This fear for the existence of the state is not simply a transitory demonstration of collective paranoia; nor is it just an extreme case of populist fear-mongering. In fact, its consistent articulation in the official as well as the intellectual discourse indicates something much more deep-rooted.

It is my contention that Israel's "existential fear", when interpreted as a concern for the continuity, legality and moral foundations of the Israel qua Jewish state, is quite genuine, though morally deplorable.

It emanates from several compelling facts exposed by the Al-Aqsa Intifada, whose heartbeat has resurrected the initial crime committed by the Zionists in 1948 against the indigenous Arab-Palestinian people.

As the Israeli writer Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi says,
"Israelis seem to be haunted by…the curse of the original sin against the native Arabs.
How can Israel be discussed without recalling
the dispossession and exclusion of non-Jews?
This is the most basic fact about Israel,
and no understanding of Israeli reality is possible without it.