When it Comes to Israel: Relevance is Different from Survival!

     We have come to expect this nefarious agenda from the obvious enemies of the Jewish State such as Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and other Middle Eastern countries or entities that live for the day when the world can finally celebrate being Judenrein (clean of Jews). Even Neo-Nazi resurgence out of Europe–while minimal–is no surprise to those of us who support Israel and militate for her rightful existence.

     What is unspeakable to me, is the vicious slap in the face of Israel’s legitimacy by the anti-Israel Left. The efforts put into the constant demonization of Israel are dangerously increasing not only in frequency but also in intensity. NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD RECEIVES MORE NEGATIVE COVERAGE than the tiny Jewish State. Countries like North Korea, Sudan, Iran, Syria and others–that deserve to be exposed for their multiple crimes against humanity are relegated to playing second fiddle while all the attention is on Israel.

     This last Sunday, the New York Times Sunday Review chose to publish a piece by professor of Political Science at University of Pennsylvania, Ian Lustick. The piece titled “Two-State Illusion” attempts to make a case for the irrelevancy of a “Two-State Solution” between Israel and Palestine in the 21st Century. It is far from being the first piece of its kind and we can rest assured that it will not be the last. But what makes this piece uniquely dangerous is the fact that in it, Mr. Lustick doesn’t call for anything else than the destruction of Israel. He does it in a way that might escape the reader unless one is perceptive enough to read between the lines.

     The key to understanding Mr. Lustick’s article is to be aware that the premise he uses in his description of Israel and the Middle East conflict is a faulty foundation upon which he wants to build a falsely sturdy structure. 

     Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. What other country in that region can be found doing the following:

• Number of Arab members of the Knesset since its inception in 1949: 69 (Number of Israelis in any Arab Government: 0)
• Israelis help Palestinians receive proper health care on an individual level as well as institutional level.
• The Knesset passed and proudly upholds the “Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty”, the most democratic set of laws in the Middle East.
• Inmates in Israeli prisons are treated like “residents” with much respect and freedoms within the boundaries of their respective facilities. This is hardly the case for other Arab countries.
• Israel passed the Women’s Equal Rights Law in 1951 and has since then been a pioneer in the realm of women’s rights. You can’t say that about any Arab or Muslim country in the region.

     Based on these facts and many more, you would think that Israel would have a better reputation with the world, but it is hardly the case when you read the vitriolic propaganda dispensed by Mr. Lustick. In his article he equates the Israeli government to the fascist Spanish government of Francisco Franco when he writes:

It’s like 1975 all over again, when the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco fell into a coma. The news media began a long death watch, announcing each night that Generalissimo Franco was still not dead. This desperate allegiance to the departed echoes in every speech, policy brief and op-ed about the two-state solution today.

     He continues to deligitimize Israel by comparing her doomed existence and imminent disappearance to that of other totalitarian regimes (the opposite of what Israel is really about):

Those who assume that Israel will always exist as a Zionist project should consider how quickly the Soviet, Pahlavi Iranian, apartheid South African, Baathist Iraqi and Yugoslavian states unraveled, and how little warning even sharp-eyed observers had that such transformations were imminent.

     Not satisfied with the deligitimization of the Jewish State, Mr. Lustick also embraces the quixotic idea that Israel should let go of their nuclear arsenal in good faith so that the rest of the Middle East would follow suit with their weapons of mass destruction:

Negotiating with Arabs and Palestinians based on satisfying their key political requirements, rather than on maximizing Israeli prerogatives, might yield more security and legitimacy. Perhaps publicly acknowledging Israeli mistakes and responsibility for the suffering of Palestinians would enable the Arab side to accept less than what it imagines as full justice. And perhaps Israel’s potent but essentially unusable nuclear weapons arsenal could be sacrificed for a verified and strictly enforced W.M.D.-free zone in the Middle East.

    What color is the sky in your world Mr. Lustik? When was last time you read the Hamas charter or the Muslim Brotherhood motto, or did you ever?
     I actually do not believe that Mr. Lustick would be that oblivious to the truth. While I do not know him personally, reading his most recent article goes to prove that fact finding was very low on his priority list, if even present! In my eyes, his display of anti-Israel sentiment is nothing less than academic antisemitism, which is an unfortunate form of Jew hatred that is blindly accepted by the masses on the false premise of education and expertise.
     The fact that the New York Times saw value in publishing such an insulting and potentially lethal article doesn’t surprise me and neither does the fact that Mr. Lustick took the time to write it.      What saddens me is that most readers will probably swallow that piece hook, line and sinker and further demonize Israel.
     While I do not endorse every move made by the Israeli government, Zionism is here to stay not only because it is relevant but also because it is tantamount to Israel’s survival. But first and foremost, it is because of God’s covenant with Abraham that Israel continues to exist against all odds. Israel’s existence defies human logic. This was eloquently stated by Mark Twain when he said:

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people… His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished…All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?