The"pro-Israel" lobby's latest hobbyhorse is "delegitimization." Those whocriticize Israeli policies are accused of trying to "delegitimize" Israel,which supposedly means denying Israel's right to exist. Even President Obamahas gotten into the act, stating in his May 19 speech that "for thePalestinians, efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure."
Obama seemedto be referring to the Palestinians' plan to seek recognition of their state atthe United Nations this fall, although it's hard to imagine just how that woulddelegitimize Israel.
After all,the Palestinians are not seeking statehood in Israeli territory but interritory that the whole world (including Israel) recognizes as having beenoccupied by Israel only after the 1967 war. Rather than seeking Israel'selimination, the Palestinians who intend to go to the United Nations areseeking establishment of a state alongside Israel. (That state would encompass 22percent of Mandate Palestine, with Israel possessing 78 percent.)
The wholeconcept of "delegitimization" seems archaic. Israel achieved its "legitimacy"when the United Nations recognized it 63 years ago. It has one of the strongesteconomies in the world. Its military is the most powerful in the region. It hasa nuclear arsenal of some 200 bombs, with the ability to launch them from land,sea, and air.
In thatcontext, the whole idea of "delegitimizing" Israel sounds silly. Israel can'tbe delegitimized.
So what isthe lobby talking about?
The answer issimple: It is talking about the intensifying opposition to the occupation ofthe West Bank and the blockade of Gaza which, by almost any standard, is illegitimate.It is talking about opposition to the settlements, which are not onlyillegitimate but illegal under international law. It is talking about calls for Israelto grant Palestinians equal rights.
The lobby'sdetermination to change the subject from the existence of the occupation to theexistence of Israel makes sense strategically. Israel has no case when it comesto the occupation, which the entire world (except Israel) agrees must end. ButIsrael certainly has the upper hand in any argument over its right to exist andto defend itself.
That is whyPrime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu routinely invokes Israel's "right toself-defense" every time he tries to explain away some Israeli attack onPalestinians, no matter whether they are armed fighters or innocent civilians. Ifthe whole Israeli-Palestinian discussion is about Israel's right to defenditself, Israel wins the argument. But if it is about the occupation -- which is,in fact, what the conflict has been about since 1993 when the PLO recognizedIsrael -- it loses.
It wasn'tthat long ago that neither the Israeli government nor the lobby worried aboutthe "forces of delegitimization."
On thecontrary, in 1993, following Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's recognition of the Palestinians'right to a state in the West Bank and Gaza, nine non-Arab Muslim states and 32of the 43 sub-Saharan African states established relations with Israel. Indiaand China, the two largest markets in the world, opened trade relations. Jordansigned a peace treaty and several of the Arab emirates began quiet dealingswith Israel.
The Arabboycott of Israel ended. Foreign investment soared. No one discussed"delegitimization" while much of the world, including the Muslim world, wasknocking on Israel's door to establish or deepen ties.
That trendcontinued so long as the Israeli government seemed to be genuinely engaged inthe peace process.
The mostgraphic demonstration of Israel's high international standing back then occurredat Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in 1995, which rivaled PresidentKennedy's in terms of international representation.
Leaders fromvirtually every nation on Earth came to pay homage to Rabin: President Clinton,Prince Charles, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, every European president orprime minister, top officials from most of Africa and Asia (including India andChina), Latin America, Turkey, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, and Tunisia.Yasir Arafat himself went to Mrs. Rabin's Tel Aviv apartment to express hisgrief.
The worldmourned Rabin because under him, Israel had embraced the cause of peace withthe Palestinians. The homage to Rabin was a clear demonstration -- as was theopening of trade and diplomatic relations with formerly hostile states -- thatIsrael was not being isolated because it is a Jewish state and hence illegitimate,but because of how it treated the Palestinians.
And that isthe case today. It's not the Palestinians who are delegitimizing Israel, but theIsraeli government which maintains the occupation. And the leading delegitimizeris Binyamin Netanyahu, whose contemptuous rejection of peace is turning Israelinto an international pariah.
Sure,Netanyahu received an embarrassing number of standing ovations when he spokebefore the United States Congress. But that demonstrates nothing except thepower of the lobby. It is doubtful that Netanyahu would get even one standingovation in any other parliament in the world -- and that includes Israel's. Theonly thing we learned (yet again) from Netanyahu's reception by Congress isthat money talks. What else is new?
So let'signore the talk about "delegitimization," even though Madison Avenue message-makerscertainly deserve credit for coming up with that clever distraction. Israel'sproblem is the occupation, the Israeli government that defends it, and thelobby that enforces support for it in Congress and the White House.
Once again,Israel's "best friends" are among its worst enemies.