I’ve always found the expression “Israel, right or wrong” to be disturbing. We know that countries, like people, can make mistakes — sometimes serious ones. And history shows that unconditional nationalism isn’t a virtue — it’s dangerous.

But “Israel, right or wrong” is the sentiment that ran through Eric Cantor’s speech at AIPAC yesterday. For him, peace is all up to the Arabs, because Israel is completely blameless.

If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state.

To Mr. Abbas, I say:

Stop the incitement in your media and your schools.

Stop naming public squares and athletic teams after suicide bombers.

And come to the negotiating table when you have prepared your people to forego hatred and renounce terrorism – and Israel will embrace you.

Until that day, there can be no peace with Hamas. Peace at any price isn’t peace; it’s surrender.

And to Israel what do you say, Congressman?

Does Cantor really think actions like Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which killed nearly 1,200 Lebanese civilians and injured more than 4,400, don’t have negative consequences? Does he not believe that the inhumane conditions in Gaza and elsewhere have further radicalized Israel’s enemies?

Josh Marshall:

On its present course Israel is on its way to becoming a pariah state, a status in which it cannot indefinitely or even perhaps long survive. Neither the fact that Israel faces a profound cultural animosity among the region’s Arab populations nor the bad faith that often greets its actions nor even the anti-Semitism that is sometimes beneath the animus changes this essential fact. The make-up of the 21st century world is simply not compatible with a perpetual military occupation of another people, especially one that crosses a boundary of ethnicity and religion. Only the willfully oblivious can’t see that.

I’ve had so many conversations with American and Israeli hardliners who say essentially, why give up this land as long as the Palestinians won’t do this or that thing? Such folly. As though the settlements of the West Bank were a thing of great value as opposed to a lethal threat. Like you insist on keeping the knife in your belly as opposed to removing it at the first opportunity because someone else you’re negotiating with won’t do what you want.

A true friend doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear. And Eric Cantor just told Israel — and it’s supporters here in America — that’s it’s okay to keep holding the knife in its belly.