Israel is a nation among nations

Friends of Israel, an organization started by such pro-Western figures as John Bolton and former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, has authored a petition that you can sign.  It’s a strange petition, not in what it says — is is honest, logical, factual and moral — but in that we’ve entered a Bizarro World era that even makes necessary statements to the effect that Israel is a sovereign nation entitled to self-defense:

1. Israel is a Western country. With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.

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3. Israel, as a sovereign country, has the right to self-defense. Israel is indeed a normal Western country, but it is one which faces unique threats and challenges. Israel is the only state in the world forced to fight one war after another to secure its very existence. Confronting some of the most violent and well equipped terrorist groups in the world it is also the only country whose right to self-defense is consistently and widely questioned. Today, Israel has been forced to fight on two fronts: one to defend its borders and another to defend its legitimacy. We stand with Israel, and demand that it be accorded the same legitimacy and the same right to defend itself as any other Western country. Human rights statutes designed to defend the dignity of people everywhere, laws on universal jurisdiction intended to be used against criminals and tyrants and international bodies established to secure justice, have been subverted, their guiding principles stood on their head, to wage war against Israeli democracy. The campaign against Israel is corroding the international system from within.

I’m never sure how much heft these online petitions ultimately have, but this one should — and it will have more heft if hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, sign.  Please put your signature on it and forward the link to friends and family.