Most
of us still remember the apartheid of South
Africa and the racial segregation policy
of the National Party between 1948-1990
during which they enforced institutionalized
economic control of national resources,
racism, and white domination.
While most decent people
are enraged by the practice of apartheid
and regard it as a crime against humanity,
unfortunately it is still going on in some
parts of the world.
There is one case in particular
that remains the shining example of systematic
segregation, economic exploitation, and
deliberate practice of apartheid. In fact
it is practiced in such a degree of efficiency
that it is the root cause of many of the
international problems and continues to
fuel war, hate, anger, despair, pain, suffering,
injustice, crime, and terrorism.
If you have not guessed
it already, I am referring to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
This is the single most
prolonged conflict in the world since 1948
which has been an ongoing war zone of despair
and conflict that has polarized the world
into taking sides and unfortunately fueling
animosities among those suffering in the
whole region (directly and indirectly).
The former US President,
Jimmy Carter's Book "Palestine: Peace
Not Apartheid" describes in detail
the Israeli policies towards Palestinians,
and claims that he hopes for a debate on
this subject, which has never existed.
In his book he states, "...
When Israel occupies the territory deep
within the West Bank, and connects the 200-or-so
(Israeli) settlements with each other, with
a road, and then prohibits the Palestinians
from using that road, or in many cases even
crossing the road, this perpetrates even
worse instances of apartheid, than we witnessed
in South Africa."
No matter what side you
support, you must surely sympathies that
the people of both sides have suffered and
continue to suffer, although most certainly,
not equally.
So the question that needs
to be asked is who is benefiting
from this conflict and the segregation and
political and economic discrimination?
The answer is investors.
Whether Israeli based or
the US and European investors, they are
all benefiting from low cost cheap labor
offered by the conflict that continues to
reduced labor protection laws and the inequities
to the determent of the Palestinians.
When you take away equal
rights for some of your citizens because
they are Palestinians, you deprive them
of the equal footing to become economically
successful and prosper and expect and demand
more for their labor and their services.
And, people in despair work for cheap without
increased expectations or demand for employment
benefits, rights, and equal opportunities.
Among the beneficiaries,
without a doubt, the Jewish institutional
and individual investors based in US have
gained the most. For all their donations
to AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs
Committee) and other Jewish Lobby organizations,
they can reap benefits many times their
initial investments.
This phenomenon explains
the reason why these entities have more
loyalty for Israel even at the expense of
their country of birth, the US.
Many have now even diversified
and moved their financial portfolios into
Israel in a very profound way, all based
on the assumption that their money is safe
in a military-controlled country with a
very sophisticated communications and media
relations program that desensitizes the
international public cry for justice and
equality for all.
Soon after it was reported
that hundreds of billion of Dollars was
moved to Israel by Lehman Brothers, it is
no wonder that The New York Times published
a statement by the director of the ADL of
B'nai B'rith, Abraham Foxman, reporting
that many Americans are blaming the Jewish
lobby and Israel for the current catastrophic
financial crisis affecting the US and the
world.
The CEO of Lehman Brothers
Richard Fuld, the well known supporter and
fundraiser for Israel, received $450 million
compensation in the previous year and moved
most of his own money to Israel for safe-keeping.
Israel has become a safe
haven for their billions of Dollars of assets
and to ensure that there is no challenge
to their financial superiority by creating
a political environment that is friendly
to these individuals and influence is available
to purchase in the local market by the highest
bidder.
This is what makes the system
in Israel seem more stable to Jewish investors
than even US.
In US you cannot buy that
much support and control and you cannot
make people work for very cheap although
Republicans have often been against increasing
minimum wage.
Now we all know that inequalities
exist even here in US. For instance, it
is well documented and proven that women
in America receive lower wages for the same
work that men do. This is not disputed.
But there is a serious attempt by the US
government, ACLU, Women's Rights Organizations,
and by American people to change this, legally
and forcefully. The US courts are a fair
system of protecting women's rights here
in US and backed by US law. No one can claim
that American women support terrorism and
therefore should not be treated equal as
men.
A small example of this
does exist in US, however. In some cases
(although not many), individuals from middle
eastern background have been fired from
government jobs that were deemed "sensitive"
to American national security. In most cases
these individuals were doctors, scientists,
and engineers that worked in US for decades
and are naturalized US citizens. In almost
every case, their colleagues spoke on their
behalf and indicated that these are highly
qualified and decent individuals with enormous
previous contributions, all to no avail.
Now imagine this being much
more systematic and nationwide and driven
by deliberate apartheid to keep cost of
labor down.
What is going on in Israel
is that no government or judiciary system
is trying to change the inequalities faced
by Palestinians. They are truly the second
class citizens that must always be kept
down economically in order to allow others
(Jews) to prosper. And demonization of the
Palestinians and fear of terrorism is used
to create a state of apartheid which, if
you think about it, is self-propelling state
of two-classes: the rich and the poor -
Jews and Palestinians. The poor must work
for low wages that fuel the economy of a
country and rich stays rich through its
control of the whole game. Deprived people
work for cheap.
Ask yourself why US jobs
are being exported to China? Why US manufacturing
is deemed uncompetitive? And, why US companies
are moving their facilities to China?
The answer is the same for
all. Labor costs and labor expenses being
much lower in China than in US. The reason:
China does not have labor protection laws
and a large pool of people that need to
work for very low wages. There is no such
thing as social security benefits, or healthcare
costs, etc.
This is what has been engineered
in Israel and this reason alone is why the
Palestinians are subjected to apartheid
in order to keep the labor costs very low
and keep productivity very high. After all,
why did slavery start and why were Europe
and US a huge supporter of slavery for many
centuries?
The answer: The benefits
of "low-cost" labor.
In comparison, one must
take a look at the outrageous salaries received
by the directors and the CEOs of the Tel
Aviv Stock Exchange's successful companies,
whose monthly salaries are measured in millions
of dollars (again that is monthly salaries
not annual salaries). |
(last 30 days)
