Snooker, you seemed a bit confused about the similarities between Israel and South Africa. Here is my response to your comments from Friday. Your comments in bold.
Israelis (Jews) constitute 80% of the population of Israel, the other 20% are Israeli Arabs who have FULL voting rights and representation in the Knesset (parliament) and are entitled to FULL and ALL government welfare, medical educational pensions etc. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have been living under Israeli occupation for 30 years and don't have the right to walk on the street without being murdered by the IDF. The Arabs living in Israel are subject to racist laws preventing them buying property and the little electoral representation they have is negated by a voting agreenment between Labor and Likud to offset the votes of Arab parlimentarians.
Unless I am mistaken, South Africa was arse about, i.e the whites were 10-20% of the population, maybe even less, and the majorit,y blacks, could not vote, couldn't travel on the same buses etc etc. No parliamentary representation either. Less than 20% of the population of Gaza and the West Bank is Jewish. The discrimination faced by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is worse than that endured by Blacks in South Africa. Blacks were only murdered when they protested. Palestinians are killed for shopping.
It's obvious that you have never been to Israel, but I have, many times, and have traveled with Israeli Arabs on the same buses and in fact during the waves of Arab homicide bombings, Israeli Arabs also were blown up, as they were on the same buses. So no one can criticize a country unless they've been there? Perhaps you should refrain from condemning Palestinians until you've lived in the Gaza strip and experienced the joys of starving under curfew.
So, how does that relate to South Africa? Both countries claimed to be democracies yet denied the vote to millions on racial grounds. Both countries were/are regarded as pariahs by most of the world. And rightly so.
Again, where is the comparison to South Africa? Did the whites arm the blacks to look after their own? Yes, the South Africans set up 10 mini states called Bantustans eg Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979), and Ciskei (1980). These were friendly puppet states contrived in an attempt to give the government international credibility.
Israel moved out and the experiment began. The Palestinian police force and the leadership were and are corrupt which is evidenced by the huge some of monies that are unaccounted for and never will be. Pretty hard to keep an accounting system when the Israel's bomb your HQ every three weeks and steals the hard drives on your computers. Also, didn't you read the corruption scandals recently in Israel with the religious right party leader. By your logic, this invalidates the state of Israel.
Israel gave the taxes it collects on behalf of the Palis to the PA although this has been suspended and one doesn't have to be an Einstein to work out why. How kind of Israel to invade a country, tax it, then return a small portion to the population. Such benevolence.
Yes, you are right, 3 million of them are living in terrible conditions. Why you may ask? After all the Intifada began 2 years ago, Oslo was in 1993, what happened during those 7 years that they were in self control? Israel took advantage of the peace to double the number of settlers in the occupied territories during this 7 year period. It's a wonder that the Palestinians tolerated this breach of faith for so long.
Re your points about Jordan and Egypt being democracies, it would be pointless for me to go on with it. That comment has shown just how little you know about either country. Please read more carefully. I said that those countries are closer to the ideals of democracy than Israel. These countries do not have 3 million + people denied the right to vote on racist grounds and therefore, by the standards of universal sufferage, are more democratic than racist Israel.
The similarities between Israel and the old South Africa are so striking that a group of prominent Jews in South Africa published a full page advertisment in a leading South African newspaper calling on Israel to change its racist policies.
