Apartheid in Israel? Hardly.

From LA Times, January 12, 2014, by Seth M. Siegel*:

Those who call for a boycott of Israeli universities should take this little quiz

...1. The valedictorian of the most recent graduating class at the medical school at Israel's MIT, Technion, was:
a) A West Bank settler
b) An Orthodox Jewish man
c) A wounded veteran
d) A Muslim woman

2. The only country on the following list in which the Christian population isn't falling precipitously is:
a) Iraq
b) Syria
c) Egypt
d) Israel

3. Which of the following is true of Israel's Arab Christians?
a) They make up about a third of Israel's pharmacists
b) They are among the winners of the Israel Prize, the country's highest civilian honor
c) Their high school students have a higher rate of success on their graduation exams than Israeli Jewish students
d) All of the above

4. Since Israel left Gaza in 2005, the number of rockets fired from there into Israel is:
a) 8
b) 80
c) 800
d) 8,000

5. Which of the following is not true:
a) Arabs from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza have access to Israeli hospitals
b) Arab doctors and nurses treat Jewish and Arab patients in Israeli hospitals
c) Hundreds of wounded civilians and fighters in the Syrian civil war have been treated in Israeli hospitals
d) By law, Israeli Jews may refuse to be treated by an Arab doctor

6. When West Bank Palestinians have a claim that their rights have been abrogated by an Israeli action, they can file a lawsuit with:
a) A West Bank military court
b) A special court for Palestinians
c) No one
d) The Israeli Supreme Court acting as a court of primary jurisdiction

7. The number of Israeli Arabs currently elected to serve in the Knesset, Israel's 120-person parliament, is:
a) None
b) 1
c) 3
d) 12

8. The Golani Brigade, an elite Israeli army unit, recently made news when it:
a) Blew up a Hezbollah arms depot
b) Stopped a suicide attack on a city bus
c) Disbanded because Israel faces few military threats
d) Appointed Col. Rassan Alian, a Druze, as its commander

9. Salim Joubran is:
a) An Israeli Arab serving a five-year sentence for insulting Israel's president
b) A human rights organization fighting for Palestinian rights
c) An Israeli restaurant shut down because it doesn't serve kosher food
d) An Israeli Arab who serves on Israel's Supreme Court

10. Israel's 2013 Miss Israel beauty queen was:
a) Bar Refaeli, a fashion model
b) Agam Rodberg, an actress
c) Sandra Ringler, a fashion stylist
d) Yityish Aynaw, a black Ethiopian immigrant to Israel

....




 — D is the correct answer to each question
— whatever Israel is, it isn't an apartheid state...

*Seth M. Siegel, co-founder of the marketing agency Beanstalk and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is writing a book on water resources in Israel.