Israel is a land built on myths.
It is, of course, not unique in this.
Indeed in this way Israel is very much like its patron, the United States.
In order to build and maintain a mythical status a nation must create a picture of itself from its very inception
and pass that picture down generation upon generation.
For the U.S. it is the idea that the nation is a beacon of both democracy and capitalism unto the world
and what it does in terms of foreign policy,
and even when at war,
is always done altruistically.
For Israel, the myth is that the nation is democratic and the last bastion of safety for the world’s Jews.
Everything it does, even when that amounts to imperial expansion,
is done defensively.