Apartheid, Sort of?
(you can't fix stupid)
This morning’s grocery shopping trip took me through the Midrachov (Zikhron Yaakov’s centrally located pedestrian mall) down to my favorite café. While doomscrolling as I waited for the coffee beans I’d ordered to be ground, I glanced at an article alluding to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent characterization of Israel “as sort of an apartheid state.”1
Even though the war situation has brought much of the nation’s business activity to a temporary halt, this place was hopping, and the barista - a friendly young man, American-born, whom I remembered from a previous trip to this establishment - had plenty of orders lined up so suggested I do some shopping and then return to pick up my order.
I took his advice, but even after my return the coffee wasn’t ready, so I went back to looking at the newsfeed on my phone and glanced around me at other customers. One man, perhaps in his 60s, was sitting close by sipping coffee at the counter.
He had a slightly inquisitive, self-assured air and a grizzled, battered look - as of somebody who has been around the block a few times. I couldn’t quite tell if he was a street person or a local sage or both. I detected amusement in the way he surveyed the scene and his manner of speech. As he got up to leave, he spoke to someone in English. His accent was American.
Zikhron Yaakov has a large Anglo community, and many Israelis I encounter here answer me in English even when I address them in Hebrew. Sometimes it’s just easier, when I want to strike up a conversation, to break down and revert to my mother tongue. We conversed mainly in English.
Jewish geography being what it is, the urge to swap stories and compare notes about geographical background is often too tempting to resist. I asked him where he was from.
He volunteered that was from the U.S., originally, New York. Yes, that assertive accent was a giveaway. When he told me he had lived for many years in Seattle, I mentioned that I have relatives there. He said he’d also lived in California.
I explained that I’m from all over the place in America: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, Philadelphia, Boston… I didn’t have time to cite all the locations where I’ve lived. I could’ve elaborated, but I think he was less curious about me than I about him.
I asked what his profession was (or had been). Master’s degree; worked in the child protective services. I gathered this meant he’d provided intervention support for at-risk kids. An intelligent, knowledgeable, capable, and compassionate person for sure.
I didn’t want to pry, and I didn’t have a take on his social or political outlook. It’s not my business to ask strangers about their religion, so I had no idea whether - in this community where Muslims intermingle freely with Jews and folks are free to worship as they please - he was Jewish or not, but the shirt he was wearing had Hebrew words and (as I recall) stars of David on it and suggested some sort of social agency or helping organization, which would accord with what he indicated his work life had been about.
Our chat was brief, but I hastened to mention the article and Newsom’s comment; the man responded by shaking his head in mild exasperation and grumbling, “people are crazy.”
He must have been a regular at that coffee house. Upon leaving, turning to people there, he smiled and called out his good wishes in fluent Hebrew. The barista - who answered my Hebrew in English - still hadn’t finished grinding up and bagging my coffee beans, so I went back to my phone and doomscrolling.
Now get this - the most deliciously ironic part of the whole episode: After that gentleman had left, I WhatsApped the Newson-related article to Martha and commented, “While reading this, I chatted with a black guy originally from the U.S.” Yeah, an African-American-Israeli. I added this jaundiced observation: “Apartheid Israel.”
Martha replied with one of her favorite expressions, a common idiom popularized by comedian Ron White: “You can’t fix stupid.”
Then I traipsed back up through the Midrachov to Shufarsal, the supermarket, where I bought a few more food items. The store was bustling with customers. I saw a hijab-clad (i.e., Muslim) woman shopping with her child and other Arab Israelis working at checkout counters. Also there, and on the streets, people of many hues, diverse ethnicities, and various geographic backgrounds.
Apartheid Israel. Sort of? Not even close.
But you can’t fix stupid.
“Newsom likens Israel to ‘apartheid state,’ questions future military support,” Politico, March 4, 2026 / https://apple.news/AIpnkZJu_TFS2ZJBMqqsLZw