This is the typical throwaway line used by liberals when it's pointed out that Israel should stop doing war crimes, but I'm not sure what it's trying to convey.
Rights are always a tricky abstraction, doubly so at the international level, so I'm not sure what asserting the existence of some right is supposed to do. Israel obviously has the capability to defend itself1, so what good is asserting some intangible right to do so? Are they actually saying "We should not stop Israel from doing what it wants to defend itself"? I imagine even they would object to Israel use of sarin or nuclear weapons, so I don't think that's what they mean. Is it "Israel should be given wide but not unlimited latitude by the US to respond as it sees fit"? Cause if that's what they mean, the easy answer is "not with our tax dollars".
Anyway this just seems like one of those empty pat expressions used during arguments I hate.
- When they aren't busy doing racialist dismissiveness of Palestinian military capability.
most charitably, it means they get to push hamas/militant fighters back into gaza across the 1967 borders. they did this after like 15-20 hours by october 8th. being charitable, israel had the "right" to do that. i'm being extremely fucking charitable here.
as it's actually meant:
it's the same "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" bullshit from 2004,5,6,7,8. it's an empty phrase that means nothing but gets used to justifying leaving soldiers in iraq,afghanistan to get blown up.
literally the only way to respond to shit like that is "then why aren't they/you?" ask a loaded question back with implied facts, flipping it on its head