ASD Dad

“Do You Support Israel’s Right to Exist?” Mehdi Hasan FIRES BACK Mehdi Hasan: I've been debating hardcore Zionists, Israeli supporters of Israel, for years. And the conversation always comes back to one talking point: “Do you, or do you not support Israel’s right to exist?” If you don't, you're an extremist, you're an anti-Semite, you want to wipe Israel and millions of Israeli Jews off the map. But you don't have to concede on this point. It's a bullshit argument. Number one: Right to exist where? Israel is the only country in the world that refuses to define its borders. So if you want me to recognize Israel's right to exist, does that extend into Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem all considered illegally occupied territory under international law? So, right to exist where? Number two: What is this right to exist? Where does it come from? States don't have a right to exist. People, individuals have a right to exist. Human beings have that right. Not states, not countries. The USSR broke up into Russia and 14 other states. Yugoslavia broke up. Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. What happened to their “right to exist”? People have rights, not states. And number three: If there is a right to exist, does Palestine have a right to exist? Israel exists. It's a country with sovereignty, it's on the map. The idea that in a world where Israel is genociding the Palestinians in Gaza, ethnically cleansing them in the West Bank, and blocking their legal right to return the idea that Israel's right to exist is the one we should be concerned about, and not Palestine's, is both ridiculous and, let's be honest, racist.