Bibi and Slobo

There are grotesque comparisons being made to Israel and Serbia, Israel and South Africa in the bad old days, and even Netanyahu and Milosevic. In the first instance, Israel is a beleaguered democracy surrounded by hostile nations. Even Jordan and Egypt who have signed treaties with Israel do not have Israel's best interests at heart. Syria, Hizbullah-dominated Lebanon, and Iran are determined in their current incarnations to eradicate Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians and too many restive Israeli Arabs agree with the genocidal objectives of the mad Mullahs of Tehran. Slobodan Milosevic was a petty thug who came to power in an undemocratic manner; Benyamin Netanyahu is coming to power the same way as Obama did, through electoral processes (though Israel's messy parliamentary system requires coalition building). Netanyahu has never employed any of the ethnic cleansing tactics that the Serbs used against Bosnians, Kosovars, or Croatians. He is a defender of Israel-not an aggressor in any aspect. The international left and Jew-hating rightists are also calling Israel an apartheid state. It is Palestinians who won't permit Jews to live among them. Palestinians murder their own who sell land or property to Jews. There are more than a million Arabs in Israel with full citizenship rights and Palestinians in the so-called West Bank. How many Jews are living in Gaza? The only apartheid that exists in the Middle East is the denial of rights to non-Muslims who are forced to live as dhimmi across the Arab world. Jews would be content to live with Arab neighbors as equals, but Muslims do not by in large share that sentiment.