The Open Question: The Right Rights

National review’s editorial writer (“Or Cut Bait,” Aug. 4) makes the assertion “that Israel continues to occupy, as it has for 22 years, territory [viz, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza] to which it has no claim or title.” The same writer goes on to speak of “Israeli settlers on the West Bank” as “people who have no right to be where they are.” Had the writer said that the claims or rights in question were disputed, or disputable, he would have been on tenable ground. He speaks, however, with a confidence that is exceeded only by his ignorance.

In considering what constitutes a claim or title to dominion or sovereign rights, surely conquest in a just war must rank very high. Most such claims and titles rest only on conquest. The independence of the United States was a result of the successful war effort headed by George Washington, the justice of which was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, a document that has never found much favor among the editors of national review. The sovereignty of the United States over the 11 states that once made up the Confederacy rests upon conquest by the Union armies. The justice of that conquest— according to the Commander-in-Chief of those armies—was to be found in the proposition that all men are created equal, not the most highly admired of justifications among conservatives. The entire Southwest was wrested from Mexico by force of arms. The victories over Mexico were justified by what was called Manifest Destiny. This, one might say, is the American or non-Biblical version of the claim of divine donation by the Orthodox parties in Israel today.

HV

About the Author

Harry V. Jaffa

Featured Tags

National review’s editorial writer (“Or Cut Bait,” Aug. 4) makes the assertion “that Israel continues to occupy, as it has for 22 years, territory [viz, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza] to which it has no claim or title.” The same writer goes on to speak of “Israeli settlers on the West Bank” as “people who have no right to be where they are.” Had the writer said that the claims or rights in question were disputed, or disputable, he would have been on tenable ground. He speaks, however, with a confidence that is exceeded only by his ignorance.

In considering what constitutes a claim or title to dominion or sovereign rights, surely conquest in a just war must rank very high. Most such claims and titles rest only on conquest. The independence of the United States was a result of the successful war effort headed by George Washington, the justice of which was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, a document that has never found much favor among the editors of national review. The sovereignty of the United States over the 11 states that once made up the Confederacy rests upon conquest by the Union armies. The justice of that conquest— according to the Commander-in-Chief of those armies—was to be found in the proposition that all men are created equal, not the most highly admired of justifications among conservatives. The entire Southwest was wrested from Mexico by force of arms. The victories over Mexico were justified by what was called Manifest Destiny. This, one might say, is the American or non-Biblical version of the claim of divine donation by the Orthodox parties in Israel today.