Apartheid Israel

So strange. Israel is contemptuously named an Apartheid state. Within Israel live a multitude of Jews from all over the world, bringing to the country their varied cultures under the umbrella of Judaism; Jews from Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, France, United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, countries too countless to name, but all adding to the majority population of Jews in a Jewish state.

On the other hand, there are over a million Arabs living in Israel as citizens of the state. There are Kurds and Druze, Christians from Greece and Macedonia and elsewhere in the world, making their homes in Israel and enjoying the full privileges of citizenship and all that it entails. Not all are loyal to Israel, though they value their status there as citizens. There are Arab-Israeli members of the Knesset who actively work against the interests of the state that gives them the authority to represent their people.

If this is not a pluralistic, accepting, democratic-liberal society, then what other society is there that practices the level of inclusiveness and fairness in justice that Israel does? It has been forced to adopt a separation barrier between its border and that of the neighbouring Palestinians, a situation brought to bear by the ongoing violently brutal onslaughts of suicide bombers taking the lives of ordinary Israeli citizens in vengeance slaughter for its existence.

The statelet-governing Hamas in Gaza has dedicated itself to the elimination of the State of Israel, and the freeing of the land from its presence, to reconsecrate it as land dedicated to Islamic rule. Under Hamas, various jihadi militias have been enabled to lob thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel. This, after Israel's then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to leave Gaza, withdrawing all settlers and IDF military.

Leaving one of the Palestinian Territories to the able administration of the Palestinians themselves turned out to be a rather interesting lesson in the mindset of intransigence. No Jews exist in Gaza, just as Jews were expelled from other countries of the Middle East where they had become Arabized over thousands of years living as Jews in Arab countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Tunisia, among others.

This is Apartheid, that the Palestinian Authority has stated categorically that it will admit no Jews to live within the borders of a new state.

"Nothing shows the Palestinian Authority's unwillingness to reach an accord with Israel than their extreme and reckless reaction to an unofficial report. An accord will only be reached when the Palestinians recognize the Jewish state and when the essential interests to the security of Israeli citizens are guaranteed."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Arab countries celebrate their Judenrein status. Israel goes about its business as a country that has absorbed world Jewry, allowing them the comfort of returning to their heritage, in the knowledge that if they are wanted nowhere else, their home is in Israel. At the same time, Israel extends humanitarian aid to its neighbours, as well as accepting that those who are most strenuous in their vehemence against Israel, accept favours from Israel nonetheless.

Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas whose viperous hatred for Israel dedicates him to its destruction, has three sisters, Kholidia, Laila and Sabah who are citizens of Israel, living in the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva in Southern Israel. There's that, and there's the fact that in 2012 Israeli authorities granted permission to Haniyeh's sister Suhila Abd el-Salam Ahmed Haniyeh to travel with her critically ill husband for emergency heart treatment in Israel.

After that successful treatment at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel, they returned to their home in Gaza. No doubt relieved to exit the Apartheid regime which saved the husband's life, eager to return to their safe and secure home in Gaza where all is lightness and loving kindness.