‘Singling out of Israel’

March 1-8 has been designated Israel Apartheid Week, and speakers with but one agenda will address students at campuses across the United States and Canada calling for boycotts of Israel and divestment. The use of terms like “apartheid,” “Nazi,” and “baby-killers” is designed to evoke revulsion in the listener who knows the horrors humanity suffered when those terms were applicable. Omar Barghouti, Norman Finkelstein, and Ronnie Kasrils have chosen these terms to make clear their true aim which is not to criticize Israel but to destroy Israel through the delegitimization of the Jewish state.

Legitimate criticism of all nations is acceptable. What is unacceptable is the singling out of Israel as the sole locus of evil toward the innocent in the world. The horrors of Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, Sri Lanka, and the Congo are ignored in the speakers’ zeal to bash and destroy Israel.

Freedom House has designated Israel as the only liberal democracy among its Middle Eastern neighbors where, on Feb. 10, all citizens voted in a free and open election.

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The dictionary defines “apartheid” as a government policy of racial segregation and discrimination.

Israel and apartheid are mutually exclusive.