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Last update - 09:16 25/04/2008
Yes, it is apartheid
By Yossi Sarid
Tags: Israel, apartheid

The anchorwoman was clearly shocked: I don't have time now to respond to what you have said, she told the former U.S. president, allowing Jimmy Carter to make a narrow escape from her clutches. Then she added that she did not want to imagine what would happen to him if he bumped into her colleague from the security affairs desk in Channel 2's dark alley. And the pundit sitting there, sunk in deep thought as always, nodded his heavy head, confirming: He's lucky, the bastard, that we didn't gang up on him and cut him to shreds.

That's how it is here: The rulers set the tone, and the media begins to gripe: Not only did Carter's mission not help, it did damage. He alone was the reason Gilad Shalit was not ransomed out of captivity during the holiday. That's what happens when an enemy of the human race, the twin of the Twin Towers' bin Laden, sticks his nose where it does not belong.

Let's let old Carter be, so he may let sleeping warriors lie; he will not be back. The contents of his words, however, should not be ignored. "Apartheid," he said, "apartheid" - a dark, scary word coined by Afrikaners and meaning segregation, racial segregation.
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What does he want from us, that evil man: What do we have to do with apartheid? Does a separation fence constitute separation? Do separate roads for Jewish settlers and Palestinians really separate? Are Palestinian enclaves between Jewish settlements Bantustans?

There is no hint of similarity between South Africa and Israel, and only a sick mind could draw such shadowy connections between them. Roadblocks and inspections at every turn; licenses and permits for every little matter; the arbitrary seizure of land; special privileges in water use; cheap, hard labor; forming and uniting families by bureaucratic whim - none of these are apartheid, in any way. They are an incontrovertible security necessity, period.

The white Afrikaners, too, had reasons for their segregation policy; they, too, felt threatened - a great evil was at their door, and they were frightened, out to defend themselves. Unfortunately, however, all good reasons for apartheid are bad reasons; apartheid always has a reason, and it never has a justification. And what acts like apartheid, is run like apartheid and harasses like apartheid, is not a duck - it is apartheid. Nor does it even solve the problem of fear: Today, everyone knows that all apartheid will inevitably reach its sorry end.

One essential difference remains between South Africa and Israel: There a small minority dominated a large majority, and here we have almost a tie. But the tiebreaker is already darkening on the horizon. Then the Zionist project will come to an end if we don't choose to leave the slave house before being visited by a fatal demographic plague.

It is entirely clear why the word apartheid terrifies us so. What should frighten us, however, is not the description of reality, but reality itself. Even Ehud Olmert has understood at last that continuing the present situation is the end of the Jewish democratic state, as he recently said.

The Palestinians are unfortunate because they have not produced a Nelson Mandela; the Israelis are unfortunate because they have not produced an F.W. de Klerk.
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  1.   Correct me if i`m wrong 09:47  |  Mikey 25/04/08
  2.   Big difference: S.African whites were not professional murderers 10:04  |  Chanalau, Tova 25/04/08
  3.   Yossi, you have thrown out of politics, give it a rest 10:06  |  Ron 25/04/08
  4.   reply to nr 1 10:07  |  rebecka 25/04/08
  5.   Israel is not an apartheid state 10:12  |  Lily 25/04/08
  6.   number 1 10:15  |  sol kashberg 25/04/08
  7.   No, it is not apartheid. 10:35  |  Gideon 25/04/08
  8.   #1 That`s how Bantustans work, Mikey. 10:38  |  Johnboy 25/04/08
  9.   It`s not enough 10:57  |  Mr Ipp 25/04/08
  10.   #1: well, if you ask that nicely... 10:58  |  Klwe 25/04/08
  11.   It really doesn`t matter if an exact ratio exists 11:00  |  Natallie Durson 25/04/08
  12.   In the 60`s and 70`s, Israel was S. Africa`s best friend 11:06  |  Danny 25/04/08
  13.   #1 rebecka: The only reason the IDF is there, is TERRORISM. 11:11  |  me 25/04/08
  14.   Israel as racist as south africa was 11:16  |  dana 25/04/08
  15.   yossi things are not so simple 11:17  |  harzion 25/04/08
  16.   yossi sarid and south africa 11:22  |  harzion 25/04/08
  17.   yossi sarid and south africa 11:27  |  harzion 25/04/08
  18.   We all know that israel has recently tried to solve this problem 11:44  |  Chris 25/04/08
  19.   No, they showed what they think of Carter, Dana 11:48  |  sh 25/04/08
  20.   Israel is an Apartheid State 12:10  |  El-Birawi 25/04/08
  21.   #6 Yes, it is apartheid, Gideon 12:14  |  Johnboy 25/04/08
  22.   johnboy the west bank is jewish ancestral land 13:17  |  zevulun 25/04/08
  23.   dana how do israeli actions compare with 13:19  |  harzion 25/04/08
  24.   dana compare our actions supervised by the supreme court 13:22  |  harzion 25/04/08
  25.   dana we do not behead people as your brethren in saudi do 13:25  |  harzion 25/04/08
  26.   dana "israel is second rate pariah imperial state" 13:29  |  harzion 25/04/08
  27.   I have seen black white and Asian Jewish children 14:01  |  Burned Liberal 25/04/08
  28.   Sorry for you, Sarid 14:19  |  BenLolo 25/04/08
  29.   CHRIS IS RIGHT; TOO! 14:20  |  MISTER X 25/04/08
  30.   #1 Mikey you are wrong 14:26  |  Tarik 25/04/08
  31.   Sarid too is a racist 14:31  |  Abu Firas Al Qudsi 25/04/08
  32.   And the point of the peace process is to make apartheid permanent 14:36  |  Tarik 25/04/08
  33.   New Apartheid 14:38  |  Afrikaner 25/04/08
  34.   Now take the next step 14:55  |  Hank N Tennessee 25/04/08
  35.   #20 Johnboy 14:59  |  Gideon 25/04/08
  36.   #2, Got it backwards, Tova. 15:06  |  Gideon 25/04/08
  37.   The Israelis have produced a Quisling 15:31  |  Herbert Kaine 25/04/08
  38.   Let`s call it pino 15:42  |  Jean-Luc Ngarambe 25/04/08
  39.   Harzion justifying the occupation with `the merits of apartheid` 15:46  |  Don`t Ignore Stuff 25/04/08
  40.   #18 Simplistic nonsense, Chris 15:51  |  Johnboy 25/04/08
  41.   Natallie - you are right 16:02  |  Wally 25/04/08
  42.   wrong metaphor 16:05  |  Michael 25/04/08
  43.   Maybe Nonie Darwish can Straighten your self hating Opinion 16:17  |  Gil 25/04/08
  44.   Mikey, why is it so complicated to you? 16:40  |  Ibrahim 25/04/08
  45.   The apartheid bogeyman 16:44  |  peter 25/04/08
  46.   Yossi, well, well, Yossi 16:45  |  Gil 25/04/08
  47.   to Lily #5 - 2nd try 16:45  |  zeev 25/04/08
  48.   yossi sarid, HOW DARE YOU TELL THE TRUTH! 16:47  |  eric 25/04/08
  49.   re 14 dana 16:51  |  Mikey 25/04/08
  50.   Sarid is a racist himself 17:02  |  Abu Firas Al Qudsi 25/04/08
  51.   full rights only on paper? 17:05  |  Mikey 25/04/08
  52.   Yossi Now that you are familiar with Labhras`s views, why not 17:07  |  Gil 25/04/08
  53.   The 2000 Camp David offer was so generous, they hid the map.. 17:10  |  Don`t Ignore Stuff 25/04/08
  54.   THIS ARTICLE IS A RUBBISH; READ GIDEON`S TB; HE`S RIGHT! 17:17  |  MISTER X 25/04/08
  55.   CHRIS IS RIGHT TOO! 17:17  |  MISTER X 25/04/08
  56.   #16/17 harzion mourns for apartheid 17:18  |  Nathan der Weise 25/04/08
  57.   #16 &17 I agree harzion 17:20  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 25/04/08
  58.   Hurt the survival of your own 17:20  |  LA 25/04/08
  59.   Peter if you actually visited the West Bank you`d see the problem 17:26  |  Don`t Ignore Stuff 25/04/08
  60.   chanalau tova # 2 but the S.African whites were murdered and run 17:27  |  terrornator 25/04/08
  61.   Why are Kahane and Zeevi dead and Sarid yimach shemo alive? 17:31  |  tzvi nokam 25/04/08
  62.   The territories are disputed in the bubble of Israeli power Peter 17:35  |  Don`t Ignore Stuff 25/04/08
  63.   Stop beating around the bush! 17:41  |  Avi Yerushalmi 25/04/08
  64.   #24 Yeah, I read it Gideon. 17:42  |  Johnboy 25/04/08
  65.   #34 where peter`s argument falls down... 17:53  |  Johnboy 25/04/08
  66.   dont ignore stuff if you want us to read mandela 18:01  |  harzion 25/04/08
  67.   Chanalunatic: The Difference Between Brains and Shit 18:06  |  Tex 25/04/08
  68.   Having failed as politician, Yossi will now become Gideon Levy N2 18:07  |  Freethinker 25/04/08
  69.   Re: Mikey (No.38) 18:07  |  IQ 134 25/04/08
  70.   peter`s tiresome babbles about "enemy populations" 18:09  |  Ibrahim 25/04/08
  71.   #28 and how proud they must be of the s.africa they helped create 18:14  |  v hardman 25/04/08
  72.