The Right To Exist

I know there are some major issues going on in the Middle East.

I guess that is an understatement. I am getting a bit tired of people who simply parrot one side of the issue, and seem to go on and on about how Arabs are evil; how Muslims have these terrible nasty things written in their Holy Book, and yet ignore the similar nasty and horrible commands by God in the Old Testament books.

One of the things that I hear over and over is that Israel as a nation "has a right to exist."

Ok... let's forget about Israel for a moment, and focus on this notion of a nation having a "right to exist." What sort of "right" and from where does it come exactly? Do all nations have a right to exist? Or does Israel have some "special" right that no other nation has, to exist?

Perhaps we need to define what "rights" are to answer the question properly. If there is some "right" for nations to exist (and then we need to define "existence" as well), and it does not simply apply to Israel, but to ALL nations, that leaves us with some questions, does it not?

If all nations have a "right" to exist, then why were not other nations fighting for the continuing right of the former USSR, to exist? Today, there is no such political entity as the USSR. But if the USSR had a right to exist, then why does it not still exist?

Why did all the other nations not stand up and when it was breaking up, defend the USSR's so called "right to exist?"

If Israel has a right to exist as a nation, does Lubbock, Texas have the same right? Does the state of Oregon have that right?

So what exactly is a "nation's right to exist?"

Why does it not apply to the Gaza Strip and West Bank? Who is supposed to "declare" the nation for the "right" to be a right in the first place?