There are different causal factors with regard to apartheid and the West Bank. The only causal factor in apartheid in South Africa was a white minority wanting to control a black majority population. So the causal factor for the inequitable treatment was 100% on the whites there. So it was easy to attribute blame.
With regard to the West Bank Israel's less than stellar treatment of Palestinians has a much more complicated origin: (1) the refusal of the Palestinians to accept the Partitiion Plan, (2) the military aggression by Jordan which resulted in Israel seizing the West Bank and keeping it for justifiable security reasons, (3) long history of terrorism by Palestinians against Israel, (4) all of the above factors resulting in antipathy between the two groups, Israel favoring their own interests over that of the Palestinians including putting security concerns paramount with sometimes harsh results on the Palestinians.
The causal reasons for Israel's treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank are complex and don't lend themselves to the kind of black and white analysis in South Africa (literally). The reality is that most fair-minded people are going to think (if they were honest) that they would not treat the Palestinians any better if they were in Israel's position. Moreover, the Palestinians have the key to likely get to a better life unavailable to blacks in South Africa--give up the war for Palestine. They lost. Time to face reality.
And if Israel decided, well, let's ease up on the Palestinians--let's listen to Ricky in Canada far from suicide bombers. What would happen? More terrorism because weakness would be sensed, the dream of getting everything back reignited. It won't work that way--the impetus for peace has to come from the Palestinians.
Now, I have been critical as to what I interpret as a potential plan by Netanyahu to foreclose a real Palestinian state in the country. But of course that criticism does not have much of a bite to it if the Palestinians are never going to agree to a two state solution, anyway. Who knows? Maybe that will incentivize Palestinians to come to the peace table prior to the possibility of having their own nation foreclosed. Having said that, if Palestinians were denied a real state at that point then I could see the apartheid argument making sense AT THAT POINT IN TIME. But if the Palestinisns are never going to give up their dream of controlling all of Palestine, that's a moot criticism.
With regard to the West Bank Israel's less than stellar treatment of Palestinians has a much more complicated origin: (1) the refusal of the Palestinians to accept the Partitiion Plan, (2) the military aggression by Jordan which resulted in Israel seizing the West Bank and keeping it for justifiable security reasons, (3) long history of terrorism by Palestinians against Israel, (4) all of the above factors resulting in antipathy between the two groups, Israel favoring their own interests over that of the Palestinians including putting security concerns paramount with sometimes harsh results on the Palestinians.
The causal reasons for Israel's treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank are complex and don't lend themselves to the kind of black and white analysis in South Africa (literally). The reality is that most fair-minded people are going to think (if they were honest) that they would not treat the Palestinians any better if they were in Israel's position. Moreover, the Palestinians have the key to likely get to a better life unavailable to blacks in South Africa--give up the war for Palestine. They lost. Time to face reality.
And if Israel decided, well, let's ease up on the Palestinians--let's listen to Ricky in Canada far from suicide bombers. What would happen? More terrorism because weakness would be sensed, the dream of getting everything back reignited. It won't work that way--the impetus for peace has to come from the Palestinians.
Now, I have been critical as to what I interpret as a potential plan by Netanyahu to foreclose a real Palestinian state in the country. But of course that criticism does not have much of a bite to it if the Palestinians are never going to agree to a two state solution, anyway. Who knows? Maybe that will incentivize Palestinians to come to the peace table prior to the possibility of having their own nation foreclosed. Having said that, if Palestinians were denied a real state at that point then I could see the apartheid argument making sense AT THAT POINT IN TIME. But if the Palestinisns are never going to give up their dream of controlling all of Palestine, that's a moot criticism.