Anti-Semitism debate: Michael Rosen on Israel’s ‘right to exist’

Last Updated: October 25, 2016By Tags: , , , , , ,
Theodor Herzl: The founder of modern Zionism planned the ethnic cleansing of what is now Israel - removing Palestinians from their land in order to replace them with Jews. How can that ever be supportable?

Theodor Herzl: The founder of modern Zionism planned the ethnic cleansing of what is now Israel – removing Palestinians from their land in order to replace them with Jews. How can that ever be supportable?

Does Israel have a right to exist, as many Zionists have claimed – stridently, whilst demanding that anybody who argues otherwise is an anti-Semite?

It’s an interesting question – and the alleged anti-Semitism being hung around its metaphorical neck makes it worthy of discussion. Here‘s Michael Rosen’s view – and he makes some excellent points.

Is he an anti-Semite (or, considering his heritage, a “self-hating Jew”)? Of course not. He’s a rational, thinking human being.

So consider his arguments and – when faced with opposing points of view – ask of their proponents are as rational as him.

‘Israel’s right to exist’ is not based on internationally recognised law. Nations do not have the ‘right to exist’: people seize them, create them, construct them, and defend them – usually with armaments. There is no abstract ‘right to exist’. Or if people think there is, let it be stated. I think many native peoples would be delighted to hear of it, including the Palestinians.

When or if Israel’s ‘right to exist’ is made ‘non-negotiable’, this makes the Palestinians’ right of return non-negotiable. If we say that any discussion or doubt about Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitic or ‘hors du combat’ , or not up for debate, then in so doing we accord Israel its right to have founded a nation based on dispossession, and that it is entitled to claim continued dispossession. In fact, Israel demands that all peace negotiations begin with acceptance of its ‘right to exist’. Rather than this demand being described as unacceptable, and that this demand has at its heart at the very least some racist overtones towards the dispossessed, the situation is reversed and it is those who question this, who are told that we are the racists.

The main justification for this demand seems to be that the holocaust (genocide of European Jews) took place. This justification is not a universal rule or law. There has been the attempted genocide of the native people’s of Australia and north America. The ‘best’ that either of these peoples got from the conquerors and/or the international community in terms of land were ‘reservations’. They are not accorded any status in terms of a ‘right to exist’ as nations.

To be clear, it is quite possible for what I am saying here to be part of an antisemitic line of thought ie that it is part of a viewpoint which hates all Jews because they are Jews. What I am talking about here is to do with founding principles of nation states, and people’s rights.

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7 Comments

  1. Roland Laycock October 25, 2016 at 4:45 pm - Reply

    Does Israel have a right to exist NO it is built on blood amde muders and should have no place in a civilised world

  2. Barry Davies October 25, 2016 at 6:25 pm - Reply

    The problem is that nations like Australia and the USA are considering whether the original peoples of the nations they invaded and took over if the palestinians regain they land why not other original nationals?

  3. casalealex October 25, 2016 at 9:51 pm - Reply

    “We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly. Let the owners of the immoveable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.” Theodor Herzl

  4. Harry October 25, 2016 at 10:42 pm - Reply

    Zionists have no rights whatever to any Palestine lands. In any event Zionists are not Jew specific: Rather they hide behind Jews. Dr Ezzat has spent years delving into the truth behind the conspiracies: Here is one sample:-

    http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/10/20/unesco-resolution-on-jerusalem-the-hidden-truth/

    Strange isn’t it that Palestinians are likely true semites while Israelis are predominantly Russian and European Jews (Ukraine) known as Khazarians.

  5. Zippi October 26, 2016 at 11:53 am - Reply

    Country, as I understand it, is a line, drawn around peoples, who usually want nothing to do with each other, by foreigners; sometimes, those lines divide and separate peoples. £ook at Africa. Who created the African countries? The Africans? No. Hence many of the problems that we have to this day.
    There has always been conflict, dispossession and displacement, the Old Testament is full of it; it seems that when it is in neither our interests, nor that of our friends, it is bad and must be stopped at all costs. Michael Rosen mentions a couple of examples but the print of Europe’s hobnail boot stretches across the globe.

  6. johnpreid October 27, 2016 at 9:22 am - Reply

    To say Israel has. A, Right to exist while condemning the current government is Zionism, to not want a country to exist based on it being a home a door Jews is anti Jewish,to deny this is also anti Jewish to deny you’re anti Jewish by denying that saying you’re anti Israelis rght toiexist as a Jewish home land is also anti Jewish

    • Mike Sivier October 31, 2016 at 2:40 pm - Reply

      You’ve just tied yourself up in a pretty knot, haven’t you?

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