Israel: The World’s Only Contested Nation

While 22 Arab countries and 57 states with Muslim majorities sprawl across continents, the Jewish state is subjected to a unique moral trial—one that ignores historical context, inverts victim and aggressor, and applies standards that no other nation could withstand.

A continent redrawn after 1918

Until 1916, not a single independent Arab state in the modern sense existed. The entire territory—from the Levant to Mesopotamia and the Arabian Peninsula—fell under Ottoman rule. What emerged later was not organic nation-building but a colonial partition carried out by Britain and France under League of Nations mandates. Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Transjordan were drawn with ruler and compass, not history or ethnicity. Arabs originate from the Arabian Peninsula. From the 7th century, their armies swept across North Africa in campaigns of conquest and colonization. Local peoples—Persians, Copts, Berbers, Phoenicians, Assyrians—were subjugated, forcibly converted to Islam, or assimilated. Yet today, this imperial legacy is scarcely remembered, let alone condemned.

Britain’s three colonial gifts—to one family alone The Hashemite family, hailing from the Hejaz (future Saudi Arabia), had never lived in historical “Palestine.” During World War I, Sharif Hussein’s sons—Abdullah and Faisal—joined the Arab Revolt alongside Britain against the Ottomans, leaving their homeland. Britain proved extraordinarily generous to the Arabs—gifting three sovereign states to a single dynasty with no historical roots in those lands:

• Transjordan: Winston Churchill granted Abdullah 77% of the Palestine Mandate—the lands east of the Jordan—as a personal emirate.
• Syria (briefly): Faisal became king in Damascus in 1920, only to be expelled by the French months later.
• Iraq: The same Faisal, ousted from Syria, was crowned by the British in Baghdad in 1921.

These were not liberations. They were colonial handouts—three states bestowed upon one Arabian dynasty without the slightest historical claim.

• The international community never demands their “decolonization.”
• No UN resolutions.
• No academic conferences on “Hashemite settler-colonialism.”

All 22 Arab states exist by the same blueprint. Yet only one people—the Jews—are told their national homeland is illegitimate. The “Jewish Legion” fought alongside Britain too, but the gift to the Jewish people was postponed, sketched on paper, and continually carved up for others—Arabs.

The Kurds: a real people, a real genocide, zero states

The Kurds—40 to 50 million strong—remain stateless, divided among Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein’s Anfal campaign killed up to 180,000 Kurds with chemical weapons. Turkey banned their language for decades in a bid for total assimilation.

• No global boycott like BDS.
• No student movement for “Free Kurdistan.”

The contrast with the obsession over a “Palestinian” state is stark. Trends matter more to “human rights” movements than truth.

Lebanon: a Christian refuge that ceased to be

Lebanon was created in 1920 under French mandate specifically as a haven for Middle Eastern Christians—especially Maronites. It became the “Switzerland of the Middle East”: thriving economy, banking secrecy, a parliamentary system with a guaranteed Christian presidency. Then came the PLO. Expelled from Jordan in 1970 after assassinating Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal and attempting a coup, Yasser Arafat’s group relocated to Lebanon. There, it ignited two civil wars (1975–1990), assassinated President Bashir Gemayel in 1982, and turned southern Lebanon into a terror base. The Sabra and Shatila massacre—where Christian Phalangists killed PLO fighters (in retaliation for their president’s murder) in refugee camps—was halted by Israeli forces. Ariel Sharon testified under oath in an Israeli judicial inquiry: the IDF stopped the violence. It is hard to imagine today that the slain Lebanese president was a friend of Israel, and that a once-Christian nation, a potential long-term ally, was brutally conquered by Muslims. You will hear none of this from today’s “defenders of international law”

The “Palestinians” no one wanted

After the 1948 war, Jordan annexed the West Bank; Egypt occupied Gaza. Neither country offered statehood to the Arabs of “Palestine.” No Arab state accepted “Palestinian refugees”—then or now. No UN resolutions condemned Jordan’s or Egypt’s occupation.

Moreover, the future PLO leader who, eight years later, would orchestrate the hoax of a “Palestinian people” that never existed, said it himself:

On November 1, 1956, addressing the UN Security Council, Ahmad Shukeiri—future founder and leader of the PLO—declared:

Such a thing as Palestine does not exist at all. It is nothing more than the southern part of Greater Syria.

Episodes:

• Jordan: Expelled the PLO in 1970 after “Black September”—the murder of thousands of Jordanians and the prime minister. About one million “Palestinians” fled.
• Lebanon: Waged a civil, liberation war against “Palestinian militants” of the PLO. Tens of thousands were expelled; others were killed.
• Kuwait: Deported 400,000 “Palestinians” overnight in 1991 for supporting Saddam Hussein’s invasion. No refugee status, no UN resolutions on the “ethnic cleansing” of half a million people.

Eyes wide shut

The international community condemns Jewish self-determination while ignoring:

• 22 Arab states built on conquest and colonial handouts,
• Kurdish self-determination,
• The destruction of Christian Lebanon,
• The expulsion—by their own brethren—of those who, starting in 1964, would call themselves Palestinians.

Israel is the only state in the world whose very right to exist raises questions among “humanists.” Israel is judged by a standard no other nation could meet.

Double standards, delegitimization, demonization: the 3D test:

Natan Sharansky’s test for antisemitism consists of three D:

• Double standards: Arabs received 22 states through colonial gifts. Jews built one—through legal purchase, immigration, exercising the right of an indigenous people, and following every legal procedure—and still it is not enough for the moralists.
• Delegitimization: Only Israel’s right to exist is debated in academia, media, and the UN. No other country is subjected to this paradigm.
• Demonization: The lie that Jews are “European colonizers.” Today, up to 60% of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi—descendants of communities expelled from Arab countries after 1948, who always remained in the Middle East.

Until the world abandons antisemitism and applies the same moral lens to all peoples, the campaign against Israel’s existence will continue. And history will record who remained silent.

P.S.

The image shows an ancient stone seal discovered in Jerusalem. The artifact is about 2,700 years old. On both sides, an inscription is engraved in paleo-Hebrew. In English script, it reads: “Le Yehoʼezer ben Hoshʼayahu.” The names on the seal are known from the Bible. “Yeho’ezer,” the full form of Yo’ezer, appears in the Book of Chronicles (I 12:7) as the name of one of King David’s heroes. The name “Hosh’ayahu” appears in the Book of Jeremiah 43:2, describing a man named “Azariah ben Hoshaiah” from the same period.

There is even earlier archaeological evidence: the Merneptah Stele (c. 1208 BCE), where the word “Israel” appears for the first time.

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