Weekly Commentary: Arab League Rejects Israel's Right To Survive

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 1 April 2010

The most generous interpretation of the position of the Arab League is that
if Israel meets all Arab demands that the member states would recognize
Israel's existence at that point in time but not its right to survive.

There is a critical difference between recognizing Israel's temporary
existence and its right to survive.

The former is no more than a form of the traditional "hudna". A temporary
ceasefire until such time that conditions make possible the defeat of the
enemy

The 28 March Arab League Sirte Declaration rejecting the recognition of
Israel as a Jewish state is a rejection of Israel's right to survive.

The Arab states should have no problem with the idea that a country is
associated with a religion. After all, the constitutions of the member
states in the Arab League all explicitly state that Islam is their official
state religion - as is also the case with the draft Palestinian
constitution.

But when the Arabs - including the Israeli Arabs - oppose Israel's
designation as being a "Jewish State" the issue goes far beyond Judaism
being reflected in Israel's national calendar and other facets of the State.
The core feature of Israel as a Jewish State that they find unacceptable is
that Jews around the world have the right to immigrate to Israeli and become
citizens.

If the Arabs recognized Israel's right to survive then it would not be so
critical to them to want to stop Jewish immigration.

Instead they press for an end to Jewish immigration along with the right of
Arabs with family ties to Israel to flood the country.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il