Israel's Right to Exist Bubble

Yoel Meltzer
American Thinker
20 June '10

Of all the implications following the Gaza "peace flotilla" episode, perhaps the most important for Israel is that the existence of a growing challenge to Israel's very right to exist has finally been fully exposed. Whether it was the provocation by the flotilla itself, or the subsequent challenge to Israel by the Rachel Corrie ship, or the anti-Semitic remarks by veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas, the feeling is that Israel's right to exist is no longer a given amongst the international community. Therefore, it should have come as no surprise when in the aftermath of the incident, Israeli leaders repeatedly stressed that Israel has the right to exist and therefore the right to defend itself. This mounting challenge, which has been downplayed for quite some time, can no longer be denied.

The truth is that the writing has been on the wall for several years already. During the heyday of Oslo, the acceptance by the world of our right to exist was something that Israel desperately strove for, and in many ways, it even guided our policies. Time and again we were told of the importance of Israel's "acceptance" by various Arab countries, while concomitantly constant demands were made of Yasser Arafat to publicly express his acceptance of Israel's right to exist. The fact that his gestures were only in English for the international audience -- while in Arabic he continued with his denial and hatred of Israel -- should have caused more than just the "extreme right" in Israel to question his authenticity. However, the show was allowed to go on.

Eventually Israel removed all of its soldiers from Lebanon, but instead of receiving the hoped-for acceptance of its right to exist, rockets eventually reached Haifa. Continuing right along, Israel removed all of its citizens from Gaza, and once again thousands of rockets, rather than the elusive acceptance of its right to exist, was all that Israel could show for its undertaking. Then, after subjecting some of its southern residents to years of rocket attacks, Israel finally reentered Gaza to clamp down on Hamas and stop the rockets. The result, of course, was more international condemnations and the heavily biased Goldstone Report. Finally, there is the ongoing explicit threat by Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the the map. In light of the above, it should be clear that any future Israeli withdrawal from all or parts of Judea and Samaria would be just as futile in changing the trend.

Thus, the challenge to Israel's right to exist is certainly not new.

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