We’re really great at knowing where thresholds are after we fall off the
cliff, but that’s not very helpful,” as lake ecologist and “tipping
point” researcher Stephen Carpenter told USA today in 2009.
Israel could very well be approaching such a threshold. Among the many
developments that could be creating the required critical mass one can
cite the passage of time since the Twin Towers attacks in September
2001, which placed Israel in the same camp as the U.S. and the West in
the War on Terror; Israel’s isolation in the campaign against Iran’s
nuclear programs; the disappearance of repelling archenemies such as
Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gadhafi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and, to a lesser
degree, Yasser Arafat; the relative security and lack of terror inside
Israel coupled with its own persistent settlement drive; and the
negative publicity generated by revelations of racism in Israeli
society, the image of its rulers as increasingly rigid and right wing
and the government’s own confrontations with illegal African immigrants
and Israeli Bedouin, widely perceived as being tinged with bias and
prejudice.
In recent days, American statesmen seem to be more alarmed about the
looming danger of delegitimization than Israelis are. In remarks to both
the Saban Forum and the American Joint Distribution Committee this
week, Secretary of State John Kerry described delegitimization as “an
existential danger." Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to the same JDC
forum, went one step further: “The wholesale effort to delegitimize
Israel is the most concentrated that I have seen in the 40 years I have
served. It is the most serious threat in my view to Israel’s long-term
security and viability.”