Liel Leibovitz
Tablet, Nov. 28, 2021
“The debate about Israel is heated precisely because it’s not about Israel at all, but about the shape of the world, the nature of virtue, and the future of everything from economic structures to international relations.”
Why are so many of our self-appointed intellectual and moral betters so obsessed with Israel? You could take their protestations at face value, and believe it’s a mere coincidence that these crusaders for social justice single out the world’s only Jewish state for calumny rather than focus on, say, the evils of China or Syria. You could press rewind and argue that this faddish obsession is merely the most modern manifestation of a very ancient hatred. Or you could acknowledge a thornier, more complicated, and often ignored truth that subtly shapes this entire debate: Any way you look at it, Israel is the most legitimate state on Earth, and therefore the pillar on which the legitimacy of the global order of nation-states rests.
Does this strike you as just a bit of overblown hasbara? Think again: The debate about Israel is heated precisely because it’s not about Israel at all, but about the shape of the world, the nature of virtue, and the future of everything from economic structures to international relations.