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How Did Israel Go from Inspiring Underdog to Supposed Oppressor?
(Wall Street Journal) Michael Oren - Israel may seem like Goliath vis-a-vis the Palestinians, but in a regional context it is David. Gaza is host to 10,000 rockets, many of which can hit Tel Aviv, and Hizbullah in Lebanon has 50,000 missiles that place all of Israel within range. Iran, which regularly pledges to wipe Israel off the map, is developing nuclear weapons. Israel remains the world's only state that is threatened with annihilation. Whether in Lebanon, the West Bank or Gaza, Israel has acted in self-defense after suffering thousands of rocket and suicide attacks against our civilians. Few countries have fought with clearer justification, fewer still with greater restraint, and none with a lower civilian-to-militant casualty ratio. Israel withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza to advance peace, only to receive war in return. Having failed to destroy Israel by conventional arms and terrorism, Israel's enemies alit on a subtler and more sinister tactic - the systematic delegitimization of the Jewish state. Israel must confront the acute dangers of delegitimization as it did armies and bombers in the past. The writer is Israel's ambassador to the U.S.