John Ricardo I. "Juan" Cole (born: October 23, 1952) is an anti-racist, humanitarian American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Cole ).
Juan Cole on Israeli Apartheid (2013): “By denying the Palestinians a state, Israelis are actively destroying the Palestine they agreed to create in the Oslo Accords that Israel signed in 1993. Israelis prevent Gaza from exporting most of what it makes. The territory is denied an airport or seaport, and severe restrictions are placed on imports, plunging many of the Palestinians there into food insecurity and creating high incidences of anemia. In the West Bank, Israeli authorities are resorting to an ever more robust Israeli apartheid, which the world is signaling it will not accept… Because of overwhelming American support, especially in Congress, and because of the vast amounts of money and arms the U.S. has provided, fortress Israel can forge ahead with its colonization project if its leaders so choose. But Israel cannot escape the two inevitable consequences of this action. If it denies the Palestinians a state and insists on keeping Palestinian land, then it will become responsible for resolving the dire problem of Palestinian statelessness. And until it does that, Israel will increasingly be seen as an apartheid state and come under debilitating sanctions, first from civil society and then from governments.” [1].
Juan Cole on Israeli support for South African Apartheid (2013): The US considered the African National Congress to be a form of Communism, and sided with the racist Prime Ministers Hendrik Verwoerd and P.W. Botha against Mandela. Decades later, in the 1980s, the United States was still supporting the white Apartheid government of South Africa, where a tiny minority of Afrikaaners dominated the economy and refused to allow black Africans to shop in their shops or fraternize with them, though they were happy to employ them in the mines… Likewise British PM Margaret Thatcher befriended Botha and castigated Mandela’s ANC as terrorists. As if the Afrikaners weren’t terrorizing the black majority! She may have suggested to Botha that he release Mandela for PR purposes, but there is not any doubt on whose side she stood. The Israeli government had extremely warm relations with Apartheid South Africa, to the point where Tel Aviv offered the Afrikaners a nuclear weapon (presumably for brandishing at the leftist states of black Africa). That the Israelis accuse Iran of being a nuclear proliferator is actually hilarious if you know the history. Iran doesn’t appear ever to have attempted to construct a nuclear weapon, whereas Israel has hundreds and seems entirely willing to share.” [2].
[1]. Juan Cole, “Israel’s Apartheid deepens, along with its global isolation”, Truthdig, 12 December 2012: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/israels_apartheid_deepens_along_with_its_global_isolation_20121212 .
[2]. Juan Cole, “United States, Israel opposed Mandela, supported Apartheid”, Informed Comment, 6 December 2013: http://www.juancole.com/2013/12/mandela-supported-apartheid.html .