Given the increasingly egregious behavior of Israel, this is a question that has become increasingly more timely. In a very important interview:
“…International lawyer Craig Mokhiber, examines the political nature of the escalating attack on the International Criminal Court – and on prospects for accountability for Israel’s genocide. We also talk about his latest article challenging the constant demand that Palestinians and their supporters affirm Israel’s ‘right to exist.’”, from, Why Israel has no right to exist, with Craig Mokhiber, which is highly recommended.
The Origin of Human Rights:
Is is useful to understand that all human rights are based in the nature of what it means to be human, that is, human nature1, which is why animals do not enjoy the same rights as human beings. For example, while individual human beings have a right to life, once conceived, nations do not.
No Nation has a “Right” to exist:
Technically speaking, “no nation has the right to exist as a matter of law or fact”, says Craig Mokhiber. Proof of this is that they come into and go out of existence for a variety of reasons. Consider that nations represent artificial agglomerations of people confined by borders/boundaries that are not even fixed over time, let alone space, in many instances. In a very real sense, a nations’ existence is a privilege that comes with duties and responsibilities. Nations must behave according to appropriate moral and legal principles as a peaceful member of the community of nations. For example, unjust, offensive aggression against a lawfully sovereign nation state is always morally/legally wrong and prohibited because it is composed of human beings, all of whom enjoy the same human rights. From an international legal perspective, the people of lawfully constituted nations have a right to sovereignty, polity and self-determination.
Israel’s “Right to Exist” is Used as a Hammer:
Mokhiber alleges that Israel has no moral or legal “right to exist” because of the way in which it was created (theft of the land of others and the institution of an Apartheid state). According to him, the claim is a self-serving fiction that Israel and its supporters use to intimidate people into submission and to silence their justifiable criticisms of Israeli genocidal land-stealing over the course of its existence.
Does violation of International Law Nullify National Sovereignty?
Many countries violate international law at one time or another. Doing so, Mokhiber argues, does not erase their sovereignty unless those violations were integral to the founding of the state or nation (such as genocide, denial of self-determination, forced expulsion/displacement etc.).2 All of these are immoral/illegal and any nation that commits them, is illegitimate and should not be recognized as a lawful entity. Mokhiber purports that since Israel was founded (and been sustained ever since), by unlawful means, no countries should have recognized it as a proper legal entity. He says that the UN establishment of the Jewish state was illegal under international law.3 It was also immoral under traditional moral principles.4
Establishing/Maintaining an Ethnosupremacist State is Illegal:
An additional issue, according to Mokhiber, is that under international law, no nation has the right to maintain itself as an ethnosupremacist state that excludes or otherwise discriminates against (aka a punishing apartheid state) members of it. The idea that Israel is a “Jewish state” or provides a “Jewish [homeland” for a chosen]5/special class of people at the expense of others, is contrary to international law, international humanitarian law, traditional moral principles and should be repudiated/condemned.
The role of Deception/Paranoia:
Israel and its Zionist friends throughout the world, inherently know that it has no moral or legal right to exist and are paranoid about it being disclosed and widely accepted. That, more than anything else is the reason why, in an act of grand deception, Zionist forces impose a purity or litmus test on humanity by demanding that everyone declare that Israel (and no other nation) has the “right” to exist. This is a duplicitous attempt to create a false reality and should be seen as such by all people of good will.
The Faulty Theological Argument for “Promised Land”/”Chosen People”6:
This point was not discussed in the video but is critical to understand since many Zionists appeal to it in arguing that Israel has a “right to exist.” The Land Grand and Chosen People status given by God to the ancient Israelites was conditional (based upon obedience to their covenant obligations which included the acceptance of their prophesied and long-awaited, Jewish Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth who they rejected and had crucified). As a result, they lost all claims to both. I have written about this in detail in the past:
“A Central Zionist Claim:
Zionists allege that the ancient Israelites never lost their “chosen people” status or the land granted to Abraham by God. The claim that the Land Grant was permanent or without qualification is incorrect, since it is the result of selecting only those OT passages which do not mention the importance of obeying all God’s commands, included in the Abrahamic covenant and later incorporated in the Sinai (Mosaic) covenant between God and Moses (on behalf of the Israelites). God never said the Israelites would forever possess the land no matter what they did or failed to do as if they had no responsibility to perform their duties under the covenant and obey God’s commands. If all the relevant passages are included, the very opposite is the case.
Land Grant and Chosen People Status Contingent upon Covenant Obedience:
To put an even finer point on it, the Chosen People status and Land Grant, were contingent upon the ancient Israelites meeting their responsibilities under the Old (Abrahamic and Mosaic) covenants, that is, [obeying all of God’s commands] (idolatry [not worshipping false gods] being the most important). They repeatedly failed to do so and therefore, lost both. The final indictment was to the Pharisees, delivered verbally by Jesus Christ (Matthew 21:33-45, especially 43-45), prior to His crucifixion. The Old covenant ends after [Christ is condemned to death and dies on the Cross], which results in the tearing of the temple veil (Matthew 27:51) From there it passes to the Church, instituted by Christ. The last instructions Christ gave before ascending into heaven were precise. Here is the quintessential passage in which this is made clear.
“18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”, (Matthew 28:18-20).
The church that Christ instituted has replaced the Old Covenant and the chosen people are now members of Christ’s body/the body of Christ.”7
Another problem with the “Chosen People” claim is that the Jews, largely from Europe, who settled Palestine after 1948 are not Semites. They lack biological/genetic lineage to ancient Israelites to whom the promises were made. Even had these two disqualifications not existed, the creation of a Jewish state on stolen land would have been invalid.
Greater Israel Project is Alive/Well and Progressing:
As if the way in which Israel was brought into existence was not bad enough, there is the 79 year history of Genocidal land-stealing known as the Greater Israel Project that is still ongoing:
“The entire world stood aside while Zionist Israel appropriated Palestine into Israel and stole a country from its people.As if this wasn’t enough, the entire world stood aside while Israel finished off Palestine with the Gazan Genocide.In the Western World those who protested the Genocide were expelled from university, fired from their jobs, and in England were imprisoned.To accuse Israel of genocide became a hate crime even as the genocide in full view proceeded.
Now Israel has begun the absorption of Lebanon and Syria into Greater Israel.The Israeli violence in the Middle East will continue.The cross hairs are still on Iran and Saudi Arabia and Turkey. As Israeli government ministers have proclaimed Greater Israel is from the Nile to Pakistan.”
Below is the original Zionist map of Greater Israel. In the last couple of years Israeli government ministers have held up maps showing an expanded version–’from the Nile to Pakistan.’”
Even if the Zionist entity had been lawfully created (it wasn’t), its subsequent behavior has been morally and legally reprehensible/unacceptable. Its entire existence has been one war crime/crime against humanity after another. This means the genocidal Zionist regime is an illegitimate/dangerous state that in the interest of humanity, should end.
After almost 80 years of genocidal land-stealing, and those with the power to stop it refusing to act, it is incumbent upon each and every person to speak the truth and seek justice for the victims of this atrocity. The genocide, ethnic cleansing, demographic displacement/expulsion in the Middle East must stop. To remain silent is to acquiesce in unspeakable crimes.
The perennial teaching is that human beings are, (as part of being created in the Divine image [imago Dei]), endowed with a fixed human nature and certain rights which flow from that nature. These rights cannot/should not be rescinded by any power on earth since they are God-given and not of human origin. Specifically, no human person or ruling entity can grant human rights or take them away.
If a properly established nation suddenly becomes an international gangster regime as for example, Nazi Germany did, it then becomes a pariah, subject to sanctions and if necessary, even total elimination (e.g. through war if nothing less will suffice) as a governing entity even though the people who reside there are given a chance to once-again establish a morally and legally legitimate government. This precedent could be applied to the Zionist entity in Palestine.
The land given to Israel on the basis of the UN mandate was stolen from Palestinian Arabs which was illegal under international law and gravely immoral under traditional moral principles including the Natural Law. It was also illegal because it established a punishing Apartheid ethnosupremacist state, maintained by genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced expulsion of indigenous people.
Stealing is always morally wrong. This has been accepted for thousands of years. Recall “Thou shalt not steal”, from the Decalogue (Exodus 20:15). After all, it is not as if the Palestinian Arabs voluntarilly sold the land to the Zionists.
Many Zionists cite the following passages and others like them as a justification for pursuing Zionist Greater Israel,
A. Scriptures that in isolation imply a perpetual land grant.
“12 Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”,(Genesis 12:1).
“3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you (through Jesus Christ) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”, (Genesis 12:3)
“7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”, (Genesis 12:7).
“18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.”, (Genesis 15:18);
“3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you (Isaac), and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.”, (Genesis 26:3).
“5 Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”, (Exodus 19:5-6).
6“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.”, (Deuteronomy 7:6);
B. Scriptures that say the ancient Israelites must obey God’s covenant commands/demands to continue possessing the land.
“32 You shall be careful to do therefore as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you shall possess.”, (Deuteronomy 5:32-33).
“6Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it;2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them; that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”,(Deuteronomy 6:1-3).
“13 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him and swear by his name.14 You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you; 15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”,(Deuteronomy 6:13-15).
“17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers.”, (Deuteronomy 6:17-18).
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”, (Deuteronomy 7:9).
“1All the commandment which I command you this day you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers.”, (Deuteronomy 8:1).
22 For if you will be careful to do all this commandment which I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and cleaving to him, 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall be from the wilderness and Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphra′tes, to the western sea. 25 No man shall be able to stand against you (provided you obey God’s commands); the Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.”, (Deuteronomy 11:22-25).
“63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you; and you shall be plucked off the land which you are entering to take possession of it. 64 And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples (loss of promised land), from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.”, (Deuteronomy 28:63-64).
Notice that God demands/commands obedience. His covenant requirements must be kept in order to be considered “His people” and to continue in possession of the land. His people are to be holy not sinful. The ancient Israelites repeatedly violated their responsibilities, losing the land and the “chosen people” designation.
On the wickedness of Juda,
“2Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: ‘Sons have I reared and brought up but they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.’ (Even dumb animals know to whom they belong, but the ancient Israelites of Juda apparently did not) 4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.” (an apt description of Zionist enemies of the Gospel of Christ), (Isaiah 1:2-4), circa 739-681 BC.
My Commentary:
The “Holy One of Israel” was a reference to the coming Messiah (Jesus of Nazareth) who the people of Juda were said to despise, even though He had not been born yet. This prefigures the first century Jewish/Pharisees rejection of Jesus as God/Messiah.
The Jews of Isaiah’s time rejected God by virtue of failing to keep/obey their covenant duties as did those in the time of Moses when they committed idolatry with the Golden Calf. Over a period of ~2000 years, the “chosen people” repeatedly rebelled against God. The Church Fathers of East and West agree that what is involved is not a temporary lapse but a permanent disposition that culminated with the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth (The Christ/Messiah/Savior) after being warned over 600 years earlier and repetitively. For a video exegesis see, The Ox Knows Its Owner. The Jews Do Not. | Isaiah 1:2–4 Explained.
“43 ‘Therefore I tell you; the kingdom of God will be taken away from you (the Jews as represented by the Pharisees) and given to a nation producing the fruits of it. 44 And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.’5 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.”, (Matthew 21:43-45).
My commentary: Christ spoke as God/man in describing Himself as a “stone”, the full context of which is, “The stone the builders rejected has become the head of the corner (cornerstone”, (Psalm 118:22). This stone, would break to pieces/crush anyone who failed to recognize His authority. The Pharisees were incensed when they understood Christ’s claim to divinity, proven by performing miracles and they began plotting to kill him, “14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.”, (Matthew 12:14); Mark 3:3-6 and Luke 6:6-12.
Hell no. They only exist because we have given them the power to do so. Remember, there is no such thing as power other than what you allow to exist by surrendering your freedoms.
Hell no. They only exist because we have given them the power to do so. Remember, there is no such thing as power other than what you allow to exist by surrendering your freedoms.
No, no nation has a "right" to exist.
That's why nations must maintain armies,
to make it more difficult for the country to be conquered by a neighboring country.