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The "Apartheid" Libel of Israel

(Wall Street Journal) Editorial - Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran want to eliminate Israel, but who would have thought they'd find allies in Amnesty International? The nonprofit advocate for political prisoners issued a 211-page report on Tuesday labeling Israel an "apartheid" state that deserves the world's opprobrium and sanction. The report's executive summary refers at least 26 times to 1948 or 1947-1949 and is a denunciation of the very existence of Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people, treating Israel's founding as the original sin from which all other offenses flow. This is a libel that distorts history. Israel was founded in the wake of the Holocaust with broad international support. The Jews who settled in historic Palestine had to fight to survive against Arab militias and national armies that wanted to push them into the sea. Amnesty makes no attempt to explain Israel's laws and practices in the context of the many wars Israel has had to fight since 1948. The report ignores that Hamas, which controls Gaza, is sworn to destroy Israel and that Israel has no choice but to impose security measures to protect against terror attacks. Above all, the report all but ignores that Israel is a democracy that accords more rights to Arabs and Palestinians than does any other state in the region. The Palestinians in the West Bank could have their own state with comparable rights if they had accepted the concessions that Israel offered, under U.S. auspices, in the 1990s and again in 2000, but their leaders refused. The Amnesty report is especially ill-timed in an era when Israel and Arab states are negotiating new deals for commerce and travel since the Abraham Accords.
2022-02-03 00:00:00
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