Inalienable right

In a rare twist, Michael Oren’s conclusion is correct (“Israel’s ultimate battle: Right to exist,” July 24), but his premise is false.

Indeed, Israel must do more to educate people, from opinion leaders to ordinary folks, about the facts of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But Israel’s “right to exist” is not up for debate, unless we make it so – as Oren does in his article. Israel does not have to fight for that right any more than the United States, Britain or Mexico need to defend their right to exist.

Stating the problem in his terms, Oren makes it sound as if we must react with panic and stem the tide of haters who, unchecked, will certainly eliminate the state of Israel.

Nonsense. It’s Oren and the policy he represents that are the problem, keeping us all fearfully looking over our shoulders for the next threat.

So US Congress representatives don’t know the facts about the conflict? Oren himself was Israel’s ambassador to the US for four years, as recently as 2013. So isn’t this at least partly his own failure? Why imply that some amorphous, inevitable threat is to blame?

We need to stop running scared and start dealing with our enemies from a position of strength and confidence. If we concentrate on that, we can accomplish our goals – but even if we don’t, we will exist quite nicely, thank you, and we don’t need government officials to express doubts about that. MARK LAVIE Rehovot