I don't get it? Where is he "badly wrong." Sounds like a realistic description to me.
Interviewer: There has been much debate regarding the legitimacy of
> the Israeli state. To what extent is Israel a legitimate, or an
> illegitimate, state?
>
> Chomsky: I don't think that the notion of legitimacy of a state means
> very much. Is the United States a legitimate state? It's based on
> genocide; it conquered half of Mexico. What makes it legitimate? The
> way the international system is set up, states have certain rights;
> that has nothing to do with their legitimacy. Every state you can
> think of is based on violence, repression, expulsion, and all sorts
> of crimes. And the state system itself has no inherent legitimacy.
> It's just an institutional form that developed and that was imposed
> with plenty of violence. The quetion of legitimacy just doesn't
> arise. There is an international order in which it is essentially
> agreed that states have certain rights, but that provides them with
> no legitimacy, Israel or anyone else.
>
> <
> http://falsedichotomies.com/2006/10/17/the-legitimacy-of-israel-noam-chomsky/
> >
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>
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