Rashi’s very first comment on sefer Bereishis is famous — and its message is being tragically ignored and shunned by the State of Israel its cultural spokesmen and most importantly those entrusted with the task of presenting Israel’s case to the world.

Yes I have written about this before. But the absurd aspect of this tragedy has come into sharper focus since Obama took office. As he expressed it (I didn’t hear him say it but various news outlets claim he did) Israel is like a pebble in his shoe. Such remarks and even more so actions and pressures in a similar vein have served to deepen the impression in a hostile world that the Jewish People have no legitimate right to Eretz Yisrael and the voices calling for the State to be dismantled are growing louder. Israel is on the defensive with its back to the wall trying to survive as a Jewish state while being beaten up in the name of “making peace within a year ” as the American steamroller moves ahead relentlessly demanding concession after concession after concession.

From the point of view of the enlightened world brainwashed as it is by Palestinian propaganda claiming that this land has been home to Arabs for thousands of years our attackers seem to be correct. Every vehicle of propaganda in the world be it the international media national leaders or the intellectuals who dictate public opinion are forwarding the claim that Rashi suggests they would. Let’s look at Rashi’s exact words: “Why does the Torah begin with the word Bereishis? Because of the verse (Tehillim 11:6) ‘The strength of His works He related to His people to give them the inheritance of the nations’ – so that when the nations of the world will say to Israel ‘You are robbers for you took over the lands of the seven nations of Canaan by force!’ they can reply ‘The whole world belongs to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He created it and gave to whom He saw fit. It was His will to give it to them and His will to take it from them and give it to us.’”

Note the precision of Rashi’s choice of words. Rashi spells out explicitly how our answer to the nations should be phrased: “It was G-d’s will to give it to us.” And this answer is good for all generations for every occasion when the nations of the world will charge us with unfairly seizing Eretz Yisrael. It should therefore be good for our generation as well. If these words were said loud and clear the world which for the most part accepts the authority of the Bible would accept it. Even our most sworn enemies would understand our position. But what has happened in our times? The wheel has turned and world opinion is against us because this answer is not voiced clearly with faith and a sense of inner conviction.

This is the tragedy of the State of Israel as it finds itself in increasingly dire straits. It cannot use its one and only legitimate claim because it doesn’t believe in it. And it doesn’t believe in it because that statement carries an obligation. The secular State of Israel knows that if it were to voice Rashi’s claim the nations would ask “Do you live by the principles of your Torah?” Israel would have no answer to that and so it avoids bringing up this Divine truth and instead makes all sorts of peculiar attempts to explain why we nevertheless have a right to live on this land. The Arabs have a sensible answer to the classic argument that after the Holocaust the Jewish people deserve Eretz Yisrael as a resting place for its weary oppressed remnant: Why should your rest come at our expense? Go and settle in the countries that persecuted you — are we supposed to pay the price for atrocities committed by the Nazis and their European cohorts?

And now the Israeli government has instituted an information campaign to justify the State’s existence and its ludicrous arguments are enough to make you blush. “Come and see” beckon the insipid slogans. “Come and see that this isn’t just a war-torn country; we also have beautiful beaches gourmet restaurants research foundations and glittering nightlife.” And our enemies around the world raise an indignant eyebrow and retort “Do beautiful beaches gourmet restaurants and research foundations justify colonialism in our times? Do they justify conquering and oppressing another nation and stealing its land?”

The average Israeli has no answer to that. He sees that his artificial attempts at public relations aren’t serving his survival needs. Worst of all a growing sector of Israel’s intellectual community has come to accept the claims of our enemies and is declaring either openly or in a mealy-mouthed manner that the time has come to dismantle the Jewish State and make way for a state for all its citizens.

Rashi foresaw the possibility of such a traumatic eventuality for the Jewish People and its policy-makers. He cites the pasuk “The strength of His works He related to His people” and the underlying question is why does HaKadosh Baruch Hu need to tell His people about the strength of His works. Shouldn’t He be telling that to the nations of the world who are charging us with wrongdoing? The explanation is apparent in our times more than ever: On the contrary He tells His people about the strength of His works because it is up to Am Yisrael first of all to believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave Eretz Yisrael to us and that it is not stolen property. And if the Jewish nation will believe this then the nations of the world will eventually believe this Divine truth too.

But for the time being the State of Israel refuses to voice this one and only true justification for the Jewish people’s occupation of this land. For the time being it still hopes to build itself up as a nation that the other peoples of the world will accept. It continues grasping onto straws of flimsy arguments while under attack by a world that is unwilling to accept this bandit of a state into the family of modern nations that despises colonialism.

The tragedy of the State of Israel will only growing worse until — and we know that the time will come — things change dramatically.