Israel "apartheid"? Not even close!

My beloved, David, was in the hospital for the past week, first here in Eilat and then in Be'er Sheva. As a result, I haven't had much time for reading. The drive to Be'er Sheva takes nearly 3 hours each way, and I was going there every day. He's out now, for which we're very thankful.

This is not the first time he has been hospitalized. In fact, he has now been in at least 5 different hospitals here in Israel. This has given me a close-up view of the medical system here, and so this week's political commentary will be mine and will be very personal.

EVERY hospital in Israel is COMPLETELY integrated -- patients, doctors, nurses, and all the other staff come from EVERY ethnic and religious group in the country. Arabs, Druze, Christians, Orthodox Jews, secular Jews are put in the same room together without any regard for their label. There are MANY Arab doctors and nurses who work right alongside each other and the Jewish staff. For example, the doctor on duty in the unit when David was admitted in Be'er Sheva was a young Arab, and all 3 of his roommates for the first few days also were Arabs (or perhaps Bedouins -- I only really know that they were speaking Arabic). Some of the other doctors were Jewish. The nurses were also from various groups. At the time David was released, one roommate was Arab (with a very devoted wife who came and spent a lot of time there every day), one was an Israeli soldier, and I think the fourth one was Jewish.

Contrast this with the situation under apartheid in South Africa. They had separate hospitals (not just separate rooms!) and even separate ambulances for Blacks and Whites. THAT is REAL apartheid. The situation in Israel does not even REMOTELY resemble that, and the use of the term "Israeli Apartheid" is nothing short of an evil libel against the Jewish people. It simply is NOT true, and it is being used maliciously to slander an entire nation.

There ARE some nations nearby with practices that do resemble apartheid at least somewhat. For example, "Palestinians" who are descendants of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 face serious discrimination in most countries, including Syria and, especially, Lebanon. Their possible occupations are legally limited, and they cannot own property in some cases. They certainly are NOT allowed to become citizens of the countries where they live, even those that were BORN there. Another example: in Saudi Arabia, non-Muslims are not even allowed to ENTER the city of Mecca, and no religious symbols, books, prayers, or services of ANY other religion are permitted anywhere in the entire country.