Israel is an illegitimate state, and should therefore be dismantled and reformed.

Premise I: History of the Israeli State.

Not long after World War II ended, the UN, and Britain, divided up the empire's land in the Middle East. The borders around Israel weren't so well defined then as they are today. In fact, they were more a province in an Arab state than anything else.



The two groups, Muslims and Jews, were to have equal land in the area, but the Arab states didn't approve. Not long afterwards, most of the nations in the area declared war on the Jewish State. There were over 710,000 Arab soldiers against 140,000 Israeli solders (1). After just under 10 months, the war ended. The Arabs, who invaded, was badly defeated and had to sign an Armistice.

The Armistice granted Israel independence as a separate, unique state (2). Each of the invading forces signed off, recognizing Israel's right to exist.

1) http://www.onwar.com...
2) http://www.peaceau.org...

Argument I: Definition of a Illegitimate State.

Historically, Palestine and Israel both had a claim to the land they are on. As such, both were given it, but by declaring war, and losing, Palestine lost the right to the land to Israel.

However, their claims were thousands of years old. Prior to their modern creation, the land belonged to Britain. It was their's to do with as they pleased. The claim was theirs, and they chose to split it between the two states. The Arabs, however, lost their right to the land when they signed the Armistice. That declaration is legally binding, granting Israel proper claim to that land. Even the Palestinians had to sign, granting Israel solo claim to the land. There is no question of whether or not Israel has a right to be there.

They have a historical right to the land. They were granted a right to the land by it's owner. And now they are legally bound to the land by declaration signed by the only other group they shared it with.

Argument II: Upholding Human Rights.

The idea that Israel hasn't upheld Human Rights is rather unimportant to rather or not they are a legitimate state. There is no nation in the world who can claim to have a perfect history. By Pro's logic, the US, Britain, Russia, China, India, all of Africa, Germany, France, and all of the Middle East, and so on has no right to exist.

What defines Human Rights? Every nation has a different definition. Israel has actually done very well with Human Rights. The Freedom House lists Israel has "Free". It has high amounts of freedom in each category, except for Freedom of the Press (3). Their army is also one of the most efficient at protecting innocent civilians. The average Civilian to Militant death ratio in a Middle East civil war is around 4:1. The Israeli Army's Civilian to Militant death ratio is 1:30 because of the lengths they go to protect civilians, regardless of race or religion (4).

3) http://freedomhouse.org...
4) http://www.haaretz.com...

Conclusion: Britain had right to that land, and they gave it equally to Israel and Palestine. Palestine forfeited their rights to the lands when they signed the Armistice after they and other Arab nations declared war on the small state.

Israel's right to exist as a legitimate state was granted by both Britain (original owner of the land) and the Arab states. There is no question to their right to be there.

This turned out a lot less fun than I hoped :/

Vote Con.