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The Case for Israel Is Rooted in More than Security
(Boston Globe) Jeff Jacoby - Israel's new deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely told the diplomatic corps: "We need to get back to the basic truth of our right to this land." The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, she declared, and their claim to it is as old as the Bible. "It's important to say this" when making Israel's case before the world, she said, and not to focus solely on Israel's security interests. Of course security is a profound concern, Hotovely observed, but arguments grounded in justice, morality, and deep historical rights are stronger. Jewish sovereignty wasn't regained by downplaying the historical and religious bonds linking the Jews to the land. Many world leaders and opinion-makers found those links intensely compelling. In 1891, alarmed by reports of Jews being massacred in Russia, hundreds of prominent Americans, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and future President William McKinley, signed a petition urging the restoration of Palestine to Jewish rule. President Woodrow Wilson also endorsed the Zionist cause "to help restore the Holy Land to its people." The League of Nations in 1922 unanimously recognized "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine" and the justice of "reconstituting their national home in that country."