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!"

An Honor Killing a Mere Mile Away

Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels wrote:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

And so, when Jimmy Carter wrote a book entitled "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid", the closet anti-Semites from the Left howled with approval. And when Roger Cohen or the editorial board of The New York Times writes anything concerning Israel, that same canard, "Israeli is apartheid", appears at least a dozen times in the readers' comments posted by the Grey Lady, which lost its moral compass long ago.

So how does someone like myself, from Israel's hoi polloi, disprove this fabrication? Perhaps if Carter and his ilk could accompany me on my journey to the Gan Shmuel Shopping Center, five miles to the east, where I will be buying groceries later this afternoon, they would see things otherwise. At the shopping center they would witness Jewish and Arab shoppers and sales persons mingling freely, no sign whatsoever of segregation or any form of discrimination. But Carter and friends would never join me, enthralled by the big lie and the happiness which it engenders.

Which is not to say that there are no variations of apartheid in Israel. Indeed, there is gender apartheid within certain segments of Israel's Arab community, which exposes its ugly face in the form of "honor killings". This past week, such an honor killing occurred a mere mile away from my home in the Arab village of Jisr a-Zarka:

"The body of a 30-year-old woman from Jisr a-Zarka was found lifeless in her bed by her mother Friday morning. Magen David Adom Sharon crews confirmed the woman's death on arrival.

The body of Tanya Amash was discovered by her mother as she attempted to wake her and noticed she was not breathing and was unconscious. MDA crews initiated a prolonged resuscitation but a doctor ultimately pronounced her death.

According to initial investigations and bruises on the Amash's body, police suspect internal family violence. After investigating the family members, police discovered that the Amash's 22-year-old brother, Anise Amash was last with her.

Police say the brother arrived in the morning and after an argument broke out between him and his sister, a physical altercation ensued in which he allegedly choked the 30-year-old.

Police were searching the area for the suspect after he left the family's home."

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=193246

This was no isolated incident in Israel or the Muslim world. In Israel, honor killings account for the majority of homicides among its Arab citizens. In neighboring Gaza and the West Bank, four women die each month at the hands of male relatives. Throughout the Muslim Middle East, Turkey and Pakistan, thousands of women are murdered each year by their grandfathers, fathers and brothers, and this horrifying practice has recently been exported to the U.S. and Canada (http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2010/04/honor-killings-in-muslim-world.html).

The response of The New York Times, its columnists, and the Left as a whole to this horrifying practice? Silence. After all, they enjoy too much the intoxication which comes from excoriating Israel and its hateful Jews and the resultant exhilaration deriving from this ancient prejudice.

Effectuating the Obama Doctrine: New U.S. Ambassador to Syria

Obama has decided to appoint a new ambassador to Syria for the first time following the 2005 murder by Syria of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2010/02/lebanese-prime-minister-hariri-sides.html). According to Philip J. Crowley, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs:

"The decision reflects our growing interest in working constructively with Syria and the leaders of that country."

Further pursuit of the "Obama Doctrine" of appeasing enemies and enfeebling friends? Or just possibly, an attempt to wean Syria away from Iran? Regardless, it is not going to make the Palestinian Authority happy, given the historic designs of Damascus upon Palestine and Lebanon, which are deemed part of "Greater Syria". "Work constructively" with Assad's savage regime? Good luck to the Obami.

Meanwhile, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has proposed a deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which would involve a trade of Arab towns in northern Israel for Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The proposal was vehemently protested by Israeli Arab parliament member Ahmed Tibi:

"Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al chairman) responded to Ayalon's remarks, saying they reflect a 'complete defect in the understanding of the basic values of democracy and civil rights.'

'We are not chess pieces,' said Tibi. 'We did not arrive in this country on planes and we did not immigrate here. We do not want to expel anyone from the borders of this country, but if someone wants to expel us, I will say this: He who got here last leaves first. That way, there will be fewer fascists in Israel.'"

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1149435.html

How peculiar that Tibi so vociferously opposes this proposal given the claims of Jimmy Carter and the New Left concerning the existence of apartheid in Israel . . .