The Two Israels

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"To travel through the West Bank and Gaza these days feels like traveling through Israeli colonies.

You whiz around the West Bank on new highways that in some cases are reserved for Israeli vehicles, catching glimpses of Palestinian vehicles lined up at checkpoints.

The security system that Israel is steadily establishing is nowhere more stifling than here in Hebron, the largest city in the southern part of the West Bank. In the heart of a city with 160,000 Palestinians, Israel maintains a Jewish settlement with 800 people. To protect them, the Israeli military has established a massive system of guard posts, checkpoints and road closures since 2001.

More than 1,800 Palestinian shops have closed, in some cases the doors welded shut, and several thousand people have been driven from their homes. The once flourishing gold market is now blocked with barbed wire and choked with weeds and garbage.

"For years, Israel has severely oppressed Palestinians living in the center of the city," notes B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, in a recent report. The authorities, it adds, "have expropriated the city center from its Palestinian residents and destroyed it economically."

more

[Tarc]

1. Thais is the Israeli system of apartheid in a nutshell

[azurnoir]

2. Unfortunately at the moment

In short, there are many Israels. When American presidential candidates compete this year to be “pro-Israeli,” let’s hope that they clarify that the one they support is not the oppressor that lets settlers steal land and club women but the one that is a paragon of justice, decency, fairness — and peace.

"Supporting Israel" is seen in the most hawkish of terms in the US and to support anything else is seen as antiIsrael.

[Vegasaurus]

3. Sure there are checkpoints and guards since 2001

Since thePalestinians took to suicide bombing and trying to murder any Jew having a pizza or driving home from school.

Stop the suicide bombings and the road closures and checkpoints go away.

Very simple.

No different than the fact that since rockets have stopped falling on southern Israel since last Thursday, the gates have opened and food, fuel and supplies have come in.

So easy, even a baby could understand.

Action----> consequence.