The use of the word apartheid to describe Israel’s treatment of Palestinians just keeps growing. David Rothkopf, the former editor of Foreign Policy, baldly states that Israel is an apartheid state in a piece published by Haaretz last weekend.

“Americans once boasted that our ally Israel was the Middle East’s only democracy. Now it is an apartheid state with a government actively working to roll back basic democratic rights and protections. American values like tolerance and the celebration of diversity are ones the current Israeli government rejects…”

Rothkopf has described Israel as an apartheid state for two years, but this latest article in Israel’s leading newspaper is an appeal to “Bibi,” as Rothkopf calls Netanyahu, to avoid a rupture with the U.S. If the rightwing government goes further in its crackdowns on civil rights and Palestinian subjects, Rothkopf warns, it could “have direct, immediate, negative consequences for the U.S.-Israel relationship including the provision of aid.”