I occasionally get email from readers suggesting that Israel is unworthy of support, or even existence, because it is an ethnic/religion-based state. So what about Poland? After World War II, Poland expelled its Germans and Ukrainians, absorbed Poles tossed out of Russia, and tolerated pogroms against the remaining Jewish population (for one source on all this, see here). A state that was ethnically and religiously diverse before WWII became homogenously ethnic Polish and Roman Catholic, and by design. No one talks about this much anymore, because there are no irredentist elements within and near Poland demanding that Poland either has no right to exist or must otherwise accommodate their corporate identities. (As an aside, this, I believe, is why Benny Morris argues that Ben-Gurion was too moderate in his War of Independence policies–I should also note that Morris, to his own surprise, came across evidence that the Arab powers ordered the Arab women and children of Palestine to evacuate the area, a point likely to be lost in the furor over his interview.)
I would add that no one after WWII, when Poland engaged in “ethnic cleansing,” claimed Poland had no right to exist, and that at the time of the expulsions from Poland, the local minorities were not allied with hostile outside powers surrounding Poland and seeking to liquidate Poland and massacre its population. So how about it–does Poland have the right to exist?
Oh, and if Israel has no right to exist, what should replace it? Certainly not an ethnically-based Palestinian state with officially Islamist policies. Perhaps the land should be turned into a Biblically-themed amusement park?
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