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Sunday, December 05, 2010

The myth of "Jewish-only" roads (Michael Totten)

From Michael Totten at Commentary:

“I can call a president of the United States anything in the book,” she said at an anti-Arab-bias workshop in Detroit, “but I can’t touch Israel, which has Jewish-only roads in the West Bank. No American would tolerate that — white-only roads.”
She’s right that no American would tolerate white-only roads. Israelis, likewise, would never tolerate roads for Jews only. That’s why such roads don’t exist.
The roads she’s referring to in the West Bank are Israeli, and they’re not just for Jews. Israeli Arabs can drive on them, and so can non-Jewish foreigners, including Arab and Muslim foreigners. Palestinians were once able to drive on them but have not been allowed to do so since the second intifada, when suicide bombers used them to penetrate Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in order to massacre people.
There are also, by the way, Palestinian roads in the West Bank that Israelis can’t use.
I don’t know if Helen Thomas knows this and is lying or if she’s just an ignoramus. What I’ll bet she doesn't know is that Arab residents of Jerusalem can use both the Israeli roads and the Palestinian roads. They’re the only people who live in the area who can do this. (Foreigners also are allowed to use both.)
This doesn’t remotely line up with her narrative of perfidious Zion. But it’s true.
By the way, Yid with Lid has the actual video of Thomas' speech.