Peace Not Apartheid

I find this hard to believe.

The Central Elections Committee on Monday banned Arab political parties from running in next month's parliamentary elections, drawing accusations of racism by an Arab lawmaker who said he would challenge the decision in the country's Supreme Court.

The ruling, made by the body that oversees the elections, reflected the heightened tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and Arab minority caused by Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Arabs have held a series of demonstrations against the offensive.

Knesset spokesman Giora Pordes said the election committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of the motion, accusing the country's Arab parties of incitement, supporting terrorist groups and refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist. Arab lawmakers have traveled to countries listed among Israel's staunchest enemies, including Lebanon and Syria.

This is a prelude to apartheid throughout Israel as opposed to just in the occupied territories. It's reflective of a mindset that views Arabs as trash to be taken out. That it's happening in a Jewish homeland, from a people that has seen all kinds of discrimination for centuries.

The Israeli Supreme Court can overturn this and I hope they do, because the consequences would be grave. It's bad enough for human rights to be violated in Gaza - making all Arabs in Israel second-class citizens would be irrepressible.

P.S. George Bush still acting like a petulant prick on the way out the door.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was left shame-faced after President George W. Bush ordered her to abstain in a key UN vote on the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday.

"She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favour," Olmert said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon.