Does any state have a "right to exist"?

Question

Given the precondition of Hamas having to recognize Israel's "right to exist" without Israel having recognize Palestine's "right to exist", the question must be asked if any state has a "right to exist". For those wanting to delve deeper into the issue, i should like to find out what you think the "right to exist" means and how it relates to the right of a population to depose states which fail to protect the population's "inalienable rights [i.e] to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?

In order to liven informed debate, i propose answerers review an excellent article covering some of the most important arguments with regards to the rights of the state v. the rights of the governed as represented in the US Declaration of Independence. Please include to what degree do you believe the founding document's tenets should be adopted in our day.

heh, here is the link:
http://counterpunch.org/estabrook07042007.html

thanks for the attention and i hope we can engage in lively debate.

Answer 1

the way Israel was planted in Palestine by England and the terrorist tactics used to make Palestinians leave their land or die and the continuance of the divide and conquer strategies by using religion and organizations against each other IE; creating and/or strengthening Hezbollah,and Al-quida and Hamas,etc. all that has created so much hate and divisions, on purposely, so there be no way to bring peace in that region. if some people come into your home and kill your family and terror you out, would you ever agree to recognize them as a rightful owner of what was your home or the best part of your home, even if they give you one of the leaky rooms? i think that gives one a better picture. i am afraid that there never was any intentions to bring peace in that region and there never be. war ,means need for weapon and military corporations are not stupid Capitalists to support peace but to create more hate and divisions and fish the muddy waters around the world!!

Answer 2

Well, for starters, the basic issue that you seem miss is the basic fact that Israel DOES, in fact, exist.
That is what the starting point really is.
And as a contrast to that, Hamas, Fatah, and many Muslim counties do not recognize that FACT.
What does NOT recognizing that fact mean? It means that they believe that Israel should not exist thus implicitly or explicitly recognizing goals to remove Israel from existence.

Since this is Hamas' stated goal and was the PLO's stated goal, it is a BASIC requirement of Israel that ANY attempt at a peace process should first BEGIN with with the recognition that Israel a) exists and b) should continue to exist.
As is with the case with Israel, if the peace process had, in fact, produced peace, and in fact produced a peaceful Palestinian state, it would be a given that Israel would recognize its "right to exist".

Thus, if you REALLY want to have a fruitful discussion, I would suggest you instead focus on other issues that have a more direct impact on what is really going on there.

Answer 3

isreal does in fact recognize the palestinians right to exist as a state...what they do NOT recognize, is that states desire to wipe them from the face of the earth and until such time as the arabs can be made to understand that isreal is not going anywhere no matter what they do, this stalemate will continue...

now, to answer your question...no state has a 'right' to exist as 'rights' are conferred by humans on humans and as this is the case with land in general, it is taken and held and is only kept until such time as another 'state' can take it from you...just ask the indians...

Answer 4

Your question assumes that a government has any right over an individual, and more broadly has a collective right as a group of individuals to take, hold and use property for their collective benefit.

Government (which is nothing more than a collection of individuals) has not any right over any individual. They take this right upon themselves through the dictum of mob rule and application of force.

But no government on this planet has any right over any individual, no more than any one individual has any right over any other individual. We only say we do and allow ourselves to be controlled in this manner for mostly our own benefit.

Answer 5

A state's right to exist proceeds from the barrel of the guns that are held by its armed forces. Anything else is silly foo-fa-rah.

Answer 6

If you wish to have a debate......

Maybe you should leave out a link to propoganda trash.......

You had a good question, but ruined it with garbage.......