Apartheid?

Since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel earlier this month, we have heard the word “apartheid” a lot. We have been told about how the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are suffering under “apartheid” rule. The pro-Palestinians claim that Israelis have Palestinians living in a “open air prison”; whereas the Israelis claim that the Palestinians in Gaza have every right that the Jewish people do.

We don’t hear very many people who claim to be so concerned about the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, ever talk about the people living in Cuba who are imprisoned on that island, who must risk their lives travelling 90 miles on makeshift rafts in shark infested waters if they want to leave. You never hear those pro-Palestinians speak out about the oppression of the Chinese citizens, who are subjected to forced and slave labor by their government. You never hear those people talk about the oppressed citizens in Vietnam or in North Korea or in Venezuela subjugated to communist authoritarian rule. You never hear the pro-Palestinian people in America speak out about the thousands and thousands of children who have been human trafficked as a result of Joe Biden’s disastrous open border policy. It is only the “oppression” of the Palestinians that they seem to care about.

Why should we care more about the Palestinian people then we do about the Cuban people or the Vietnamese people or the North Korean people or the Chinese people or the Venezuelan people or the millions of people who are held in slavery throughout the Middle East and Africa? The pro-Palestinian people who want our hearts to bleed for the Palestinians living in Gaza, yet they never mention any of these other oppressed people. Are we to conclude that the oppression of certain people is immoral, but the oppression of others is fine, and should be tolerated? If so, what is the criteria to make that delineation?

Back in the 1980s, the world came together against the apartheid government in South Africa. There was a “divestment” movement to remove the white minority rule in that mostly black country. And that was the right thing to do. That was what was should have been done. And today, there is the BDS movement led by pro-Palestinians promoting boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Israel. Why isn’t there a BDS movement against China? If we care about oppressed people, why are we even doing business in China? Why is America vilified for our sanctions and embargoes against totalitarian states like Cuba and Iran? Why are we the bad guys when we stand against totalitarian rule in those countries, and then at the same time we are the bad guys if we don’t divest from Israel?

These charges of alleged oppression by the Israeli government, do not arise out of concern for the Palestinian people, they arise out of a hatred of the Jewish people. Those who are weeping for the “oppressed” Palestinians, do not care about the Palestinians, they need a way to attack and destroy Israel. The Palestinians are a pawn in Hamas’ and Iran’s end game. They will use and abuse the Palestinians as a way to destroy the state of Israel.

And this is the game that is always played against free and democratic countries. Why does the left obsess about the history of slavery in America which ended 160 years ago, but never mention the 20 million people who are currently enslaved around the globe? They do not care about freeing people who are enslaved, they simply want to attack America, attack liberty and freedom. They want to use the history of slavery to discredit and destroy America so they can implement their communist rule in this country, which ironically will enslave the citizens under the state. And that is exactly what’s happening in Israel. The anti-Israel factions want to use false charges of oppression to discredit and destroy the state of Israel so they can implement a theocratic government so they can subjugate the entire population, including the very Palestinians they claim to care about.

If they believe that the Palestinians are oppressed right now by Israel, just imagine what their lives will look like when the Islamic fundamentalists take over. In the mid-1970s, before the Shah of Iran was deposed and exiled by the radical Islamic Ayatollahs, Iran was a Westernized and modernized country. Economic and educational opportunities had been greatly expanded. There was cultural freedom. Iran was one of the few countries in the Middle East where women had rights commensurate to men. Women were educated, given the right to vote and even elected to Parliament.

The Islamic fundamentalists led a rebellion against the Shah, charging that he was authoritarian and oppressive, and he was by Western standards – he censored political speech and weaponized the government against his enemies. After the Ayatollah’s took over Iran, the level of oppression of the people increased dramatically. They implemented Sharia law. Women lost all of the rights that they enjoyed under the Shah. Minorities were stripped of all rights. There is no religious freedom in Iran. There is no political freedom. It became truly a theocratic authoritarian state. The Ayatollah government began purging the non-Islamist political opposition, as well as Muslims who were not considered radical enough. Tens of thousands of political opponents were executed by the new regime which were brought to power to stop the authoritarianism of the Shah. The people who charged the Shah with oppression had no problem with oppression as long as they were the oppressors. Who’s living a worse life under the boot heel of authoritarian rule, the Palestinians in Gaza or the average Iranian citizen living under Sharia law?

This is common throughout history. The ruler is overthrown based on dubious charges that he is authoritarian and oppressive, and the people who takeover are always much more authoritarian and oppressive. The French revolutionaries ended up executing twice as many of their political opponents in the Bastille then the King ever did. In Russia, the Bolsheviks were much more oppressive and violent and deadly to the citizens of Russia then the Czars ever thought about being. This is the way it always works. The Palestinians will face much more oppression under a fundamentalist Islamic government controlling the land that is now Israel than anything they are facing right now from the Israeli government. Arabs living in Israel are freer and have more human rights than most Arabs living in Arab states

All of this is coming to America. That is why we continually hear about racial oppression in America. They are trying to destroy the United States and our system of government under these false allegations of oppression. And if they succeed, the group that takes over, will be far more oppressive than anything that anybody living in America is facing right now. Look at what the left is doing. They want to erase the second amendment, our right to bear arms and defend ourselves and our property. They believe that government officials should be the only ones who have guns. They want the citizens weak, not strong. They are destroying the first amendment, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The left has been using their government power to pressure the media and social media to censor political opinions they don’t like on the Internet. These are all oppressive and authoritarian tactics. They want you powerless, and they want you only to be able to say what they tell you to say.

The Marxists who call the United States “racist” do not care about black people, they don’t care about the illegal immigrants who are pouring across our border, they only care about destroying the United States of America, our democracy, our freedom, our civil rights. Minorities and illegal immigrants are just pawns that they will use to try to destroy America. And if the United States is ever destroyed and the totalitarians take over, the lives of black people and the lives of illegal immigrants will get infinitely worse, not better. That’s the way it always works.

As we see time and time again, the people who are shouting the loudest against oppression, do not care about the oppress people, they never do. They are using the charges of oppression in order to seize power so they can enact their own form of oppression, which is always worse than the so-called oppression that they overthrew.

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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.