Israel’s right to defend itself “does not grant us the right to oppress others,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz once warned in an editorial. Seizing new land requires ruling that land, and rule without representation brings resistance. In turn, it continued, “resistance brings in its wake oppression. Oppression brings in its wake terrorism and counterterrorism.”
Published after the Six-Day War in 1967, it was as true then as it is now. The dire situation Haaretz predicted has, in fact, come to pass. Israel’s willingness to oppress Palestinians and neighbouring states has become not only intolerable but also dangerous to its own survival.
