Stephen Shaiken, Author & Blogger
3 min readJan 11, 2025

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You not being a lawyer or a political scientists, it's easy to see why you don't understand apartheid. That is a national system of law and government where citizens of a country are treated differently according to race, with the intent of dominating the subjugated race.

South Africa and Nazi Germany are examples, so is Iran, where Bahais have no rights and Jews are persecuted, and so is Myanmar, which kills its Muslim citizens. Israel does none of these to anyone in its' borders. Apartheid has nothing to do with occupation. Anti-Israel haters want an end to the Jewish State, and they claim that "from the river to the sea" is all theirs, so they consider the occupied territories to be part of Israel, and they thus believe all Palestinians everywhere should have the same rights in Israel as a citizen of Israel. That's not apartheid. Feeding this delusion to Palestinians has caused them to , in the words of the late Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, to "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

That's why none of the definitions you give apply to Israel, and besides, if you want a definition of apartheid, go look at the old apartheid laws of South Africa, the only nation to have implemented them. Israel has no such laws, not a single one. There is no law against any groups in Israel congregating together, marrying, working together, on the basis of race, religion or ethnicity. Happens every minute in Israel. If an Israeli Arab marries a person from outside Israel, they can immigrate and become citizens, regardless of race or ethnicity.

By your definition, Hezbollah has been practicing apartheid in Lebanon and Syria by separating and discriminating against Sunni Muslims. To show the sheer absurdity of your apartheid claim, among the people living in Israel are the leader of BDS and a son of a Hamas founder. Israel does not allow people from Gaza or West Bank to enter Israel without strict conditions; what other country does not do the same? You are conflating treatment of occupied people-which is a different issue, governed by different laws than apartheid, which applies to a nation creating two different says for citizens, one with virtually no rights.

I have to say, I dialogue often with those holding different views, and several are able to hold their own against me. You are not one of them. You are the very picture of a useful idiot for Iran. But then again, we must be compassionate: your side has been wiped out, humiliated, destroyed, shown powerless. Hezbollah, gone. Assad, Iran, Russia-gone. Hamas-hiding like rats in holes in the ground. Houthis-about to be wiped out. Palestinian State:-maybe in fifty years, som sort of independent state. Keep up the good work, Iran's useful idiots! Come on, clowns who don't know what apartheid is are not going to defeat Israel or America. You keep talking about this while the world comes to not only accept Israel's new place as the undisputed regional power, but in fact, are applauding this. Just last week, Poland and Italy joined the nations saying they are ignoring the ICC. Things are moving in one direction, and it is in Israel's favor. That's what happens when one side is run by rational and competent people and the other side is run by Iran's useful idiots,on the battlefield, on the campuses, and on the internet. Tell the people of Gaza how successful the support for Hamas and buying into delusions has turned out. Ask them where is the rest of the world that was going to come in and help them? They're mainly a bunch of off-key bullshit artists.

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Stephen Shaiken, Author & Blogger
Stephen Shaiken, Author & Blogger

Written by Stephen Shaiken, Author & Blogger

Criminal lawyer now a writer. Author of a 6 novel thriller series set in Bangkok & one rock novel set in 1971 NYC. Loves guitar, yoga, travel, nature, politics.

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