Israel Is Not Unique — The Standards Applied to It Are

There is something strangely revealing about the way people speak about Israel.

Not merely criticize it. Criticism is normal. Every country on Earth is criticized. Americans criticize America. French criticize France. Israelis criticize Israel more passionately than most outsiders ever could.

No, the revealing part is something deeper.

Israel is not merely criticized as a country among countries. It is constantly treated as though it must justify its very existence, its identity, its laws, its demographics, and even the moral legitimacy of its continued sovereignty in ways almost no other nation on Earth is expected to do.

Most countries are judged by what they do.

Israel is judged by what it is.

That distinction changes everything.

People do not simply argue about a border dispute, a military operation, or a coalition government. Instead, the conversation quickly becomes metaphysical:

Israel should not exist as a Jewish state at all. Jews should not define national belonging. Jewish immigration laws should not exist. Jewish self-determination itself should be considered illegitimate. Zionism should be viewed as uniquely immoral among national movements.

And once one notices this pattern, a larger question emerges:

Why is Israel treated as an exception to the normal standards applied to every other sovereign country?

There are roughly 200 sovereign states in the world, and virtually every one of them has its own immigration laws, citizenship criteria, national priorities, and definitions of belonging.

Some countries prioritize family reunification. Some prioritize skilled workers. Some grant citizenship through ancestry. Some define themselves through language, religion, ethnicity, culture, or historical peoplehood. Some combine all of the above.

This is not unusual. This is called sovereignty.

Germany has ancestry-based citizenship provisions. Armenia does. Greece does. Ireland does. Japan carefully protects its national identity. Many Arab and Muslim states openly define themselves through Arab or Islamic identity. Pakistan was explicitly founded as a Muslim homeland. Countless countries preserve demographic, linguistic, religious, or historical continuity through law and policy.

Israel does the same according to its own national definition and........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)