Clearly Israel can’t treat its own destruction as a legitimate aim - by Evelyn Gordon

Letting U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar enter would have sent the opposite message—that their desire to erase Israel isn’t beyond the pale, but merely a legitimate political disagreement. That’s why Israel had to bar them.

Evelyn Gordon..
JNS.org..
28 August '19..

When Israel barred two U.S. congresswomen from entering the country earlier this month, I initially thought it a stupid decision. But after hearing the reactions from both American politicians and American Jews, I’ve started to think it may have been necessary.

This isn’t to deny the substantial damage it has caused. Pro-Israel Democrats felt betrayed, and even some pro-Israel Republicans were outraged. Most of the organized Jewish community was horrified. And the BDS movement received media exposure it could never have gained on its own.

But nobody would have felt outraged or betrayed had Israel barred, say, white-supremacist politicians. Thus the underlying message of these reactions was that unlike white supremacism, advocating Israel’s destruction is a legitimate opinion, entitled to the same respectful treatment as the view that Israel should continue to exist. Yet no country can or should treat its own erasure as a legitimate option.

To understand why this was the issue at stake, a brief review of the facts is needed.

(Continue to Full Column)

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