A nation of survivors and the descendants of survivors, Israel has now survived for 64 difficult years. By this point it would seem to have staked a reasonable claim on the affections of all nations that share its beliefs in honest elections, independent judges and freedom of speech and commerce. But in the community of democratic states Israel is more often regarded with suspicion. Unwarranted hostility is one of the forces it routinely faces while pursuing survival.

Its sworn enemies are routinely treated with more sympathy. The universities of North America have become comfortable homes for a pro- Palestinian movement that is genially tolerated despite its outrageous rhetoric and mobster tactics. The world’s leftists, once admirers of Israel’s progressive social experiments, have become implacable enemies. The UN is so profoundly prejudiced against Israel that most people, inside and outside Israel, no longer notice its behaviour; those who believe UN reports must also believe Israel commits more crimes against human rights than all other nations combined.

Most democratic governments believe they know precisely how Israel should solve its problems. They do not hesitate to pass their opinions along to Jerusalem, often in the form of demands. It appears that Israel fails to live up to the moral standards of Britain, France and other countries. In fact, the only nation that habitually gives Israel the benefit of the doubt, rather than the benefit of harsh advice, is Canada. Patriotic Israelis must feel on some days that nearly every foreign voice speaks out against them.

How can this be? Israel’s history is difficult and complicated. The world finds it hard to understand.

When Roman power obliterated Jerusalem in the year 70, Jews were left stateless and defenceless. Some remained in Palestine. Others somehow maintained their religion and identity in whatever new homes they found. But they lived as outsiders who could be displaced whenever their host countries wanted them gone. In the late 19th century the Zionist movement began to plan for a permanent home, centred on Jerusalem; in 1909 the first new Jewish town was created, Tel Aviv. In the 1940s, Hitler, by killing 6 million Jews, turned the dream of a secure homeland into a matter of urgent necessity.

The British, governors of Palestine under an international mandate, had promised that Jewish and Arab states would share the territory. In 1947 the UN approved a two-state partition, which the Jews accepted but the Arabs did not. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared independence. Immediately the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq invaded. The secretary-general of the Arab League, Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, had predicted this would be a massacre, “a war of elimination.” But Israel soon turned back the invaders and secured its territory (though not all of the city of Jerusalem).

In May, 1967, the Arab states again decided they could not tolerate Israel’s existence. They gathered their armies and moved toward its borders. “The Arab people want to fight,” said president Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, the most powerful Arab of the day. “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.” Egypt, Jordan and Syria had help from Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria. Israel was outnumbered about two to one in troops, three to one in tanks and combat aircraft. Israel struck first and won. The Six-Day War ended on June 10 with the land controlled by Israel having expanded about 100%.

This, including the West Bank of the Jordan River, is now called occupied territory. The Arab states whose aggressive misjudgment and incompetence caused this region to fall into Israeli hands now blame Israel for the sin of acquiring it; in fact the world “colonial” is often used, as if Israel had set out on a war of conquest, like Britain or France in the past. Israel has tried to trade back this territory in various land-for-peace schemes, to no avail.

Iran is now a persistent threat, the Hamas rockets from Gaza are seldom silent and the gathering strength of the Muslim Brotherhood, just across the border in Egypt, is ominous. Israel could use the moral support of the other democracies. Hillel Harkin, a distinguished American-born Israeli author, has suggested how high the stakes are: “Zionism is the belief that the Jews should have a state. To defame Israel is to defame the Jews. To wish that it never existed is to wish to destroy the Jews.” A harsh truth, and not a truth the world is eager to embrace. (© 2012 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. 05/19/12)