Map shows full list of countries that want Israel wiped off face of the Earth or refuse to acknowledge it exist. No wonder Israelis have a siege mentality: PETER VAN ONSELEN
There are few nations on Earth whose very existence is up for debate. Fewer still where that debate is held not only in the United Nations General Assembly but on the streets of Sydney, London and New York.
Yet that's the uncomfortable reality Israel has lived with every day of its modern existence. A state carved born from the ashes of the Holocaust and immediately met with war.
Now, nearly 80 years on, Israel is still surrounded: geographically, diplomatically and ideologically by forces that don't just criticise its policies but question whether it should exist at all.
And yet some people can't even fathom why Israelis feel under siege.
You can't defend every Israeli decision. I don't. The country's response to Hamas sometimes shocks and appalls, and its handling of relations with Iran and the Palestinians can at times be counterproductive.
But for those with short memories or selective sympathies, Israel's actions take place in a context that is unique in modern geopolitics: it's a state surrounded by enemies, some of whom don't just hate it but want it wiped off the map entirely.
The states that want Israel gone
Let's start with Iran given the current conflict. The Islamic Republic isn't remotely shy about its intentions.
For decades, Iranian leaders have referred to Israel as a 'cancerous tumour' and 'the little Satan'. Iran has repeatedly pledged to wipe it from the face of the planet.
Which is precisely why Israel is determined to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons.
It's not just puffed up rhetoric either. Iran funds and arms proxies located right on Israel's borders, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Iran's nuclear ambitions, thinly disguised behind claims of civilian purposes, are rightly feared.
Syria, despite the implosion of its own state, remains formally at war with Israel. It has offered safe passage and logistical support to anti-Israel groups.
It has allowed Iranian military infrastructure to be set up on its territory. Every Israeli airstrike on Syrian soil counts as a pre-emptive act of self-preservation.
While some Arab states have quietly stepped back from overt hostility thanks in part to the Abraham Accords, others remain diplomatically frozen.
Saudi Arabia has toyed with recognition but still hasn't made the leap. Algeria, Iraq and Yemen remain openly hostile - with the Houthis in Yemen regularly firing rockets.
These are not minor players in the Middle East. They are regional powers with long-standing ideological or religious opposition to Israel's existence.
Terrorist groups committing genocide
Right behind the hostile states are the armed terrorist groups that operate with their blessing. Groups whose founding charters demand the destruction of Israel.
This isn't speculative or exaggerated, it's all there in black and white.
Take Hezbollah for example, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. Its 1985 open letter to the world doesn't mince words and has never been retracted: 'Our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is obliterated.'
It has thousands of rockets aimed at Israeli cities and has provoked multiple wars.
And then there is Hamas, which has long governed Gaza and fired thousands of rockets into Israel during the past few years, including before the slaughter on October 7, 2023.
Hamas' charter literally calls for the destruction of Israel. It doesn't talk about peace or a two-state solution. Rather, it calls for Islamic rule 'from the river to the sea' - a euphemism for the end of the Israel state.
Then there's Palestinian Islamic Jihad, smaller than Hamas but no less lethal or ideologically opposed to Israel's very existence. PIJ is bankrolled by Iran, is responsible for suicide bombings and rocket attacks and is committed to armed resistance as the only pathway forward.
Coexistence is not on its agenda, yet in some quarters of the Western world these groups are not even regarded as terrorist organisations. They are referred to as 'freedom fighters', a form of Orwellian rebranding that should concern us all.
Countries that still say 'no' to Israel's right to exist
As of today there are more than two dozen countries that still refuse to recognise Israel as a legitimate nation. Not rogue states or banana republics but members of the UN.
They include Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as states already mentioned. They have no formal diplomatic relations with Israel: No embassies in Israel, no Israeli embassies in their home states, nor any acknowledgement of its existence.
A significant portion of the Muslim world, with hundreds of millions of citizens, therefore regards the tiny Jewish state as illegitimate. Not just in policy terms but in principle, and that's before you factor in the noisy rejections of Israel by the likes of North Korea and Venezuela.
To be sure, the Abraham Accords - an agreement between Israel and Arab states struck under the first administration helped overcome some of the anti-Israeli sentiments around the world. The UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan all moved towards formal recognition.
But the list of holdouts remains long and politically influential.
It's also worth noting that some of the so-called moderate states have no love for Israel either. They might shake hands in Washington, but their schoolbooks, media and official rhetoric still often demonises Israel and legitimises the actions of its enemies.
The campaign to delegitimise Israel
Perhaps the most galling players in attempts to delegitimise the state of Israel can be seen in some Western universities, NGOs and parliaments: Lopsided outrage that erupts whenever Israel defends itself, but not so much when rockets fall on Tel Aviv or families are slaughtered by jihadists.
The nuance to understand Israeli reactions is lost in the very institutions that are supposed to use nuance as a cornerstone of their approaches and thinking.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement claims to target Israeli policies, but in reality it aims to isolate and weaken the state entirely. Some of its founders are open about their end goal: not a two-state solution, but no Jewish state at all.
And yet BDS continues to be embraced in Western cultural and academic circles writ large, particularly among those for whom context and consistency are optional extras.
Then there's the protest movements. In the wake of Hamas's barbaric October 7 attack, which saw over 1,200 Israelis killed and hundreds taken hostage, university students across the West held rallies against Israel. Think about that for a moment.
Civilians were butchered, babies beheaded and women raped, yet the global response in some quarters was not horror at the atrocities but outrage that Israel dared to respond.
No other nation on earth would tolerate that kind of hypocrisy and nor should Israel.
An understandable siege mentality
So yes Israel has a siege mentality. But that's not paranoia, it's realism. Israel is a country surrounded by its enemies, some of them with large armies, others with well-funded terror networks, and still more with ideological purity that rejects Israel's very right to exist. Some with nuclear weapons, others trying to develop them. How would you feel if you lived in Israel?
It's also a country that has each and every military response it makes dissected in the global media. Meanwhile its attackers are too often granted the soft bigotry of low expectations. When Israel makes a mistake, it's a war crime. When Hamas targets a bus stop, it's 'resistance'.
Criticising Israeli policy is fair game. After all, unlike almost every single one of its enemies, Israel is a democracy, where leaders face elections and journalists hold them to account.
But questioning Israel's right to exist, or pretending its strategic environment is anything other than hostile, is an abdication of intellectual honesty. And so is reflecting negatively on Israel's responses without the context it exists within.
Sympathy without context is misguided sentiment
There's no doubt the Israel Palestine conflict is messy, painful and very tragic. Innocents suffer, lives are lost and peace feels further away with every passing year.
But if you claim to care about peace or justice you cannot ignore the basic fact that one side is trying to survive in a region where its very existence is considered provocative.
Israel certainly isn't perfect. No country is, including democracies. But it is a democracy surrounded by autocracies. It is a nation born out of trauma, rejected by many the moment it arrived. Ever since it has been forced to fight for the simple right to live.
Those who rush to condemn Israel while ignoring the threats it faces every single day reveal more about their prejudices than their principles. Israel feels besieged because it is, and no amount of slogans or campus activism changes that.
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