This is the finest article I have read here on Substack in sometime and one of the finest articles I've read on Substack period. It is both thoughtful and incredibly nuanced. Dr. Maarten Boudry did a wonderful job on it. His observations in this article capture the Jewish state in all its complexity, the good and the bad. But it can't be accused of being a one-sided anti-Israel screed like what Ilan Pappe, Gabor Mate or Rashid Khalidi would write but nor is it a glorified account of Israel as one might get from someone like Alan Dershowitz or Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Dr. Boudry is fair and balanced. Something we could really use more of nowadays. He shows throughs his own observations that Israel warts and all, is NO apartheid state and is in fact an imperfect liberal democracy. Many Israeli Arabs are in fact patriotic. That percentage of the Arab minority in Israel has increased since October 7th. Israeli Arabs have all the same rights as Jews. They have citizenship, the right to vote, representation in the Knesset, can go anywhere they want, live anywhere they want, use the same drinking fountains, swim on the same beaches, ride the same buses, go to the same schools, and eat in the same restaurants as Jews. Non-Jews are perfectly welcome in Israel and are treated exactly the same as Jews. Israel has opened its doors to the Black Hebrew Israelites, African-American Christians, African and Ukrainian refugees, and Syrian refugee children. Israel is in fact, the safest place for Christians in the Middle East. hundreds of thousands of Muslims of all different sects live in Israel too along with the Druze, people of other faiths, atheists, and agnostics. The idea a multicultural democracy with equal rights for everyone is an apartheid state like South Africa from 1948-1994 is ludicrous.
The biggest bank in Israel is owned by an Arab. Israeli Arabs are 30% of doctors and 50% of the pharmacists in Israel. Increasingly more and more are joining the middle class and the number of Israeli Arabs joining the IDF every year continues to go up. Israel rescued most of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Operations Moses, Joshua and Solomon in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s. The Jewish state has also done much good work to help the people of Africa. They also have let in and treated Palestinian children and children from Arab countries. Would an apartheid state ever do anything like that? I don't think so. A bookshop owned by Muslims in East Jerusalem being allowed to sell any book they want including those critical of Israel or Zionism? I can't imagine in an apartheid state they'd allow such a thing. Not to mention, Jews themselves are quite a heterogenous bunch. There are white-passing, black, brown, red, and yellow Jews living in Israel. The majority of Israel's population are Mizrahim as a matter of fact. The story of Jinnovate is most inspiring. Shame on the European Union for not working with them! By the way, East Jerusalem isn't "illegally occupied" it was conquered fair and square by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Furthermore, Jews lived there for thousands of years before Jordan (actually) illegally occupied the area and expelled its Jewish population. They ethnically cleansed the Jews from the Old City of Jerusalem, destroyed ancient synagogues, desecrated Jewish cemeteries, built a town over much of the sacred Mount of Olives, and banned all Jews Israeli or not, from visiting any Jewish holy sites. With Israel's lightning victory in the Six-Day War, Jews regained access to the Old City, the Wailing Wall, the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs, and Rachel's Tomb.
Is there a real apartheid system against the Palestinians? Yes. But it doesn't exist in Israel or the West Bank. It exists in every single Arab country. Israeli Arabs and West Bank Palestinians are treated equally by the nation state of the Jewish people. But in countries like Egypt, Syria, Joran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. Palestinians literally and legitimately, are treated as second-class citizens. They can't own property or land, integrate into their respective countries' societies, attend university, or become citizens (with the exception of Jordan but even then, they are treated like dog****). They also are barred from most professions in the Arab world. In general, there is no better place to live for minorities, women, LGBTQ+ people, and disabled people than the Jewish state. Israel is without question one of the least racist and most inclusive nations on Earth and certainly the least racist and most inclusive in the Middle East by far. Just ask Berbers in Algeria, Nubians and Sub-Saharan African workers in Egypt, the Bidoon people in Kuwait, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Sudan, or the Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Turkey how "tolerant" the rest of the Middle East is. You will never ever see a pride parade in Dubai, Damascus, Khartoum, or Cairo. Two men who are in love can't openly hold hands or kiss in Baghdad. A young woman who is a lesbian must stay in the closet in the West Bank or Gaza. All of this would be perfectly okay and allowed in Israel. Women are chattel or at the very least, second-class citizens in the rest of the Middle East. Though some Arab countries can rightly be credited with making progress on women's rights, women in the Arab and Islamic world are generally still not equal to their male counterparts. In Israel, women have full equal rights and always have. Women in Israel can vote, earn equal pay with men, get a divorce, wear whatever they want, drive, go out without male permission, and serve in combat in the IDF.
Of course, Israel is not the brutal and boorish country South Africa once was.
And naturally, no liberal democracy is perfect. But equal opportunities for all?
No, Israeli Palestinians do not have the same rights as Jewish Israelis, despite legal guarantees of equality. While Arab citizens of Israel have the right to vote and stand for election, they face systemic discrimination in areas like land access, housing, education, and political representation.
But that's an emancipatory struggle within Israel-proper, while the ever lasting Israeli military presence in the Wild, wild Westbank leaves the population there in enduring legal limbo.
After all these years, Israel should finally decide what it wants to do with the Westbank: accept some form of home rule or expand Israeli law and order over the entire territory.
Thank you for your insight, honesty, and openness. No society is perfect (nor should it aim to be), and much can be learned when everyone stops shouting.
So do you write about the 2.5 million blacks killed by Muslims in Africa
Or about the hundred of thousands Christians killed by Muslims ..or about the constant killing of Christians everyday or the Pakistan gang raped...or as you avoided saying..the UK Spain Belgium Norway Sweden Finland Portugal France Netherlands And half of Canada are now Muslim controlled countries
This is the finest article I have read here on Substack in sometime and one of the finest articles I've read on Substack period. It is both thoughtful and incredibly nuanced. Dr. Maarten Boudry did a wonderful job on it. His observations in this article capture the Jewish state in all its complexity, the good and the bad. But it can't be accused of being a one-sided anti-Israel screed like what Ilan Pappe, Gabor Mate or Rashid Khalidi would write but nor is it a glorified account of Israel as one might get from someone like Alan Dershowitz or Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Dr. Boudry is fair and balanced. Something we could really use more of nowadays. He shows throughs his own observations that Israel warts and all, is NO apartheid state and is in fact an imperfect liberal democracy. Many Israeli Arabs are in fact patriotic. That percentage of the Arab minority in Israel has increased since October 7th. Israeli Arabs have all the same rights as Jews. They have citizenship, the right to vote, representation in the Knesset, can go anywhere they want, live anywhere they want, use the same drinking fountains, swim on the same beaches, ride the same buses, go to the same schools, and eat in the same restaurants as Jews. Non-Jews are perfectly welcome in Israel and are treated exactly the same as Jews. Israel has opened its doors to the Black Hebrew Israelites, African-American Christians, African and Ukrainian refugees, and Syrian refugee children. Israel is in fact, the safest place for Christians in the Middle East. hundreds of thousands of Muslims of all different sects live in Israel too along with the Druze, people of other faiths, atheists, and agnostics. The idea a multicultural democracy with equal rights for everyone is an apartheid state like South Africa from 1948-1994 is ludicrous.
The biggest bank in Israel is owned by an Arab. Israeli Arabs are 30% of doctors and 50% of the pharmacists in Israel. Increasingly more and more are joining the middle class and the number of Israeli Arabs joining the IDF every year continues to go up. Israel rescued most of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Operations Moses, Joshua and Solomon in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s. The Jewish state has also done much good work to help the people of Africa. They also have let in and treated Palestinian children and children from Arab countries. Would an apartheid state ever do anything like that? I don't think so. A bookshop owned by Muslims in East Jerusalem being allowed to sell any book they want including those critical of Israel or Zionism? I can't imagine in an apartheid state they'd allow such a thing. Not to mention, Jews themselves are quite a heterogenous bunch. There are white-passing, black, brown, red, and yellow Jews living in Israel. The majority of Israel's population are Mizrahim as a matter of fact. The story of Jinnovate is most inspiring. Shame on the European Union for not working with them! By the way, East Jerusalem isn't "illegally occupied" it was conquered fair and square by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Furthermore, Jews lived there for thousands of years before Jordan (actually) illegally occupied the area and expelled its Jewish population. They ethnically cleansed the Jews from the Old City of Jerusalem, destroyed ancient synagogues, desecrated Jewish cemeteries, built a town over much of the sacred Mount of Olives, and banned all Jews Israeli or not, from visiting any Jewish holy sites. With Israel's lightning victory in the Six-Day War, Jews regained access to the Old City, the Wailing Wall, the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs, and Rachel's Tomb.
Is there a real apartheid system against the Palestinians? Yes. But it doesn't exist in Israel or the West Bank. It exists in every single Arab country. Israeli Arabs and West Bank Palestinians are treated equally by the nation state of the Jewish people. But in countries like Egypt, Syria, Joran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. Palestinians literally and legitimately, are treated as second-class citizens. They can't own property or land, integrate into their respective countries' societies, attend university, or become citizens (with the exception of Jordan but even then, they are treated like dog****). They also are barred from most professions in the Arab world. In general, there is no better place to live for minorities, women, LGBTQ+ people, and disabled people than the Jewish state. Israel is without question one of the least racist and most inclusive nations on Earth and certainly the least racist and most inclusive in the Middle East by far. Just ask Berbers in Algeria, Nubians and Sub-Saharan African workers in Egypt, the Bidoon people in Kuwait, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Sudan, or the Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Turkey how "tolerant" the rest of the Middle East is. You will never ever see a pride parade in Dubai, Damascus, Khartoum, or Cairo. Two men who are in love can't openly hold hands or kiss in Baghdad. A young woman who is a lesbian must stay in the closet in the West Bank or Gaza. All of this would be perfectly okay and allowed in Israel. Women are chattel or at the very least, second-class citizens in the rest of the Middle East. Though some Arab countries can rightly be credited with making progress on women's rights, women in the Arab and Islamic world are generally still not equal to their male counterparts. In Israel, women have full equal rights and always have. Women in Israel can vote, earn equal pay with men, get a divorce, wear whatever they want, drive, go out without male permission, and serve in combat in the IDF.
Noah has excellent insight and writes well. If you don't already have your own substack, you should.
Great job!
Of course, Israel is not the brutal and boorish country South Africa once was.
And naturally, no liberal democracy is perfect. But equal opportunities for all?
No, Israeli Palestinians do not have the same rights as Jewish Israelis, despite legal guarantees of equality. While Arab citizens of Israel have the right to vote and stand for election, they face systemic discrimination in areas like land access, housing, education, and political representation.
But that's an emancipatory struggle within Israel-proper, while the ever lasting Israeli military presence in the Wild, wild Westbank leaves the population there in enduring legal limbo.
After all these years, Israel should finally decide what it wants to do with the Westbank: accept some form of home rule or expand Israeli law and order over the entire territory.
Otherwise, the wound will fester even further.
Thank you for your insight, honesty, and openness. No society is perfect (nor should it aim to be), and much can be learned when everyone stops shouting.
This was truly a fine read! Thank you.
Thank you for this enlightening article. It changes some of my thoughts that have been negative toward the Israelis.
Bravo
I’ll be happy when this important article is on the front page of The NY Times. But I’m not holding my breath…….
So do you write about the 2.5 million blacks killed by Muslims in Africa
Or about the hundred of thousands Christians killed by Muslims ..or about the constant killing of Christians everyday or the Pakistan gang raped...or as you avoided saying..the UK Spain Belgium Norway Sweden Finland Portugal France Netherlands And half of Canada are now Muslim controlled countries
......