Israel Doesn’t Have a ‘Right to Exist’… But Who Cares?

The Jewish State of Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. That’s the harsh truth. But the other part of this harsh truth is that no country in the world has a right to exist.

What does having a ‘right to exist’ even mean? People fought to establish countries. In some cases they won, and in some cases they lost. This is the way of the world.

The English and European settlers, across the Thirteen Colonies, fought to establish the United States of America. They won the War of Independence, and they therefore came to existence in 1776.

The United States then proceeded to become an imperial power – capturing, colonising, and buying more and more land. For example, they bought the Danish West Indies (which is now known as the US Virgin Islands) from Denmark in 1917. There was no referendum for the locals, but instead the imperial powers decided their future.

That same year, Britain captured Palestine in their fight against the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. They then gave the land to the Zionists, who managed to establish the Jewish State of Israel.

Was Israel’s creation morally correct? Were the Zionists / Jews the colonisers? Were the locals dispossessed? Different historians say different things: Benny Morris will say one thing, and Ilan Pappe will say the other.

But honestly, I don’t think it has any relevance to the question of whether Israel has a ‘right to exist’. The Zionists succeeded in creating the Jewish State of Israel, and that’s all that really matters here.

Just like how Ruhollah Khomeini succeeded in creating the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 against the US-backed Shah, or how the Awami League succeded in establishing Bangladesh in 1971 after fighting for independence against Pakistan. Those countries, together with all the others across the globe, don’t need a ‘right to exist’. All that matter is that they succeeded in creating their state.

The reality of the world is that the path of history is formed by the successors.