Debate on Israel's Right to Exist

for. Craig, I want to turn to your article,

your latest article for MondoWise, headlined,

no, Israel does not have a right to exist, quite the contrary, actually.

The demand that Palestinians and their supporters affirm Israel's

so-called right to exist has become a compulsory ritual in Western politics.

Germany has even moved toward criminalizing denial of that supposed right.

But as you point out, no one is constantly ordered to affirm the right of Italy,

Canada, or Germany to exist.

Indeed, East Germany no longer exists, and I haven't heard too many people demanding that its right to exist be respected.

Why has this exceptional claim become such a powerful political litmus test,

and what does international law actually say about the right of a country to exist?

Well, no country has a right to exist.

This is something that was entirely made up, sui generis in the case of Israel,

by those who were insecure about the, at best, shaky legal standing of the state of Israel to exist

at all. And so that's why you never hear anyone, you know, you mentioned Germany.

In Germany, where they're now passing this legislation that denying Israel's right to exist can land you in prison, literally,

for stating something, by the way, that is both true as a matter of fact

and something that is also true as a matter of law, that Israel does not have a right to exist.

So they are compelling false speech on behalf of this oppressive foreign regime.

So, you know, Germany takes it really, really to an extreme.

And, you know, not only are they passing that law, but currently already in German law.

If you want to acquire German citizenship, you have to pledge that Israel has a right to exist.

You do not have to pledge that Germany has a right to exist to get German citizenship,

but you have to pledge that Israel does. And the reason that this is done,

including by Zionist media corporations in the West, by pro-Israel politicians in the West, by all of these other actors,

is a kind of legal insecurity,

which is at the very heart of the Israeli project, the Zionist project in Western Asia.

It has no right to exist. Now, it's true that no country has a right to exist.

It's true that I've said when I joined the UN,

there were a lot of countries that existed that did not exist when I left,

and there were a lot of countries that did not exist when I joined that later came to exist.

So it's just as a matter of fact, no country has a right to exist. But

when you look at the Israeli case, and you look at the foundations of the state and its conduct,

you find that if you were to identify one of the 195 or so UN member states,

countries in the world, there is no country in the world that has less of

a right to exist, even a claim to statehood, than does the state of Israel.

As a matter not just of morality, but as a matter of international law.

And so I think when you say why, the regime and its proxies are so deeply insecure about the legitimacy of the state of Israel.

First, because of the way that it was founded.

Secondly, because of its current standing vis-à-vis borders and other issues. And thirdly, the lawless and bloody history,

the extreme conduct of this so-called state over decades.

Because of that insecurity, they feel they need to enforce a fictional orthodoxy,

that everybody has to say something that is obviously not true.

Not true in law and not true in fact.