrong and evil in itself. It does not need to be embellished or exaggerated. The roads built to carry only cars with Israeli yellow and black number plates – the Palestinian green and white are barred – are an expensive, heavy-handed response to drive-by shootings and have nothing to do with apartheid. The security barrier – part wall but mainly fences and ditches – was originally planned for security, to keep out suicide bombers from getting into Israel, but the purpose has been twisted to enable land grabs from Palestinians. That is exploitative and damaging. But it has nothing to do with apartheid.
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To say that Israeli behavior is even worse than apartheid is even more misleading for the simple reason that the comparison is invalid. There was never in South Africa resistance in the form of suicide bombers, drive-by shootings and wholesale terror attacks, and there was thus never any call for the military responses that Israel resorts to.
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The Bantustan analogy which some draw is equally faulty: apartheid Bantustans were meant as reservoirs of labour, to keep blacks penned in them so that they could be hauled into "white" South Africa when needed. The West Bank with its barrier and checkpoints is the exact opposite: Israel doesn't want Palestinian workers; it wants to keep them out.
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Intentionality, or the lack of it, is a vital element: the white rulers in South Africa deliberately set about driving segregation and discrimination into every nook and cranny of society; that is not Israel. The checkpoints and separate roads and the rest are not ideological goals but are a consequence of occupation and resistance to it. End the occupation, and they will end.
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So why do so many put such effort into trying to attach the apartheid tag to the occupation, with so many incessant and emotive references to apartheid roads, the apartheid wall, apartheid checkpoints and the rest? This is where we get back to the beginning: yell apartheid again and again and again and some people will believe it, or at least that is the hope and aim of the shouters.
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There is an underlying, more convoluted, purpose: if Israel can be declared guilty of apartheid – and the United Nations definition is so broad that it can be pulled and stretched any way you want – then the country can be declared as much a pariah state as was apartheid South Africa and hence open to international sanctions, from trade and oil to being driven out of every possible world activity. What is clear and certain is that the ultimate purpose is the destruction of the Jewish state.
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Israel is wide open to criticisms. It is as imperfect as any other country, and carries more burdens than many. But it is not the racist, cruel monster that some people depict. I believe it is time for South Africans to take a fresh look at the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians: to be aware of the machinations of critics, to ask about their motivation and their ultimate goal. The question must be asked: why is so much hatred directed at that tiny country?
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Ending the occupation will not in itself bring peace. But it is crucial to getting there. Jews and Arabs must settle their differences between themselves, through negotiation. The way forward is known: two states, with a Palestinian state living alongside the Jewish state and Jerusalem as the shared capital. But it's a troubled path to get there and South Africa is uniquely placed, with its experience in resolving bitter division and conflict, to give intelligent advice and guidance. But always remember: Israel/Palestine is not South Africa: there is a different history, different peoples, different cultures, different religious determinants, and different aspirations. Offer help, but please be wise, careful and modest.<ref>http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1831/is-israel-the-new-apartheid</ref></blockquote>
In, <i>Haaretz,</i> which known to be very the anti-Israel,<ref>http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=55&x_article=1604</ref><ref>http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?ID=173305</ref><ref>http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=236372</ref><ref>http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=185114</ref><ref>http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=55&x_article=1604</ref><ref>http://honestreporting.com/uproar-over-haa/</ref><ref>http://honestreporting.com/haaretz-journalists-speaking-tour-sponsored-by-anti-zionists/</ref> (and was even linked to a spy scandal,<ref>http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/9453</ref>) Benjamin Pogrund wrote [in May 2, 2008]: "Catastrophic, but not apartheid" noting that Israel's situation is not unique. And says: "Calling Israel's occupation 'apartheid' is not only wrong but thoughtless - because it ignores what is happening in the world, and especially the imminence of the Durban Review Conference." He goes on by saying: <blockquote>The labeling is wrong because the situations are entirely different. Apartheid in South Africa, from 1948 until 1994, was a unique system of racial separation and discrimination, institutionalized by law and custom in every aspect of everyday life, imposed by the white minority and based on a belief in white racial superiority. Skin color decreed inferior status from birth until death for blacks, Asians and "mixed-race" coloreds. In contrast, West Bank oppression is not based on a predetermined racist ideology. It stems rather from historical factors such as Jordan's attack during the 1967 war and the resulting Israeli conquest of the West Bank. From that, the settlement movement has developed...<ref>http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/catastrophic-but-not-apartheid-1.245141</ref></blockquote>
=====Issue: "land" or mass murder?=====
M. Phillips advises: "Israel's advocates all too often fail to state the reality of its enemies' intentions. It is time that they did,"
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...friends of Israel fret endlessly about whether or not Bibi will extend the moratorium on new building in the disputed territories, rather than ask the much more germane question of what the Palestinians are offering as an equivalent concession. The answer to that one, said Brett Stephens, is that they say they will keep the lid on terrorism. So their great concession is to stop killing Jews. Which kind of illustrates that, while the issue in contention for Israel is land, that for the Palestinians is mass murder.
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But instead of accusing the Palestinians and their western supporters of this rejectionism - the true reason for the Middle East impasse - many self-professed "friends" of Israel position themselves on the very ground that Israel's enemies have chosen to conceal their real aim to obliterate it.
<br>
Hence the almost exclusive focus on the settlements and on Israel's supposed obduracy on these issues as the major obstacle to peace. This is demonstrably absurd. The only obstacle to peace is the Palestinians' continued and open refusal to accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, and thus their continued objective to wage a war of extermination against it.
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... the whole issue of the settlements...is a giant red herring which has been swallowed wholesale by the west's Israel-bashers. But many in the pro-Israel camp have precisely the same preoccupation, obsessing about whether Israel is making enough concessions on the settlements.
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Israel's defenders should be moving the conversation on to the subject of the ill treatment of the Palestinians by the rest of the Arab world - and towards each other.
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I would go further. I would ask self-styled "progressives" who obsess about removing the settlers from the disputed territories why they promote an agenda of racist ethnic cleansing designed to remove every Jew from a putative state of Palestine - while Israel, whose Arab minority enjoys full civil rights, is excoriated for "apartheid".
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Put the other side on the back foot where it belongs. Change the narrative.<ref>http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/columnists/39344/how-defenders-need-attack</ref></blockquote>
====Notes====
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[[Essay:anti-Israel_bigotry:_the_Apartheid_slur|Anti-Israel bigotry: the Apartheid slur - Main]]