A great article in the Wall Street Journal from Bret Stephens on Israeli Independence. I’ve excerpted a few of the salient points:
Between January 2003 and March 2008, tiny Israel was condemned [by the UN] no fewer than 635 times… North Korea was cited a mere 60 times.
For reasons both telling and mysterious, Israel has become unpopular among that segment of public opinion that calls itself progressive. This is the same progressive segment that believes in women’s rights, gay rights, the rights to a fair trial and to appeal, freedom of speech and conscience, judicial checks on parliamentary authority. These are rights that exist in Israel and nowhere else in the Middle East. So why is it that the country that is most sympathetic to progressive values gets the least of progressive sympathies?
[Israel] has survived mainly through courageous and improbable acts of assertion, yielding an unfolding set of realities that defied perception. It’s the only formula by which Israel’s next 60 years may be assured.