Why I Wrote "Only Israel Has A Right To Exist"

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

I was fed up. Of all the nations in the world only Israel is singled out for discussion of whether it has a right to exist or not. I admit that I wrote the following as a provocation:

I had intended to leave the comments section of the article open for all to reply, and not my usual permission for paid-only subscribers, but the mouse clicked “next” on its own and I am thankful that I did not subject my Substack subscribers and followers to the reactions that did appear in abundance on X and FaceBook. You can look me up on those platforms if you want to see those reactions. I do not recommend doing so.

It is true that the haters of Jews and Israel saying that Israel had no right to exist pushed me to writing that piece, and I wrote it with a desire to rub their faces in the demonstrable fact that according to Judeo-Christian tradition, Israel was granted the original right to exist as a nation, in the Holy Land, by none other than God. A secondary purpose in writing the article was to gently shake Israel’s supporters—even some of our most prominent and powerful—who have been sucked into using the phrase. Statements along the lines of: “I have always supported the right of Israel to exist and I always will,” seem like unadulterated support of Israel. There is no doubt about the sincerity of those who make such statements. The problem with such a statement is simple. By using that term, the underlying assumption of any ensuing give-and-take is that the existence of Israel is up for discussion.

It is not. Israel is ascendant and will defeat all threats. Some of our neighbors have defined themselves solely in terms of the destruction of the Jewish state. Unfortunately they have considerable international support that strengthens them in their beliefs. When they will be defeated—and they will be defeated—what will be left to them? Will their supporters have done them any favors? Is it the idea that they will restart, once again, the hate-Zionists-kill-Jews entity that has brought them such success until now? It certainly has brought their leaders success, in that they siphon off the international aid to live lives like the emirs of oil-rich countries, while their subjects subsist on sacks of flour distributed by the UN.

Any consideration about the future of the Arab population of Gaza needs to pursue initiatives that would prevent that population from harboring any hope to replace the Jews of Israel, the ever-present and necessary ingredient for extremist indoctrination. Once that is accomplished, the attitude of the Gazan Arabs towards the Gaza strip itself is likely to become one of disgust. In other words, a supporter of Gazan Arabs must ask the simple question: would I want to live in Gaza, either under a terrorist Jew-hating government, or under just your standard dysfunctional and corrupt Arab Jew-hating government? It is obvious that the answer to that question is “no,” and if we are talking about a true supporter who wants only the best for these Arabs, then that supporter should be thinking about solutions for resettling these people elsewhere, with proper compensation, and with a realistic hope for a brighter future, as has been done for refugees throughout the ages, including the Jewish refugees from Arab countries of the same conflict that produced the Arab refugees.

This is where the true supporters of the Arabs of Gaza align with the supporters of Israel. The existence of Israel is not up for debate. As such, no entity that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel can be tolerated by Israel, whether on Israel’s borders or farther away. The Arab descendants of the actual refugees from Israel’s War of Independence have been promised by their leadership a “return” to the Jewish state for the last seventy-five years, and have been kept living in squalor in order to preserve and strengthen their resentment of the Jewish state.

Israel’s right to exist is unimpeachable, as is the right of innocent Arab Gazans to a decent life. These Arabs should at least be offered the opportunity to relocate with proper compensation to other lands, where they cannot be manipulated by corrupt leaders. The other possibility is temporary relocation to Sinai while the last vestiges of Hamas are erased. If during that period a Gazan leadership appears that is willing to live in peace with Israel, side-by-side, and declare this willingness freely and publicly, then there is a way forward for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of an Arab Gaza Strip, aided by their new-found friend Israel. For this sad story to end well—and it can end well—the misguided hope of Arabs to replace the Jews of Israel must be extinguished.