Why Israel Is A Rogue State

From Monkey in the Middle:

Monday, November 22, 2010

A nation unlike any other in the world.

I have been wanting to post this for a couple of weeks, but events at home have prevented me from doing so.

Why Israel Is A Rogue State

On October 21, 2010, the prestigious Cambridge Union Society held a debate on the motion that "Israel is a rogue state."


In the end, the proposition was defeated, but the event didn't proceed without an unusual twist. Nineteen-year-old Gabriel Latner, one of the debaters “in favor” of the proposition, argued that, yes, Israel is a rogue state – but he spun it into a decidedly pro-Israel position.

Opening Statement

This issue is too polarizing for the vast majority of you not to already have a set opinion. I'd be willing to bet that half of you strongly support the motion, and half of you strongly oppose it... I'm tempted to do what my fellow speakers are going to do – simply rehash every bad thing the Israeli government has ever done in an attempt to satisfy those of you who agree with them. And perhaps they'll even guilt one of you rare undecided into voting for the proposition, or more accurately, against Israel. It would be so easy to twist the meaning and significance of international “laws” to make Israel look like a criminal state. But that's been done to death.

It would be easier still to play to your sympathy, with personalized stories of Palestinian suffering. And they can give very eloquent speeches on those issues. But the truth is, that treating people badly, whether they're your citizens or an occupied nation, does not make a state “rogue.” If it did, Canada, the U.S. and Australia would all be rogue states based on how they treat their indigenous populations. ...

Yes, a MUST READ, here.