The Flawed Question of the “Right to Exist”

Before anything else, let’s be clear:

When you ask,

“Does Israel have a right to exist?”

we must first unpack what you mean by “Israel.”

Are you asking about:

The Jewish people — a religious and cultural community that has lived across the world for thousands of years, long before 1948, and will continue to exist long after?

The State of Israel — a political nation-state established 75 years ago on the land of historic Palestine?

Or Zionism — the nationalist ideology that fueled the creation of that state?

Each of these is distinct.

Each demands a different conversation.

As far as people are concerned — particularly the Jewish people — they have existed across the world for thousands of years.

Their continuity, whether viewed through theological, historical, cultural, or archaeological lenses, is a matter of fact, not a matter of opinion.

Like many peoples — the Aztecs, the Sub-Saharan African civilizations, the Chinese, and countless others — their existence is part of the broader human story.

Respect for human dignity — for all peoples — is not something to be “granted” or debated.

It is a basic truth embedded in the nature of humanity itself.

They lived long before the creation of the modern State of Israel, and, God willing, they will continue long after, regardless of political boundaries.

My reflections concern political entities and ideologies — not the inherent dignity or existence of any people.

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The Question of Authority — Creator and Conqueror

Now stepping deeper:

When someone asks whether Israel “has the right to exist,” they assume — often unconsciously — that individuals like me, or others, possess the authority to grant or deny existence.

At the level of creation, life, and soul — I do not.

I am not the Creator.

I am not the Sustainer of life and death.

I am not the author of destinies.

However, at the political level, it is historically true that victors, conquerors, and the powers that shape history have enforced the existence or collapse of states.

The victors of World War II — not ordinary citizens like you or me — carved new borders, established new political realities, and created, among other things, the modern State of Israel.

Thus, political existence can be created or destroyed by human power —

but moral legitimacy can never simply be asserted by conquest.

It must be continuously earned through justice.

And history does judge:

Vietnam judged America.

Afghanistan judged empires.

And the human soul continues to judge every project built on dispossession.

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Rights Without Responsibilities Are Hollow

Rights and responsibilities walk hand in hand.

A state that claims the right to exist must also embrace the moral obligations of existence:

   Justice toward others,

   Respect for human dignity,   Accountability for its actions.

Existence alone is not moral vindication.

How that existence is lived — whether in oppression or in justice — is what ultimately matters.

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Citizens Do Not Grant Existence

It is absurd to ask individual citizens to pass moral verdicts on the existence of entire peoples or political states.

Would you ask:

 Does America have a right to exist?

 Does Saudi Arabia’s monarchy have a right to rule?

Do the Taliban have a right to govern Afghanistan?

History is filled with messy, painful realities.

Existence is often the result of conquest, colonization, or survival.

But legitimacy — true legitimacy — comes not from force, but from justice.

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The Real Question

Thus, when the slogan “Israel’s right to exist” is raised,

the real conversation should not revolve around slogans of existence.

The real, deeper question is:

How should any state, any people, exist?

Through justice, or through dispossession?

Through dignity, or through domination?

Through compassion, or through cruelty?

Existence is a fact.

Moral legitimacy is a choice.

And ultimately, history — and the conscience of humanity — judges not whether you existed,

but how you existed.