Friday, June 11, 2021

It is apartheid until proven otherwise

 Have you ever heard the expression, “It isn’t what it looks like?” This is the one that nullifies the legal doctrine which says, “Innocent until proven guilty”.

 

That’s because when you catch the cannibal eat your friend’s liver, downing it with Chianti, and he says it isn’t what it looks like, he’s admitting he is doing something wicked, but has an explanation that should partially if not fully exonerate him. Thus, it’s not up to you to work on proving his guilt; it’s up to him to work on establishing his innocence.

 

This is what’s expected of Jonathan S. Tobin, and all those like him who deny, not the Jewish Holocaust, but the reality that Israel is an apartheid state, causing the Palestinian Holocaust. Nobody is asking these people to prove the negative because everybody is pointing at the duck and saying: “It looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, therefore it is more than probable it’s a duck.” Tobin and company will have to prove that it is something else if they want the world to think of Israel as innocent.

 

In fact, Jonathan Tobin seems to have gotten the message, which is why he wrote an article under the title: “The Debunking of the ‘Apartheid State’ Lie,” and had it published on June 9, 2021 in the online Jewish publication, Algemeiner. That’s where he tried to show that the duck isn’t really a duck, but maybe a goose or a pigeon or a land-dwelling fish or some kind of liver-eating monster. No, it’s none of this. It is apartheid Israel in flesh and blood; one that’s modeled after apartheid South Africa, so says the now reformed South Africa itself which sees its yesterday reflected in today’s Israel.

 

What should give you an early indication that Tobin will have a hard time proving that Israel is not an apartheid state, is that in so trying, he got on a track which leads to a warehouse for the mass cultural genocide of Palestinians, their on-and-off physical genocide and their keeping apart. Tobin did it by making the illogical argument that because Israel is a democracy, therefore it cannot be an apartheid state. First of all, there is no rule which says if it is one, it is not the other, given that it can be both. Second of all, Israel cannot be classified as a democracy precisely because it is an apartheid state engaged in the systemic mass cultural genocide of Palestinians, and their on-and-off physical genocide.

 

Here is the reality of the situation as it is on the ground today. The main business of Israel being the pretense of “survival,” its leaders fashion both their politics and policies around that concept. Thus, when they engage in campaigns, they speak of maintaining a Jewish majority with all that this entails. And when they govern, they scheme the expropriation of Palestinian properties and other holdings, which they give to Jewish imports from around the world, losers that come to replace the nativist Palestinians.

 

Those losers are the ones who go through the motion of playing the democratic game so as to impress the bozos in the Washington Beltway who write the cheques that the losers live on while decimating the Palestinian culture if not annihilating the people themselves. If this is an accepted form of Jewish democracy, people like Jonathan Tobin should so label it to prevent it from being confused with the regular democracy to which several countries adhere, including America. These people see their democracy pulled down to the level of the Jewish sewer, see people around the globe lose respect for them — and they don’t like it.

 

Jonathan Tobin seems to understand all of that and agrees with it, though he is defensive about it. In effect, referring to the latest election in Israel, and referring to the so-called formation of a new government there, here is how Tobin explained the situation:

 

“When Israel’s new government takes office the ‘apartheid state’ lie will be seen to be a canard. By including the United Arab List in its ranks, the idea that the Jewish state treats its non-Jewish minorities by a different legal standard will be exposed as a sad joke. The presence of an Arab political party (known as Ra’am) in the new coalition is highly controversial. Critics assert that Ra’am’s presence is a danger to the country’s security”.

 

By remarking that when something will happen that isn’t there yet, Israel will finally be seen to treat its non-Jewish minorities by the same legal standard as Jews, Jonathan Tobin is admitting that this was never the case previously.

 

But do you know what this does, my friend? I’ll tell you what it does. Jonathan Tobin has just admitted that until this happens and is shown to work, Israel shall remain officially designated — by non-other than Jonathan Tobin himself — to be an apartheid state. And we say amen to that. Join the club.

 

Being the Jew that he is, however, Jonathan Tobin could not end the article without shooting himself in the foot. Here is what he did:

 

“While we can’t yet know whether the entrance of Ra’am into an Israeli government is truly a harbinger of coexistence and peace, it will be conclusive proof that those who demonize Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ are spreading lies that can and should be debunked”.

 

Until it happens, Jonathan, until it happens. It hasn’t happened yet—conclusively or otherwise—and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Do you care to join us and cross yours?