The following essay was adapted from a brief comment made by Vlad Tepes. It has been expanded at his request.
In some ways, merely discussing the legitimacy of Israel as a nation grants a victory to her enemies.
Do we every hear any discussion about whether or not Saudi Arabia or Pakistan deserve to exist?
And how about Bosnia, which cobbles together three different mutually antagonistic ethnic groups, none of which forms a majority of the population?
To put it bluntly, no matter how you contextualize the arguments — whether historically, religiously, etc. — Israel is a more natural nation-state than Pakistan, whose official raison d’être as a modern state is tenuous in comparison with Israel. Yet no one is debating its legitimacy. Not even India.
Israel’s enemies often refer to it as an “apartheid state”. This characterization is one of the principal strategies for delegitimizing the nation of Israel.
Saudi Arabia, however, is a true apartheid state in at least two ways:
| 1. | It prohibits non-Muslims from entering two of its cities. | |
| 2. | Under its legal code, women have fewer rights than men, and are consigned to a lesser legal status. |
I’m sure readers can come up with other ways in which apartheid manifests itself in the Land of the Two Holy Places.
Yet no one demands the destruction of or even changes to that state. No one proposes UN resolutions insisting that Saudi Arabia open its society to Christianity, or grant women full control over their lives. There is no resolution before the Security Council that would establish a separate state for Shi’ites in what is now the territory of the Saudi kingdom.
Israel is singled out for unique treatment, both by individual nations and by international bodies.
The mere discussion of the legitimacy of the state of Israel makes its very existence appear to be in question. The more its legitimacy is placed on the agenda at the UN or the OIC, the more likely it is that some of its enemies will unite in violent aggression against it. And all the decades of relentless demonization of Israel will make it that much harder for other nations to do anything more than wring their collective hands when such a war begins.
Israel’s right to exist is no greater or lesser than that of any other nation. However, its moral nature is vastly superior to many other states’, which means that it is being held to a far higher — even impossible — standard.
7 comments:
Thank God, for Israel.
I believe Israel would be well advised to stay above the many foolish notions it is expected to respond too. The Arab and Muslim world is fast crumbling around it. Give it a bit more time, and show a little appropriate disrespect now and again.
Questionss: Do we every hear any discussion about whether or not Saudi Arabia or Pakistan deserve to exist?
And how about Bosnia, which cobbles together three different mutually antagonistic ethnic groups, none of which forms a majority of the population?
No.
First because it doesn't fit our agenda to make an issue of these disparates.
Second because we really don't care about people who don't affect us directly. As in, we have no connection with them, other than sympathy.
And we're not going to let their personal problems derail our agenda.
... (Us, We, Our) Speaking in context of our current Politically Correct leadership.
Absolutely brilliant commentary. Thank you for this, because now I will quite enjoy comparing Pakistan, which was only formed in 1947, to Insrael, as Pakistan has pretty much killed everyone who lived there at that time who was not muslim. Christians formed 20% of the population, now just 1.69 and Hindu's were at 20% as well, now just .76%, while the Palestinan population as exploded.
Israel should respind to the preposterous accusations and suspicion of the usual suspects a bit more like the police commissioner of New York did when he was confronted by concerned parties about the data gathering activities of the NYPD: he told them to take of long walk on a short pier.
The more Israeli's try to please their critics and acusers, the more flak they are getting.
Evryone knows that Israel's critics are not motivated by real concerns; they are being ridiculous and act in bad faith - there is no pleasing them, and so the country should ignore everyone and do what is necessary.
I beg to differ. "Israel’s right to exist is no greater or lesser than that of any other nation." Well in the grand scheme of things perhaps - except - and this may not mesh with Zionism - I will suggest the State of Israel would not have happened were it not for the collective will of the Allies under the UN. So, like so many of the inversions of morality, justice and fiscal responsibility we have witnessed in the last 50 years is it un-surprising that the UN is considering the inversion of this action by approving the founding of a state that completely negates Israel? It is like placing anti-matter besides matter and not expecting fusion.
There are many factors causing what is an ongoing existential crisis for Israel, and these are once more boiling to a head. One of the more painful ones to note must be that Jews themselves are divided, with most diaspora Jews (and a faction within Israel) marching with the Left, contributing their brains, money and media clout to the Left even as Iran repeatedly threatens a second Holocaust and Palestinians who pointedly refuse to accept Israel's existence are given a country largely at her expense. Israel has been kept in the game largely because of support from American Christians unappreciated and maligned by American Jews who remain majority leftist Obama voters. How long can this ironic situation hold? People are noticing that half of world Jews are indifferent or worse to Israel's fate. If Jews were united and were not contributing to leftist resources against her, Israel would be in a much more secure position. Jewish ambivalence is doing her in.
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