Next month, the U.N.-sponsored Hate-Israel Festival known as Durban III takes place. Under the heading “Anti-Racism,” the great bulk of the conference, like its Durban I and II predecessors, consists of condemning Israel for racism and equating it with an apartheid state.
Of the world’s many great lies, this is among the greatest.
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How do we know it is a lie? Because when South Africa was an apartheid state, no one accused Israel of being one. Even the U.N. would have regarded the accusation as absurd.
Israel has nothing in common with an apartheid state, but few people know enough about Israel — or about apartheid South Africa — to refute the libel. So let’s respond.
First, what is an apartheid state? And, does Israel fit that definition?
From 1948 to 1994, South Africa, the country that came up with this term, had an official policy that declared blacks second-class citizens in every aspect of that nation’s life. Among many other prohibitions on the country’s blacks, they could not vote; could not hold political office; were forced to reside in certain locations; could not marry whites; and couldn’t even use the same public restrooms as whites.
Not one of those restrictions applies to Arabs living in Israel.
One and a half million Arabs live in Israel, constituting about 20 percent of the country’s population. They have the same rights as all other Israeli citizens. They can vote, and they do. They can serve in the Israeli parliament, and they do. They can own property, businesses, and work in professions alongside other Israelis, and they do. They can be judges, and they are. Here’s one telling example: It was an Arab judge on Israel’s supreme court who sentenced the former president of Israel, a Jew, to jail on a rape charge.
Some other examples of Arabs in Israeli life: Reda Mansour was the youngest ambassador in Israel’s history, and is now Consul General at Israel’s Atlanta Consulate; Walid Badir is an international soccer star on Israel’s national team, and captain of one of Tel Aviv’s major teams; Rana Raslan is a former Miss Israel; Ishmael Khaldi was until recently the deputy consul of Israel in San Francisco; Khaled Abu Toameh is a major journalist with the Jerusalem Post; Ghaleb Majadele was until recently a minister in the Israeli Government. They are all Israeli Arabs. Not one is a Jew.
Arabs in Israel live freer lives than Arabs living anywhere in the Arab world. No Arab in any Arab country has the civil rights and personal liberty that Arabs in Israel have.
Now one might counter, “Yes, Palestinians who live inside Israel have all these rights, but what about the Palestinians who live in what are known as the occupied territories? Aren’t they treated differently?”
Yes, of course, they are — they are not citizens of Israel. They are governed by either the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) or by Hamas. The control Israel has over these people’s lives is largely manifested when they want to enter Israel. Then they are subjected to long lines and strict searches because Israel must weed out potential terrorists.
Otherwise, Israel has little control over the day-to-day life of Palestinians, and was prepared to have no control in 2000 when it agreed to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state to which it gave 97 percent of the land it had conquered in the 1967 War. The Palestinian response was to unleash an intifada of terror against Israeli civilians.
And what about the security wall that divides Israel and the West Bank? Is that an example of apartheid?
That this is even raised as an issue is remarkable. One might as well mention the security fence between the United States and Mexico an example of apartheid. There is no difference between the American wall at its southern border and the Israeli wall on its eastern border. Both barriers have been built to keep unwanted people from entering the country.
The Nazis agitated against Czechoslovakia as an Apartheid State with respect to the Sudetenland "Germans". The Czechs were exoriated for not adjusting their borders to defenseless positions so we could have "peace in our time". They weren't even invited to their own funeral. The Skoda works under German control made nice 500 lb bombs to hit London with two years laters
Very good comment ....the sudeten propaganda slogan was ''back to the reich '', even though they had NEVER been part of germany
Ironically , they all went back to germany after the war ...DEPORTED
Mr. Prager: Muslims will say anything about the infidel and about Jews, and the Western Leftists feign believing it. Muslims can lie to the infidel, so why should anybody take anything they say as reflecting reality.
Prager says: "There is no difference between the American wall at its southern border and the Israeli wall on its eastern border. Both barriers have been built to keep unwanted people from entering the country."
Second part is entirely correct. But the last time I checked, NO American wall is built miles into Mexico. Any fences or "walls" are along the Rio Grande, not in Mexico proper.
Of course, it is absurd to call Israel an "Apartheid State", and most of Prager's statements are correct. But it was rather convenient to get the security wall FACT incorrect, and also leave out any discussion of expansionism. Sure, people can tie themselves in knots over what is "disputed" territory. How about when one party constantly increases its share of that disputed territory AND then builds a fence on your share?? Israel absolutely has a ton of chutzpah!!
To Gerrard: I escaped from Eastern Europe where my parents had been in a concentration camp, and where I had to constantly defend my right to exist (forget equal rights for Jews after the Holocaust). We left for Israel, to escape the ugliness of anti-Semitism, only to realize that the Arabs surrounding Israel hated Jews even more than the Gentiles in Europe. Israel has been attacked consistently since its inception. It lives with wars and many ‘9/11’ events. US had one 9/11 for which it went 7000 miles away to ‘defend’ itself. Israel has its civilian population under constant attack, and has to defend its rights to exist, to a world that has always attempted to annihilate the Jews. It is the world, NOT Israel, that has a lot of explaining to do. As regards to the Israeli Arabs, they have more rights in Israel than in the Arab country, and this is why they continue to stay there.
The barrier is not built along Israel's internationally recognized borders as many a Palestinian farmer can tell you. The notion of a 'current' border sounds ominously fluid.
Mr. Gerrard, by calling Israel’s Security Barrier a “Wall” and omitting the circumstances of its construction, you are the one getting your facts incorrect. 95% of the Security Barrier is a multi-layered fence. 5% of Israel’s Security Barrier is a wall, which is sadly necessary in urban centers to protect against Palestinian Arab snipers. Calling Israel’s Security Barrier a “Wall” is thus a mischaracterization, which is contrary to the facts and nothing more than Anti-Israel propaganda.
As for Mr. Praeger’s comparison to our border with Mexico, or the numerous other fences, his comparison is apt. What you omit is the circumstances differentiating the two barriers. America’s fence is a border, while Israel’s Security Barrier was built in response to the “Second Intifada” during which dozens of Palestinian Arab suicide bombers murdered almost 300 Israelis and wounded over 1,900. The Security Barrier effectively stopped these Palestinian Arab attacks, which was its purpose. The reason for the Security Barrier’s placement is that you don’t build a Security Barrier on your population centers, you build it far enough away so that your enemies who want to kill you can’t get close enough to do so.
Adjusting for Israel population of 7 million and America’s population of 307 million, the Intifada which led to Israel building its Security Barrier would be as if Mexico murdered over 13,000 Americans. I can assure you that if Mexico murdered 13,000 Americans, we’d be placing a Security Barrier deep on the other side of the Rio Grande. The most absurd part of your comment is that you claim that Israel’s barrier is a land grab, but imply that America’s fence placement is not, but ignore that America actually instigated a War with Mexico for the purpose of ending any Mexican claim to the disputed land. In other words, our Southern border is on American territory today because our 19th C land grab is a fait accomplish.
I think we’ll keep Texas and the American Southwest, thank you very much and cut the Jews some slack if they need to place a wall in disputed territory in order to protect themselves from those who want to murder them. Particularly when the Jews have a greater claim to Judea and Samria than we have to the American Southwest and we aren’t facing hundreds of Mexican suicide bombers
As for Israel’s “Apartheid State,” Dennis Praeger is right, like he almost always is. Additionally, the day that the Left stops ignoring the fact that minorities in every Arab state have less rights than minorities in Israel, while shouting “Apartheid State” Israel, is the day I’ll believe that the Apartheid State charge is little more than yet another bigoted double standard selectively applied against the Jews precisely because they are Jews.
Comparisons with Mexico are tricky.
Netanyahu correctly noted his people are indigenous to Israel but it was a bit cheeky of him to say it to Congress and even more stupid of them to applaud. Congress is a supporter of indigenous peoples now? Bring that to its logical conclusion and where would any of America be?
The other awkward comparsion with Mexico arises from Mandate immigration. Arizonans resist the tide of immigrants now - yet how can we blame Palestinians for doing the same?
Re: Israel's Arabs. Clearly, Israel is not an apartheid state but, like nearly every country in the world, it has its problems with racism. Would it harm Dennis Prager to admit this reality - that many Arabs feel Israel is a cold house for them i.e. better than the neighbouring tyrannies but still not welcoming.
Israeli Arabs have about the same 'rights' as pre Civil rights era American Blacks.They are discriminated in virtually EVERY area society, in Jobs, treatment under the law, Govt. Funding for schools, roads, etc. How many predominately Arab Israeli towns have been set up since 1948? Not ONE many predominately Jewish towns have been set up.How about a Israeli Arab who wants to marry a Palestinian, Nope no way. Can a Jew marry any Jew from anywhere? Yup.
As far as the 'Occupied Territories" go, it is Apartheid, or Military Occupation. When one group of people is controlling another group for many years, citizenship is a distinction without a difference. If the Palestinians aren't allowed to set up a working state, with or without accepting Israel, than Israel is in fact the state.
To Oneoff: This is as true as the stories about Jews using the blood of Christian children for their Passover. The reason for the intractable anti-Israel attitudes exhibited by the surrounding Arabs is that the world is full of individuals like you, who are prepared to tell lies on their behalf. Hitler did not accomplish his mission on his own.
Maybe the anti-Israel attitudes stem from the fact that all the Israelis the average Palestinian has ever dealt with are gun-toting IDF who do their best to intimidate and humiliate them? Nothing else explains why 10-year old boys want to die as "martyrs". At the age where optimism is at its peak, they have already given up and decided the only glory they will ever achieve is if they can take out a few of their hated oppressors on their way out.
To Cal Oren: Your comment is just about as true to the Israeli reality as our planet’s flatness. Read facts about the conflict in the Middle East before you discuss the topic. How do you feel about Jewish children being blown-up by terrorists with nails dipped in rat poison that would cause the victims to bleed to death, or terrorists with AIDS blowing themselves up to cause maximum damage? Palestinians are financially supported by the entire West. Most of this money goes for buying weapons to murder Jews. Arab countries awash in natural resources (oil) use their money to generate anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda. It is interesting that people like you feel sorry for the Palestinians, but could not care less about the Kurds and many other ethnic groups in Asia, Africa, etc. The Palestinians would have been long-forgotten, had the inhabitants of Israel been of a different religion. The Palestinians do not want a separate state: they want the whole of Israel.
Cal Oren could not care less about dead Jews or the death cult that most Palis practice. He prefers to wallow in so called "victimhood" - he makes him feel good.
"Nothing else explains why 10-year old boys want to die as 'martyrs'." Except, of course, their death-cult religion inculcated into their young heads from their parents, their kids television programming (google palestinian mickey mouse), their heretical priests (imams).
I spent 9 days in Israel while attending the STAND with COURAGE events hosted by Glenn Beck. I can tell you the lies are worse than one can imagine.
It is an amazing place, free and safe...muslims and Arabs move freely and work side by side with others.
It is a remarkable place, Israel is a shinning example of HOW to do things, not how not to!
JRApp, if you're going to be creative with the numbers, I'd like you to extrapolate the number of Mexican civilians that would be dead from an attack similar to that on gaza in 2008-09.
Tom Gaitens, you mentioned Glenn Beck and lies. Enough said. In an ideal world, ALL NATIONS would stand with Israel, not just the USA (and the issues that has brought). We need an Israeli government dedicated to a viable Palestinian state - believe it or not, that's what most Israeli-born Jews want either (not the Jewish Lobby in the USA, or their evangelical Christian supporters).
We have an Israeli govt dedicated to a viable Palestinian state.
What we don't have are any Palestinians who have any desire to tolerate a viable Jewish state.
I assume you mean Israel’s measured response to Hamas firing thousands of rockets into Israel? America does not put up with attacks against it, and as our reponses to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 demonstrate, we respond with far more overwhelming and destructive force than Israel does. Maybe Israel could learn something from us. By characterizing Israel’s Self Defense as an attack, you are again misrepresenting, a perfect example of the “great lies” that Dennis Prager is writing about.
