Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Israel and Apartheid

Michael L.



Anyone who calls Israel an "apartheid state" is spreading hatred.

It is a lie and it needs to be confronted wherever that lie stands.

A Big Tip 'O the Kippa to Ian over at the Elder's joint.

11 comments:

  1. Not only are those who engage in that vile smear showing themselves to be bigots, but they are also displaying astonishing hypocrisy and / or stunning stupidity, by remaining silent about the real apartheid which exists elsewhere in the region.

    Which of course they don't care about, since they couldn't give one shit about Palestinian-Arabs, or any other Arabs or anyone else in the region, unless they can be used as a weapon against the Jewish state.

    These types of 'progressives' display racism on so many levels it's unbelievable that they still insist on being considered 'anti-racists.'

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  2. It is very hard to cover this in 5 minute video. The problem is that apartheid was a huge system of laws, actual laws with actual legal sanction and punishment attached. Apartheid covered every single aspect of life of a person. It controlled every interaction between and among people and about the interaction between every interaction between the individual and the government and business.

    It's hard to know what Israel haters are referring to though since Apartheid took many forms. There was petty apartheid which made mixed race marriages and sexual relations criminal acts. There was segregation at every single corner in every facet of life. And then there were the broader issues concerning no political rights of blacks, no education, no freedom of residency or travel.

    The problem with discussing such an overarching system is that few who haven't experienced it understand what it was and few who haven't experienced it can't list all the ways they think Israel is somehow the same thing. For instance are there segregated beaches in Israel? No. Are there segregated universities? Yes, some Arab universities don't allow Jews to set foot on campus. Can Benduin live wherever they like? Sort of, as long as they don't illegally use public services. Are there Jew-only buses? In practice I suppose but not by law only out of fear of being assaulted. Can an Arab from Jericho marry a Jew from Ramat? Yes and it's no more or less complicated than marrying someone from Cyprus. Similarly until 1991 all marriages in Argentina had to be technically between Catholics and no other marriages were technically recognized except no one ever bothered to enforce it.

    And so on. But the challenge is to remember to ask the Israel haters to state in their own words chapter and verse what they're talking about. Are there manned 'checkpoints'. Yes there are. About 23 by today's tally. Not 2300 or 23000. 23. Given the history of Arabs murdering Jews in Israel it's not an entirely irrational demand. Is there a blockade of Gaza? Not according to international law where Gazans are free to consider a 6 mile territorial waters zone. Are there any checks on who can travel in and out by land? Of course, it's a defacto foreignn country at war with Israel. Gibraltar residents can't freely travel to Spain and the UK and Spain are both EU countries so that's a violation of their OWN laws.

    In fact there's a response to every single one of their complaints but you have to get them to tell you what their complaints are first. Numbers don't tell a story. If they did then Camden NJ, Detroit, the southern part of Arizona and most of the Imperial Valley in California would be 'apartheid' given the near totality of black or Hispanic populations, respectively. Yes the schools and hospitals in Camden and Detroit are terrible. But is it apartheid? No it's not. So just because most Arabs live where most Arabs live going to school in schools that service only Arabs whereas yeshivas only serve Jews who choose to go to yeshiva that doesn't mean there's apartheid in action.

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  3. Everybody's sayin' it so it must be true. All the cool cats are sayin' it so I better say it to be part of the in crowd. Israelis/Jews are WHITE, Palestinians aren't. Blah blah blah and the propaganda goes round and round.

    At base, it's part of an agenda....anti-white/anti-western/anti-capitalist, etc. Just another long march through the institutions...indoctrination. Viva la revolution, baby! Where facts don't matter.

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  4. Yeah, there's that factor, as well.

    Add to that the fact that the intimidation one is subjected to in certain venues if one does not strictly adhere to such a line, makes it so that too many good people who would otherwise speak up against the hate inevitably fail to do so.

    Because g-d forbid one should lose their standing in the eyes of bigots! When you think about it that way for a few seconds, though, the hesitancy does seem kind of ridiculous, eh?

    I mean, if those are the 'peers' you worry about being pressured by, I'd argue that one or the other needs to leave that peer group.

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    Replies
    1. Shorthand is as shorthand does. We live in a slogan driven bellwether political economy. "Apartheid!" "Racist!" "Islamophobe!" "Homophobe!" "Misogynist!" and on and on and on. None of this actually means anything nor is it supposed to.

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    2. But then what about "anti-Semite"?

      If racist means nothing and homophobe means nothing, why would anti-Semite mean anything?

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    3. That may be partially true. I don't feel that it's a useful handle to use. They're simply anti-human, anti-life, anti-everything-that's-happened-in-the-last-thousand-years

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    4. We're talking about handles and names, not the existence of it. The name antisemitism has existed for about 140 years and in all that time pointing it out hasn't materially made any difference. But the fact of the existence of antisemitism is 2600 or whatever years old. I just think the name has lost its punch. Something else is needed.

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    5. I tend to agree, actually, which is why I often use the phrase "anti-Jewish racism" to refer to it. The fact of the matter, of course, is that most people do not even know the meaning of the word "anti-Semitism." They think that it refers to hatred for Jews.

      It does not.

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