>Whenever I discuss any of this with American friends
>and comrades, the reaction ranges from bemusement all
>the way to outraged indignation to the effect that
>Israel is an "apartheid state." I think it's
>interesting that most American leftists never seem to
>entertain the notion that any nation-state is by
>definition an apartheid state.
Well not exactly. As fucked up as the US is in so many ways, our official ideology is that anyone can become an American. We don't have a blood concept of citizenship, like Germany does, nor a ethno-religious one like Israel. Of course, a nation-state is defined by exclusion, but some forms of exclusion are more porous than others.
Doug