History News NetworkA Lesson About Middle East Apartheid ======================================
Which group being compared in the chart below appears to be engaged in the practice of Apartheid?
Read the chart and reach your own conclusions.
The identity of each group appears at the end. ======================================
Official languages
#Group 1: Arabic & Hebrew - Group 2: Arabic
Religious minorities
# Group 1: Growing - Group 2: Shrinking
Both Mosques and Synagogues allowed
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Education/Medical care for all
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Arab & Jewish judges
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Arabs & Jews in government
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Arabs & Jews in diplomatic corps
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Arabs & Jews on sports teams
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Arabs & Jews can serve in army and
# police Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Arab & Jewish civilian killings condemned
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Arabs & Jews allowed to buy homes
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
People are killed for selling homes or property to members of the other group
# Group 1: No - Group 2: Yes
Children taught respect for life
# Group 1: Yes - Group 2: No
Children taught martyrdom & hate
# Group 1: No - Group 2: Yes
======================================
Prepare yourself.
Group 1 - ISRAELIS
Group 2 - ARABS
If the information in the chart is correct,it would appear that while Israel is accused of Apartheid,it is the Arabs who practice it.
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Terrorists firing mortars from schoolyardA cell of three terrorists launching mortar shells towards Israel from a Gaza schoolyard was captured carrying out the attack by Israeli intelligence on Monday.
After the attacks are carried out the cell quickly flees the launch site, a courtyard outside an elementary school in the town of Beit Hanun in northern Gaza. IDF forces, who identified the cell as it was carrying out the attacks, struck the terrorists after they had cleared the public buildings.
The tall structure in the video is the school and the red circle tracks the terrorists as they prepare to fire the mortars. Military officials said Israeli forces withheld fire, fearing civilians would be harmed.
A senior IDF officer told Ynet on Wednesday that Palestinian terror organizations continue to abuse the civilian population in Gaza by launching attacks against Israel from their midst.
"They don't think twice about firing Qassam rockets near crowded public areas, even though they're fully aware that they're endangering innocent civilians," said the officer.
"We're constantly faced with very difficult and complex dilemmas, how best to defend Israel's citizens and strike at these terror cells while at the same time avoid civilian casualties on the Palestinian side. The terror organizations are well aware of our sensitivity to these issues and they take full advantage of the situation, this is as cynical as their use of the civilian population gets," he said.
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That's it, go get some advice from the failures of the past.Rice taps Clinton, Carter for Middle East advice | Top News | Reuters.comAnxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.
Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.
Their talks were "good and cordial," he said. They focused on the Middle East and not Carter's recent criticism of President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere.
A Soviet specialist, Rice also telephoned another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who tried, and ultimately failed, in his eight years in office to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.
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Erekat calls for int'l intervention against Gaza electricity cuts | Jerusalem PostDefense Minister Ehud Barak's approval earlier Thursday of an IDF plan to impose sanctions on the Gaza Strip in wake of the escalation in Kassam rocket attacks was the first step, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post, towards a "complete disengagement" including the gradual reduction in Palestinian dependency on Israel for gas and electricity.
During his weekly security meeting on Thursday Barak approved the plan that had been formulated by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav in line with the recent cabinet decision that defined Gaza as a "hostile entity."
According to the plan, one of the power lines connecting Israel and Gaza will be shut down at first for 15 minutes after a rocket attack, gradually increasing the cutoff length if the barrages continue, up to a two-hour limit. In addition, Israel will begin reducing the amount of gasoline it allows into the Gaza Strip.
Defense officials stressed that the fairly-limited sanctions were not capable of creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and were being imposed with the eventual goal - of the defense establishment - to completely cut off Palestinian dependency on Israel. The cuts to electricity will not affect Gaza-based hospitals, defense officials said.
Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel had no choice but to take punitive measures. "Should we tell them to continue firing rockets at the same power station that provides them with electricity and continue to bomb the water system that provides them with water?" he asked.
Defense officials stressed that the cuts to electricity and gas were not being taken to "punish" the Palestinians but to instead gradually begin the final disengagement from the Gaza Strip, which was started in 2005 when Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Palestinian territory.
According to the proposal, which officials stressed was in its early stages, Israel would completely disconnect from Gaza by closing off the Erez, Karni, Sufa and Kerem Shalom crossings and instead direct humanitarian organizations to work with Egypt.
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said that while in the long run Israel hoped to reach a situation where Israel could completely cut itself off from Gaza, "we are not at that stage yet."
The material emphasizes that the actions are a response to the unrelenting Kassam attacks that continued even after Israel fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. The material stresses that the actions are within the realms of international law, and that Israel's first responsibility is to protect its citizens.
Israel's ambassadors and spokesmen are expected to say that Hamas is engaged in war crimes by targeting innocent civilians, and that Israel's steps are not collective punishment but rather the justified response to attacks on Israeli citizens.
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'Olmert will place Hamas on J'lem walls' | Jerusalem Post"The unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon created an Iranian outpost - from which Israel is being attacked - in the North, and the unilateral pullout from Gaza created a second Iranian base in Gaza, 'Hamastan,'" Netanyahu said. "And now the government is planning a third withdrawal - from Judea and Samaria - that will lead to a third Iranian outpost."
"Giving Hamas half of Jerusalem will make the rest of Jerusalem unlivable," Netanyahu said. "Giving up Judea and Samaria will transfer the areas controlling the coastal plain into the hands of Hamas, leading to Kassams…on Tel Aviv."
"This is no way to make peace," the former prime minister lamented.
Netanyahu claimed that the government was putting all of its cards on the table, a move which, he said, would only cause heightened pressure from Palestinian terrorists whose intention would be to bring about an early withdrawal.
"Olmert will place Hamas men on the walls of Jerusalem," he warned. "Jerusalem will fast become a pilgrimage site for terrorists from all over the world."
"The government's policy is afflicted with total blindness…a vision must be rooted in the ground- not suspended in the clouds."
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CANOE -- CNEWS - World: Israeli doctors treat Iraqi childrenIsraeli doctors screened 40 Iraqi children suffering from heart disease Tuesday - a rare case of direct co-operation between the Jewish state and the Arab country.
The Iraqi children and their parents gathered at an outpatient clinic in the Red Crescent Hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Most of the families were Sunni Muslims of Kurdish origin who live in northern Iraq. Also among them were three Sunni families who live in Baghdad.
One child screened Tuesday was four-year-old Mustafa, who Houri said was diagnosed with crossed arteries and would need two surgeries in Israel soon to unfold them before they harden.
Mustafa's mother, a Kurdish woman who identified herself only as Suzanne because she feared reprisals from militants in Iraq, said travelling to Israel made her "anxious. Not because I'm going to a country considered an enemy of Iraq, but because I'm afraid of retribution by Iraqi militants, by the terrorists back home."
"I'm afraid and it's not easy for me at all, but I'm willing to take the risk to save my beloved son's life," she said as she caressed Mustafa.
"Israel is a good country. It's a country that has mercy on other people," she added.
Abu Ahmed, 36, a taxi driver from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said his 12-year-old daughter, Basita, underwent a successful surgery in Israel last year.
"The Israeli doctors, bless their hearts, stitched a notch in her heart," he said. "They told me today that she recovered completely, and I'm grateful to them and their country for helping us out."
"They (Israelis) are not our enemies," he said. "They helped me a lot and didn't make me feel like they were enemies. Many Muslims have a wrong idea about Israelis."
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Temple Mount Closed to Jews - News Briefs - Arutz ShevaThe Temple Mount was closed to Jewish worshippers Tuesday.
Jerusalem police refused to offer a reason for the sudden closure.
This is the first unexplained closure since the Temple Mount was reopened to Jews during special visitors’ hours five years ago.
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Iran accuses Israel of Palestinian genocide | International | ReutersIran's president accused Israel on Friday of using the Holocaust as a pretext for "genocide" against Palestinians.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who outraged the West in 2005 by calling Israel a "tumor" to be wiped off the map, said the truth should be told about World War Two and the Holocaust.
Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide.
"Iran condemns fabricating such a pretext (the Holocaust) for the Zionist regime to commit genocide against the Palestinian nation and occupy Palestine," Ahmadinejad said in a live broadcast to mark the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the Islamic Republic.
Ahmadinejad repeated calls for Canada to accept Jews.
"Europeans cannot tolerate the Zionist regime's presence in their own region but want to impose it on the Middle East. Give them (the Jews) this vast land of Canada and Alaska to build themselves a home and resettle there," he said.
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Division of Jerusalem Raised at TalksSenior Israeli officials expressed support Monday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Mideast conflict. The offer appeared to fall short of Palestinian calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from key areas of the holy city.
Ahead of the talks, a confidant of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he has proposed in recent talks with Palestinian officials to turn over areas of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, as capital of a future independent state.
Deputy Vice Premier Haim Ramon's proposal marked a potentially significant Israeli concession. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and claims all of the city as its undivided capital.
But the Israeli transfer would not include the Old City and surrounding neighborhoods, Ramon said. These are the key disputed areas, since the Old City contains the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, and the third holiest site in Islam, the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
Ramon was not clear about what areas would be transferred. But his opposition to relinquishing control of the Old City and neighboring areas with holy sites—known as the "holy basin"—falls short of Palestinian claims to all areas captured in 1967.
"I agree that all the Palestinian neighborhoods except the Arab neighborhoods in the holy basin ... would be transferred," Ramon told Army Radio. Instead, he suggested a "special administration" to oversee the holy basin. He did not elaborate, but past talks have raised the idea of turning oversight to an international body.
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'Let Jews move to Europe or Alaska' | Jerusalem Post"The creation, continued existence and unlimited (Western) support for this regime is an insult to human dignity," Ahmadinejad said. "The occupation of Palestine is not limited to one land. The Zionist issue is now a global issue."
The Iranian president once again said Palestinians should not pay any price because Europeans committed crimes against Jews in World War II. He said they could give a part of their own land in Europe or Alaska so that the Jews can establish their country.
"I ask European governments supporting Zionists and the American people that will you allow occupation of part of your land under a pretext and then talk about a two-state solution?," Ahmadinejad said after the rallies.
Ahmadinejad said a "free referendum" was the solution to the Palestinian issue, saying Jews, Muslims and Christians as well as five million Palestinian refugees should take part in a vote to determine their own fate.
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Leftists Photographed Staging "Settler Harassment of Arabs" - Inside Israel - Israel News - Arutz ShevaResidents of the Shomron town of Elon Moreh have accused extreme-left activists of deliberately damaging Arab property in order to create conflict. They also say Yediot Acharonot and its associated website Ynet have refused to correct their libel
The village in question, Dir el-Hattab, was hooked up to the Israeli water utility thanks to Katzover's own initiative as mayor of Elon Moreh. Recently, Jewish youth who refurbished a park area within Elon Moreh's municipal boundaries set up a small pool, connected to the water line leading to the village. The pool did not disrupt the flow of water to the village until somebody began cutting the pipe flowing toward the village.
A resident of the town recently photographed leftists as they damaged a water pipe leading to a nearby Arab village. Elon Moreh residents argue that the leftists were hoping to lead the Arabs to think that their Jewish neighbors were destroying their water supply.
After destroying the pipe, residents said, the leftists reported the incident to the Yediot Acharonot newspaper, which published an article accusing the Jews of Elon Moreh of harassing local Arabs and stealing their water. "They were more than happy to publish a half-page story on how we abuse our neighbors, without an ounce of research," Katzover said. He added that the leftists were led by Kibbutz Movement Chairman Yoel Marshak, infamous for his involvement in claims that Arab olive trees were destroyed by Jews, when in fact they had been pruned by their owners and left-wing activists.
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Israel officially denies responsibility for death of al-Dura in 2000 - Israel News, YnetnewsAn official document from Jerusalem denied – for the first time – that Israel was responsible for the death of al-Dura at the start of the second intifada.
"The creation of the myth of Muhammad al-Dura has caused great damage to the State of Israel. This is an explicit blood libel against the state. And just as blood libels in the old days have led to pogroms, this one has also caused damage and dozens of dead," said Government Press Office director Daniel Seaman.
The arguments were based on investigations that showed that the angles of the IDF troops' fire could not have hit the child or his father, that part of the filmed material, mainly the moment of the boy's alleged death, is missing, and the fact that the cameraman can be heard saying the boy is dead while the boy is still seen moving.
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What, this comes as a surprise?Poll: Most Israelis support using nukes | Jerusalem PostApproximately 72 percent of Israelis support the use of nuclear weapons in certain circumstances, according to a Canadian survey released recently.
The survey - conducted jointly at the end of July by the Simons Foundation and Angus Reid Strategies - was answered by adults in six countries and showed that 37% of Israelis believed the use of nuclear weapons to prevent a war would be justified, while 35% believed the weapons could be justifiably used during a war.
Israel also had the highest percentage in favor of the country using its "power and influence in a way that serves its own interests" - approximately 55% - as opposed to "coordinat[ing] with other countries to do what's best for the world as a whole."
About three-quarters of Israelis also said they would feel safer if they knew for certain that Israel had nuclear weapons. Israel has thus far maintained its policy of nuclear ambiguity.
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Wow.
UN: We have criticized Israel unfairly | Jerusalem PostThe United Nations Human Rights Council has not managed to deal fairly with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the council's president Doru-Romulus Costea told a Spanish newspaper on Saturday, according to Israel Radio.
Doru admitted that he was dissatisfied with the fact the council had overly focused on the degree of human rights violations by Israel.
"The body which I head must examine the actions of both sides equally, and we have not done that," said Costea. "Clearly, from now on things need to change."
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