Apartheid, the Mahdi and the Surprise

By Tuvia Brodie
05 June '11

This article is also published in the Jewish Leadership Blog


Once again, the official Palestinian daily Al Hayat al-Jadida has printed yet another Arabic propaganda attack, calling Israel “the Israeli apartheid state.”

Apartheid is a dirty word. It suggests oppression and institutionalized hatred.

Arabs –and their friends—have adopted the word as a fashionable description for Israel.

Jews don‘t agree with this characterization. But that’s not news: Arab and Jew don’t ever seem to agree.

But there is one thing they might agree to: there will be no apartheid in the new ‘Palestine’.

At first glance, the white-only National Party of 1940’s South Africa and the Hamas-Fatah alliance in the Palestinian territories seem similar: both share a strident, even vicious animus towards a homogeneous group each sees as impure and tainted: the black in South Africa and the Jew in Israel.

But as similar as they might appear, a closer look reveals that they are different.

To understand the difference, consider that—while this is not commonly noted-- an ‘apartheid’ political system, such as the prototype in South Africa, will have two major, easily identifiable components. First, there will be laws and regulations designed to force a specific group to remain subservient; and second, those laws and regulations will be supported by a persistent and aggressive propaganda-style attack from both national media and national religious leaders.

The laws and the negative propaganda will be omnipresent—in the churches, the media, the schools, the legislature, the neighborhoods and the marketplace.

There is no respite.

Generally speaking, if only one of these two components is active, the label, ‘apartheid’ may not fit. This is why, for example, the laws and regulations in Arab countries that keep women subservient are typically not called ‘apartheid’: the propaganda-style attack is absent, and the oppressive laws are simply considered to be unique to local culture.

In my opinion, it is not just the existence of repressive law that creates the ugliness called apartheid; it is the public, religious and omnipresent demonization that goes with it, that transform the legal restrictions into something so ugly.

So while white South Africans wanted to oppress blacks with both these components to enforce political repression, the modern Arab Muslim is not interested in treating the Jew this way, for an important reason: he sees the Jew as being reserved for a different consideration altogether.

What appears to separate the National Party of the 1940’s South Africa from the modern Arab is intent: the white-only South Africans wanted only to oppress; the Arabs want to eradicate.



The Arab intent for the Jew has nothing to do with political animus. It has nothing to do with apartheid. It is religious.

Islam, like Christianity, believes in a Messianic era, with a ‘Final Days’ period preceding the Messianic period. For Islam, the key Messianic figure is the twelfth Imam, also called the Mahdi. As with Christianity, evil plays a role in the Islamic Messianic vision, and for much of today’s Islam, Israel and evil are connected. Iran President Ahmadinejad made this clear recently when he said that the return of the Mahdi is near, but the major blocking point is Israel; the evil stain called Israel must be removed before the Mahdi can come. As William Wagner, senior professor at the Golden Gate Baptist Theology Seminary has said (as quoted on CBN.com), Israel must be destroyed in order to usher in the Mahdi.

That’s the script. There’s even proof that the days leading up the Mahdi are already here: the UN is turning against Israel; the US now toys with Israel the way a cat toys with a mouse before dining; the PA is about to create another Muslim state where Jews will be expelled —and best of all, nobody objects to any of this, not the UN or the US or the EU; indeed, not even Israeli leaders seem to object.

It could take a few more years before Ahmadinejad gets his nuclear arsenal—to help move things along-- but by then there should be six million Jews in Israel, and the prospect of killing six million Jews excites: the Nazis killed six million but nothing happened; Iran can kill six million and the Mahdi will come!

This is an epic story. The Palestinian Authority is so excited that they have begun printing maps showing their ‘ Palestine’ in place of Israel.

In one sense, Israel is already gone.

The beginning of the end has begun. Why should the Arabs be concerned about apartheid?

They bring good news: there will be no apartheid in the new Palestinian state.

The UN will love that.

Of course, there is a problem here. There always is with big ideas.

Along with the good news, there is, for the Arab world, also bad news.

The bad news is, this movie has a surprise ending: the Jews win.

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