The State Department was right to reject Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the Iran nuclear deal to include Israel’s “right to exist.” Israel’s right to exist is the right of the Jewish people – and does not require America, Iran or anyone else to give approval on that right.
In a 1977 speech in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Prime Minister Menachem Begin addressed this very issue, noting: “Our right to exist – have you ever heard of such a thing? Would it enter the mind of any Briton or Frenchman, Belgian or Dutchman, Hungarian or Bulgarian, Russian or American, to request for its people recognition of its right to exist?
… We were granted our right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization four thousand years ago. Hence, the Jewish people have an historic, eternal and inalienable right to exist in this land, Eretz Yisrael, the land of our forefathers. We need nobody’s recognition in asserting this inalienable right. And for this inalienable right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of nations.
Because our Jewish state needs no American affirmation of our right to exist. Our Hebrew bible established that right millennia ago. Never, throughout the centuries, did we ever abandon or forfeit that right. Therefore, sir, we alone, the Jewish people – no one else – are responsible for our country’s right to exist.”
Later, in 1977 there was an exchange between Prime Minister Begin and then American President Jimmy Carter in the White House. At the end of a meeting, Carter handed a document summarizing their meeting to Begin and asked for his approval to disseminate the short document.
Begin read the brief text and responded, “Totally acceptable, Mr. President, but for one sentence – Please delete the sentence which reads, ‘The United States affirms Israel’s inherent right to exist.’” Carter, asked, “But why?” and was told by Begin, “Because our Jewish state needs no American affirmation of our right to exist. Our Hebrew Bible established that right millennia ago. Never, throughout the centuries, did we ever abandon or forfeit that right. Therefore, sir, we alone, the Jewish people – no one else – are responsible for our country’s right to exist.”
The State of Israel exists – and decides what is right for the Jewish people. What can never be broken is the Jewish commitment – and right – to the Land and State of Israel.
Similarly, the world should expect that the State of Israel will protect the rights of the country – and her citizens – regardless of those who expect dictators and terrorists to abide by so-called “peace deals.”