There are moments in history when a country discovers that it is no longer merely being criticized. It has become a cause.

South Africa experienced such a moment during the apartheid era. Israel is experiencing something disturbingly similar today.

The comparison is uncomfortable, particularly because Israel is increasingly accused of being an apartheid state itself. I reject that comparison. Israel is not apartheid South Africa. Yet rejecting a false analogy does not mean Israel should ignore what happened to South Africa. On the contrary, Israel should study it carefully, because the mechanisms by which a country becomes internationally isolated are remarkably familiar.

For decades, apartheid South Africa was progressively pushed outside respectable international society. The process did not happen overnight. In 1962, the United Nations General Assembly called on states to take diplomatic and economic measures against South Africa. An arms embargo followed, eventually becoming mandatory in 1977. By the 1980s, sporting boycotts, cultural boycotts, economic sanctions, divestment campaigns and consumer activism had transformed opposition to South Africa into a global movement.

South Africa became more than a country with a controversial government. It became a symbol.

That distinction matters enormously.

Something comparable is happening to Israel, although for profoundly different reasons.

Israel is increasingly facing diplomatic pressure from governments that were traditionally friendly toward it. In August 2026, a large group of Western governments publicly condemned Israel’s E1 construction plans and explicitly warned businesses about involvement. Discussions about sanctions and restrictions have become increasingly mainstream in several Western countries.

For those of us who love Israel, simply dismissing all of this as meaningless hostility would be a mistake.

But accepting the South African analogy would be an even greater one.

The Fundamental Difference

Apartheid South Africa was built upon an explicit racial hierarchy.

The political system denied the majority of the country’s population equal citizenship and political power because of race. Black South Africans could not simply vote apartheid out of existence. Their exclusion was part of the system itself.

That is fundamentally different from Israel.

Arab citizens of Israel vote in national........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)