Existence, At Least

Alan Dershowitz THE

Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel s Wars, by Yaacov Lozowick (Doubleday, 336 pp., $26) Nations are often called upon to defend their policies, and sometimes even their history, but few need justify their existence. Nevertheless, Israel has been mired in this thankless task for the past 55 years. Not only has its right to exist been questioned, it has been accused of a multitude of international crimes, including colonialism and genocide. The Jewish state has been cast as the world’s leading human-rights violator, chargedin a cruel twist of history-with using Nazi-like tactics to achieve its goals. In the West, Israel is singled out for censure, divestment, and boycott, despite its unique role as an egalitarian nation surrounded by despotic and theocratic regimes. In 2001, delegates to the U.N. conference in Durban voted to brand Israel a “racist apartheid state” guilty of “systematic perpetration of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing.” Denunciations of this nature have been a staple of U.N. rhetoric; the most infamous resolution came in November 1975, when the U.N. ruled that Zionism was racist. From 1967 to 1988, the Security Council passed 88 resolutions aimed directly against DAVID HARSANYI Israel’s human-rights record, and rebuts charges of expansionism. He not only demonstrates Israel’s innocence, but argues that no nation in history has faced equivalent challenges and adhered to a higher standard of human rights in the process of survival. Dershowitz then goes a step further, “proactively” noting that those who criticize Israel-but not countries with far worse human-rights records-are themselves guilty of international bigotry.

About the Author

David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.

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Alan Dershowitz THE

Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel s Wars, by Yaacov Lozowick (Doubleday, 336 pp., $26) Nations are often called upon to defend their policies, and sometimes even their history, but few need justify their existence. Nevertheless, Israel has been mired in this thankless task for the past 55 years. Not only has its right to exist been questioned, it has been accused of a multitude of international crimes, including colonialism and genocide. The Jewish state has been cast as the world’s leading human-rights violator, chargedin a cruel twist of history-with using Nazi-like tactics to achieve its goals. In the West, Israel is singled out for censure, divestment, and boycott, despite its unique role as an egalitarian nation surrounded by despotic and theocratic regimes. In 2001, delegates to the U.N. conference in Durban voted to brand Israel a “racist apartheid state” guilty of “systematic perpetration of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing.” Denunciations of this nature have been a staple of U.N. rhetoric; the most infamous resolution came in November 1975, when the U.N. ruled that Zionism was racist. From 1967 to 1988, the Security Council passed 88 resolutions aimed directly against DAVID HARSANYI Israel’s human-rights record, and rebuts charges of expansionism. He not only demonstrates Israel’s innocence, but argues that no nation in history has faced equivalent challenges and adhered to a higher standard of human rights in the process of survival. Dershowitz then goes a step further, “proactively” noting that those who criticize Israel-but not countries with far worse human-rights records-are themselves guilty of international bigotry.