wish state. In addition, there has
             always been an assumption in Israel, that if Israel was ever defeated militarily, there would be a
             systematic slaughter of virtually the entire Jewish population. Decades of terrorist attacks against
             innocent Jewish civilians have confirmed such assumptions.
             This fear and mistrust has much deeper roots, however. The very survival of the Jewish
             people has been under constant threat for centuries. The Holocaust was just the most extreme of
             the periodic wave of persecution over generations which has left a deep seated level of terror in
             large sections of the world's Jewish population (Twing 7). This internalized manifestation of
             anti-Semitism makes consistently rational strategic and diplomatic decisions on the part of
             Israelis extremely difficult even in the best of circumstances. For those in positions with a
             political, ideological or financial stake in encouraging such fears for personal gain, the
             exploitation of such widespread feelings of paranoia, isolation and imminent destruction among
             the Israeli public is not difficult. Related to this is the deeply-rooted sense by many Jews, based
             on historical experience, that no non-Jew can be trusted, and that even those seemingly willing to
             cooperate on the same level will eventually turn on them. As a result, the worldview of virtually
             Israel's entire foreign policy elite across the political spectrum, as well as for much of the
             population, is essentially Hobbesian in nature. If one's very survival is seen to be at stake, there
             is little aptitude for adherence to international law, universal standards of human rights, UN
             Security Council resolutions, or similar principles, particularly if you have the world's most
             powerful nation protecting you from the consequences of non-compliance (Twing 8).
             Due to both the real and perceived strategic vulnerability of the Israeli state, more
             ...