Richard Cohen is a mistake Tom Smith

Richard Cohen here mouths what I gather is the emerging wisdom of the American quasi-left — that Israel is a “mistake.”  I suppose we should contrast Israel to the immaculate way in which other nations were conceived?  Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon were all created, as I recall, by social contracts formed behind meticulously draped veils of ignorance.  And of course, the various Arab nations of northern Africa, all created when settlers came upon empty land, and built societies there with enough and as good left for everybody else.  Much as was the case for the United States, of course. 

Forgive me if I generalize, but my impression is that Israel has more warrant for existing than do most countries.  People say of the US that people came here seeking religious freedom, but I don’t recall the Church of England killing millions of anybody.  Burned a few here and there, of course, cut the occassional head, but hardly anything to get excited about.  And what countries in Africa are not imperial in origin?  Indeed, I gather from BBC World Service that the hip POV in Kenya now is that throwing the English out was a terrible mistake.  Which it was not, of course, except in the sense of the consequences.  So Europe, after doing its best to exterminate every last Jew, says, gosh, we were wrong, let’s allow a refuge for Jews, a position that it has, in its wisdom and generosity respecting Jews, subsequently repented.  And Richard Cohen comes along and says, creating that refuge was a mistake.  Well, maybe it was not as good an idea as not having a Holocaust in the first place would have been, and I’m sure most Jews would agree.  You could have a referendum about it, except that most of the people who should vote were murdered in their millions by good Europeans.  Not that the Arabs would not have, given the chance.  Oh yes, and Pakistan.  Where did that come from?  I recall something about English colonialism,  countries splitting up.  Whatever. 

I suppose if Israel had originated in an uprising in which everyone who was not Jewish was murdered in riots, and colonizers responsible for such civilization as there was, thrown out, then it would be a nice, legitimate country like the rest.  What I am trying to say is — Israel has a much better case to make for its existence than do the vast majority of countries, including our own.  Richard Cohen’s argument seems to be, you know, you Jews, you will never be welcome in that part of the world.  You will never be loved.  How will you manage?  But I think the whole point of Zionism is to reject the idea that Jews have to have the permission of anybody else to exist, that they should not have to beg anymore to be allowed to live. 

This is the root of Richard Cohen’s and a lot of other leftists’ mistake, at least those of good will, which is not all of them by any means.  They can’t get their arms around the fact the large groups of humans just get possessed for long periods of time by thoroughly depraved hatreds.  They are not the product of legitimate greivances, or if they start that way, they metasticize far beyond it. The only way to really “understand” them would be to become a monster yourself. The people in the WTC were not a bunch of little Eichmanns, and if you can really see why someone would think you, you need meds.  People get devoured by hate, as the Nazis were and as many in the Arab world are now, not only for any slightly different sort of Muslim, indistinguishable to the rest of us (like you could really explain to me without checking the difference between Shiite and Sunni), but also, for some reason, especially the Jews.  The people fighting Israel now say, shamelessly, that their goal is the destruction of Israel, and you know, in their cups, they would avow they would love to see every last Jew dead.  That is who they are.  And wanting some place with a wall around it and plenty of guns to protect yourself from such people is a mistake? 

If I ever would have thought it was, the smoking hole in Manhattan filled with human ashes convinced me otherwise.  Israel was and is a collective act of self-defense by the Jewish people , perhaps the most well justified act of self-defense in the history of the planet, which Europe, in an untoward moment of decency, somehow let slip by.  But if it was a mistake, it was of the best kind, and Europe and the Arabs should now have to live with it.  If the existence of Israel bothers the Arab nations so much, they can distract themselves by trying to build even one country that is not a pit of tyranny and medieval barbarism.  But of course, now the idea seems to be that the whole rest of the world should be brought down to that level, one planeful full of innocents at a time.  Richard Cohen and the rest of us need to face it — we are all Israelis now.