Israel, Apartheid, E. Coli and Jimmy Carter

With all the turmoil currently enveloping the Middle East, perhaps you happened to notice the one country in the region where Arabs are not rioting and seeking to overthrow the government. Which country? Surprise, we're talking about Israel.

How can this be? Why haven't Israel's Arabs taken to the streets, hurling rocks and demanding independence? Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter tells anyone ready to listen that Israel is apartheid, yet if this is true, why aren't we witnessing unrest or some sort of demonstration?

Is Carter wrong concerning his allegations of apartheid? Wary of making an utter fool of himself, Carter avoided debating the topic with Alan Dershowitz, who would have unraveled Carter's falsehoods and hardwired racism with facts and figures. I make a point of reading Mr. Dershowitz's columns, and I could never rival his scholarship and dialectic skills, but perhaps I can still contribute to this discussion on a different, more intimate level.

Some of you noticed that my blog recently went idle for more than a week. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with work and have no time to write a new entry. Sometimes I am busy traveling and cannot attend to the blog. Last week, however, I was sick and ended up in the hospital for six days.

Although rarely ill, I had developed a high fever and decided to visit my health fund doctor for the first time in several years. Whereas I suspected flu, my doctor, who is a remarkable medical practitioner, instantly diagnosed a bacterial infection, sent me for blood and urine tests, and started me on antibiotics. The next morning he called me on my cell phone: the blood tests had come back, my leucocytes had reached an astronomical level, and I needed to go to the hospital immediately.

I had never stayed in a hospital before, and I was hoping that the emergency room would decide that my health fund doctor was being overly cautious; however, they also quickly saw the danger – in addition to the leucocytes, various components of my blood were now out of balance owing to dehydration – and I was sent to a room in the urology wing, where I was immediately administered intravenous antibiotics and fluids.

However, this blog entry is not about Israeli medicine or my brush with death owing to an e. coli infection, which, had it been left untreated, would have resulted in sepsis within hours. Rather, this blog entry is about the room, consisting of four beds, which I shared over the course of my hospital stay with Israeli Arabs, a young Ethiopian Jew, a Russian immigrant, and a "sabra" with a knitted kippa (a native born religious Jew).

There were no beds reserved for one religion or another, there was no discrimination based upon skin color, the bathroom facilities were not segregated, and the medical care, administered by both Arabs and Jews, was the same for all patients.

I shared food and conversation with everyone in the room, and the other patients' families, when passing my bed, always smiled and wished me a swift recovery. We talked about business and aspirations: Among the Israeli Arabs, one was anxious to expand his "door" business; another was busy around the clock with his family construction company; a third sought to create a community center in his village celebrating its heritage. Several days after the man working with doors was released, he returned to the urology wing to visit and see if I was on the mend.

Although Israel is far from perfect and suffers from societal tension and discrimination – how could it be otherwise given its brief tumultuous history and numerous wars - it is not apartheid. Rioting among Israeli Arabs? Sorry, but they are too busy living their lives, pursuing their education and careers, and raising their families. Moreover, there is an understanding and respect among most Israeli Arabs and Jews that interlopers such as Carter and his ilk could never understand.

Advice to Carter? Why should he take my advice? Following this brush with mortality, which ultimately catches up with all of us, I was asked to relay the following message to the former American president:

"Jimmy, a warm reception is being readied for you in a new, rapidly expanding enclave of hell that is reserved for narcissists. See you soon!"