1.
Then comes the all-purpose, winning argument: "I support Israel's right to self-defense." This statement gives the speaker a false moral high ground from which to accuse us of the most heinous crimes - genocide, the intentional killing of infants and children, and ethnic cleansing. (Which is exactly what Hamas perpetrated against us on October 7.) True, our enemies often base their accusations on irresponsible statements made by figures within our own society, but before addressing those internal betrayals, it is essential to challenge this foundational claim.
We have become accustomed to hearing foreign diplomats and leaders preface their criticisms of us with this mantra, repeating the phrase like a hollow article of faith, a ritual of the well trained. Television anchors do the same. The sister phrase to this is: "We support Israel's right to exist."
2.
I have yet to see a single guest invited to speak in our favor stop to challenge that preliminary statement. Yet this is the very phrase that legitimizes the blood libels hurled at us. Isn't it time to draw the line here? Should we be grateful for someone affirming our right to breathe? Our lives do not depend on their permission. We do not need anyone's approval to defend ourselves.
These declarations are relics of an old, exilic foreign policy, one that saw the nations of the world as doing us a great favor by recognizing our right to exist or maintaining diplomatic ties with us.
But stating that Israel has a "right to self-defense" is an empty phrase with no real-world application, since it implies only passive defense, simply pushing back a threat. Some intellectuals have even taken it further, arguing that victory has no value. In their view, Israel need not win, just defend itself. Any action beyond that might be considered a "war crime," or close to it.
3.
Excuse us? Are we supposed to ask for your permission to exist, or to defend ourselves? That is very kind of you; in return, we will support your right to live and even drink water.
This is not wordplay: those who claim to be our friends cause the real damage to Israel's standing in the global consciousness war.
They earn their "certificate of virtue" by making empty declarations in support of our right to exist and defend ourselves, while using those same declarations to immediately pivot into denouncing the very basis of our existence, by spreading blood libels against IDF soldiers, Israeli leaders, and the Jewish state as a whole.
4.
So no, we do not need these declarations, just as we do not expect you to thank us for supporting your right to live and defend yourselves. If you wish to say something meaningful, let us hear support for Israel's right to destroy its enemies, to pursue and eliminate them, as King David stated some 3,000 years ago: "I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back until they were destroyed. I crushed them so they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet… I ground them as fine as dust before the wind" (Psalms 18:37-42). This is the biblical foundation of Western civilization. A civilization that limits itself to passive defense rather than the destruction of its enemies, risks those enemies rapidly regaining strength, as the motivation to attack us never dissipates.
If civilians are harmed, it is not because Israel desires it.On the contrary, Israel issues advance evacuation warnings and organizes shelters and humanitarian aid for the enemy's civilian population. Civilians are harmed because the enemy uses them as human shields, banking on the assumption (which held until October 7) that it could murder Israelis with impunity, because the IDF would restrain itself to avoid civilian casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure.
5.
In a rare moment of clarity, former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock - now president of the UN General Assembly - said in the Bundestag in October 2024, in reference to the war in Gaza: "Self-defense of course means not just attacking terrorists but also destroying them. That is why I made it clear that when Hamas terrorists hide behind people and schools, we face a very complex issue, but we are not deterred. That is why I clarified at the UN that civilian sites might lose their protected status due to abuse by the terrorists. This is Germany's position, and that is what Israel's security means to us."
Please copy and paste this into every debate.
