Livestream: Why Israel Has No “Right To Exist”

Livestream: Why Israel Has No “Right To Exist” Eli Gerzon The Electronic Intifada Podcast Israel and Iran are unique for starkly different reasons: Israel has less of a right to exist than any other country, while Iran is the only country that has stood up against the assault on international law by the US, Israel and their allies. That is according to Craig Mokhiber’s comments on The Electronic Intifada Livestream on 30 July. Mokhiber is an international human rights lawyer with more than three decades of experience. He served as director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights until he resigned in October 2023 over the world body’s failure to act against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. “This action of self-defense taken by Iran is the first truly consequential action by a member state,” Mokhiber said of Iran’s response to the US and Israeli aggression it has been facing. "This action of self-defense taken by Iran is the first truly consequential action by a member state," says former UN lawyer @CraigMokhiber. pic.twitter.com/MKoZ2rSNNs — Electronic Intifada (@intifada) August 2, 2026 Mokhiber also pointed to resistance by “students on their college campuses, by flotillas, by people’s tribunals, by demonstrations, by the resistance in Palestine, the resistance in Lebanon, by Ansarullah in Yemen.” “But this is a state,” he said of Iran. “This is a formidable state with real military, diplomatic and political capacities that has stood up and said: ‘No more.’” By contrast, Mokhiber said, every other country had either been directly complicit or looked away while the US, Israel and their allies committed serial aggression, livestreamed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. "There is no country in the world that has less of a right to exist, even a claim to statehood, than does the state of Israel," says human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber. pic.twitter.com/upW3SOndKW — Electronic Intifada (@intifada) August 3, 2026 Mokhiber also explained why no state has an inherent “right to exist” under international law and why Israel has even less of a right than any other state. Commenting on the recent dismissal of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, he said “something terribly irregular” was going on. Contributing editor Jon Elmer reported on several days’ worth of Iranian attacks on US military assets in the region during the previous week, which caused extensive damage. The US continues to threaten to escalate the war, call for a pause, then resume its attacks. On 3 August, Trump said Iran was begging for talks with the US. Iranian officials denied it. Co-host Ali Abunimah predicted on the 16 July livestream that the US would make such a claim as Trump backed away from his latest threats to target Iran’s civilian infrastructure. Watch Elmer’s full report on YouTube. Co-host Nora Barrows-Friedman reported on Israel’s expanding zone of extermination in Gaza. Israel is escalating its attacks on Palestinians as it pushes its so-called yellow line westwards and expands the death zone in Gaza, while Israeli lynch mobs and soldiers carry out pogroms in the occupied