Sunday, April 2, 2017

Apartheid South Africa, a Model for Israel

There is a need to invent a new word. It is this: religionism. It is the religious version of the racial word: racism. In the same way that racism means bias for one race or bias against another race, let it be known that religionism means bias for one religion or bias against another religion.

The reason why we need this word is that the Jewish hagglers are taking advantage of the absence of the word to argue that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians cannot be compared to the way that apartheid South Africa used to treat its Black population. Why is that? Because no matter what Israel does to the Palestinians, it doesn't do it because of racial bias, say the hagglers; it does it because of religious bias. This being the case, no matter how criminal or how depraved Israel's actions may be, they cannot be classified as racism, therefore they must be considered tolerable.

An example of Jewish haggling regarding this subject came in an article under the title: “Why Israel Is Nothing Like Apartheid South Africa,” written in occupied Jerusalem by the Israeli/South-African Benjamin Pogrund, and published on April 1, 2017 in the American publication, The New York Times.

Pogrund makes no bones about his belief that Israel is a “Jewish state” and that it should so remain. That a mass return of Palestinians to their homes “would destroy Israel as a Jewish state, which is the whole purpose of its existence.” And that the aim of the movement known as B.D.S. is to “eliminate Israel.” Therefore, his logic tells him that it is perfectly acceptable to keep the Palestinians out of Palestine and for him and his wife, who are Jews, to “move here [Israel] in 1997 … the country that has become my second home”.

He goes on: “I remain committed to both Israel and South Africa.” And none of this, in his view, constitutes apartheid because it is religionism and not racism. This is why his subtle counsel to the Palestinians seems to be that they should drop their commitment to Palestine and look for another place where to start a new life.

To be taken seriously, Pogrund and those like him will have to explain why being kept apart because of religious differences is not the same as being kept apart because of racial differences. Until they do so, Israel shall remain classified as an apartheid state. But please note that whatever they do, South Africa – unlike Israel – never had a policy to invite foreign Whites to come and settle in South Africa while banning non-Whites from coming in. In fact, Whites, Blacks and Colored people could enter the country and leave it without discrimination.

On second thought, says our esteemed author, there is racism in Israel, not just religionism. And he tells the story of “Netanyahu making a nakedly anti-Arab appeal, urging his Jewish supporters to vote.” And there was the story of the rabbis who “called on Jews not to rent or sell real estate to Arabs”.

What the writer has omitted is the story of an Israeli government that used to kidnap Yemeni children and give them to East European couples to raise as Europeans. And there is the fact that Israel continues to rely on the likes of Mike Huckabee who supply it with planeloads of white evangelicals who go to Israel and donate blood. They do so because the Israelis flinch at the idea of injecting into their bodies the blood of Black Jews that happen to be their countrymen.

Having described “Israel proper” in those terms, and considering the situation to be tolerable, Pogrund now tackles the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The first thing he says in this regard is the following: “This is an occupation,” which means: regardless of what happens in that place, it is to be expect. He further explains that: “The occupation is an oppression. No rule over an unwilling and resistant people can be pleasant, and enforcement is harsh. But there is not the 'intentionality' that underpinned apartheid in South Africa,” he hastens to explain.

Aha, it's that word again – intentionality. When it comes to Jews, no matter how depraved what they do, he says, judge them not by what you see but by the intent behind what they do. In fact, for half a century the Jews have been telling the world that good people have good intentions and bad people have bad intentions no matter what either does in actual fact. And they explain that the Palestinians are “an unwilling and resistant people,” which means they have bad intentions. Because of this, the Jews react by “continuing to build settlements on Palestinian land: Some 600,000 Jews now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.” And this means the Jews have good intentions. This should settle the argument according to Pogrund. Case closed.

There is one more thing to consider: Given that Pogrund puts the Palestinian population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem at 2.7 million, the 600,000 Jews who invaded them would represent 71 million illegal aliens invading the United States. They settle in the land and live under the protection of a foreign army. When the American people display unwillingness of any kind or when they resist the occupation, the State Department of some funky banana republic labels them terrorists.

Pogrund said: “If the accusation is valid, Israel deserves the censure, boycotts and isolation that the B.D.S. movement demands.” He went on to explain that “this will lead to the elimination of Israel.” And he lamented that “this is what's at stake” if the apartheid comparison can be validated. Well, the comparison has been validated. What now?

The world has an answer to that question. It is this: End the occupation and live like civilized in a region that was a Garden of Eden before the advent of the Jews. The region can get back to that state again.

So far, the Jews have been responding with something like this: The most fundamental tenet of our religion forbids us from coexisting peacefully with our neighbors because it means to refrain from coveting what they have. This will entail that we learn to live with what we have. But this would be un-Jewish as much as it is un-American to live in poverty rather than work to live the good life. Forget it.