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Monday, March 7, 2011

Israel Apartheid? Consider This.....

Norman Finklestein, "Independent scholar with a PhD from Princeton" and Israel Apartheid Week favorite


As the season of Israel Apartheid Week arrives on university campuses, this article by Arsen Ostravsky of the Hudson Institute should put some badly-needed perspective on just who practices apartheid.

http://www.hudson-ny.org/1937/arab-apartheid-week

By the time the week's Israel-bashing events are over, just think how many incidents will have occurred of....

Hamas lobbying rockets into southern Israel
Christians being murdered in Pakistan
Coptic Christians being attacked in Egypt
Baha'i being attacked in Iran
Homosexuals being hanged in Iran
Christians being murdered in Nigeria
Christians being attacked in Iraq
Amir Abdel Malik Ali calling some prominent American figure a "Zionist Jew" during one of his many campus appearances
How about those apostate laws in places like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan?

You might also ask yourself whatever happened to the age-old Jewish communities in Arab countries after 1948. (Answer: They were driven out, some 700,000 of them).

Apartheid? Are you serious?

9 comments:

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Talk about "Israel Apartheid" is yet one more example that analogies are weak on instruction and useless as proof. Every cause needs to rise or fall on its own merits, not on the past symbols it can wrap itself in.

That goes, also, for those pro-life people trying to wrap themselves in the abolitionist movement (care to sneak any fetuses into Canada?), and the gay marriage crowd trying to wrap themselves in the end of Jim Crow.

But for some balanced perspective on Israel and Palestine, everyone should read Izzeldin Abulaish, I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. From a recent review:

Born and brought up in a Palestinian refugee camp, he built a medical career that was helped along by Israeli colleagues but tormented by Israeli officials. Then, two years ago, he saw three of his daughters literally blown to bits by an Israeli tank that had aimed its shells at their bedroom."

This is essential reading for two prominent groups of fanatics:

1) Those who believe that Palestine is cause for world-wide jihad and driving the Jews into the sea.

2) Those who believe that Israel can do no wrong, and criticizing Israeli government policy is tantamount to terrorism.

"Most Gazans cannot travel at all. De. Abuelaish's Israeli employers provided permits but his daily journeys still meant excruciating delays, rebuffs and humiliation. He hung on to the distinction: don't blame the Israeli people for the actions of individual bullies."

There are reasons Israel takes some criticism. There are reasons young people are motivated to take up arms against it. You do Israel no favors by brushing off the mountain of legitimate criticism, or hinting that as long as Hamas is lobbing rockets, doctors in Gaza should expect their little girls to be blown to bits by tanks.

Gary Fouse said...

Introducing the new Siarlys road map. How to drive from LA to Seattle and see Chicago too.

Let's put it in perspective. I have always conceded that Palestinians probably have legitimite grievances. yet I simply think that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself. Israel's enemies do not acknowledge that right.

Anonymous said...

Some of the best of Malik Ali's lectures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is29KAIHXfA

Anonymous said...

"Palestinians have no claim to anything regarding the ancient land of Israel"

I cannot tell if this is a troll or sincere thoughts.

The two state solution is the only way there will be peace. A Pals. homeland needs to be created so Pals can have their own homeland and the rights of self-determination.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Its more like Nazareth to Bethlehem by way of Jerusalem, Gary. But you never were much for reading a map.

To say you have always conceded that Palestinians PROBABLY have legitimate grievances is almost as weak as the Reader's Digest presenting "both sides of racial segregation" to be fair and impartial.

The real sophistry is your reference to "Israel's enemies." Are you consigning all of those who are Palestinian to that category, and therefore labeling them as a legitimate target? If not, then Israel must cultivate whatever civilian population it can to deny Hamas their allegiance. This is generally not accomplished out of the barrel of a gun.

Anonymous said...

Our Founding Truth...

I'll go along with other nation's leaders using the conflict as a means to deflect attention from their sorry state.

The truth is no nation is interested in taking in the Pals and making them citizens of their nation. Israel isn't either.

The Palestinians have ambitions to create a homeland for themselves. That works for me. Israel has shown it is willing to trade land for peace - see the peace treaty with Egypt. They hope to do the same with the Palestinians.

Even Netanyahu accepts the two state solution these days. In fact, he is rumored to propose the establishment of a Palestinian state with temporary borders, as part of an interim peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority very soon.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

I hope Netanyahu has that much intelligence, plus the spinal fortitude to put it over.

I can't tell whether Founding Truth (excavator?) is a shill for Hamas or for Kach. He's incoherent either way.

Our Founding Truth said...

Siarlys Jenkins said...I can't tell whether Founding Truth (excavator?) is a shill for Hamas or for Kach. He's incoherent either way.>

I posted the koran for you. If you do not abide by that, you are an apostate, and Mohammed would kill you, like he did thousands of other muslims.

If you were a true muslim you would be agreeing with the koran. If you are a true muslim, like bin laden, you are an enemy to freedom, since in Islam there can be no freedom of conscience, of the press, the right to assemble, etc. on pain of death. I have history as my witness.

The truth is no nation is interested in taking in the Pals and making them citizens of their nation. Israel isn't either.>>>

Unfortunately Palestinians are muslims from the surrounding nations. You just trace a muslims parentage, and off they go. The Arab league put them in these camps anyway to use as a pawn against Israel.

Like I said before, there is no such thing as a Palestinian. That's what makes this all so crazy.

Palestinians are Jews!!! That is a fact from history. Israelis are liberal secularists who don't understand history either. Bibi does not want a Pal state, and he is not for giving away land.

He wrote an article on the effects of the Czechs giving the Sudetenland to Hitler.

The very foundation of Israel's existence, whether they like it or not, is the Bible. Without that, they have no idea how they came to be.

The Bible clearly teaches the Jews are only stewards of the land. The land actually belongs to God, which is why Evangelicals protest against giving away land that isn't theirs to give.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

I still can't tell WHAT side or position our good Truther is on.

Mohammed died before he could offer a practical example of who should be killed, but the Rashidun Caliphs, who had been personally acquainted with him, embraced the Jewish populations who were more than ready to assist them in conquering Jerusalem and Iberia. That's how the Jews got back into Jerusalem, from which they had been excluded by the Romans, including the Christianized Byzantines.

What "Truther" is spouting could either be Dominion Christian anti-Muslim propaganda, or the words of a jihadist. A pox on both their houses.