Printer Friendly
ISRAEL AT SIXTY FIVE
The Jewish state celebrated its sixty-fifth Independence Day commemorations this week. Though sixty-five years occupies most of the time span allotted to humans on this earth, in the eyes of history it is a relatively short time. Nevertheless, I think that one must marvel at what has occurred here in the Land of Israel over the past sixty-five years.
And, the world has certainly changed dramatically and drastically over this period of time. The British Empire is no longer and the Union Jack does not fly over Government House in Jerusalem. The Soviet Union has also passed from the world scene, a victim of its own cruelties, ineptitude and mistaken ideology. Both England and the Soviet Union did not really wish us well, each in their own way, but the little Jewish state outlived them just as the Jewish people has outlived every world empire and utopian ideology over our thousands of years of history and existence.
While the rest of the Middle East is in a far greater mess than it was sixty- five years ago – and it was pretty messy then as well, our little country has become the mouse that roars. Almost oblivious to all that surrounds us, we have set about to the tasks of destiny that motivate us and helped create the state.
We have revived our ancient, beautiful, nuanced biblical language, created and witnessed the ingathering of millions of Jews from the four corners of the earth, wreaked an ecological and agricultural revolution in a formerly barren land that now flows with milk and honey, built a mighty defense force to protect ourselves from our still very hostile neighbors, fostered a modern economy, and stand in the forefront of every intellectual, medical and technological field in a world replete with Israeli innovations.
Who would have dreamt that these would have been the realities of the State of Israel, sixty-five years ago? Only the hateful, the alienated and the willfully blind deny Israel’s achievements.
Ben Gurion famously said only a few decades ago that when Israel has a population of five million it will be secure and viable. After sixty-five years we are a nation of eight million, six million of whom are Jews. The Peel Commission in 1936 stated, with its characteristic arrogance, that the entire country of then Palestine could not support a population greater than two and a half million.
Well Israel has continually proven the experts to be wrong. Israel is not a perfect state. It has many shortcomings and at sixty-five is still only a work in progress. To paraphrase Winston Churchill it is not yet the beginning of the end but it may certainly be the end of the beginning.
There are still many rough edges in Israeli society, gaps in economic and social equality, and there are major national problems in education, religious institutions and government that need streamlining and await our considered attention. But this is a great place to live. It has good climate, interesting scenery, an enormous diversity of people and ideas, and one can live a Jewish life here to the fullest.
The population is young and rambunctious, Torah study abounds everywhere, and there is a feeling of self-confidence and optimism, of satisfaction in life, of family and community that permeates all sections of Israeli society. It is a great place to visit but it is an even greater place to live and be part of the ongoing miracle of the ages which is the State of Israel at sixty-five.
The prophets of Israel told us long ago that we would eventually return home to the land promised to our ancestors by God and that we would rebuild ourselves physically and spiritually in that land. This prophecy and dream of the ages is being fulfilled slowly but surely in front of our very eyes in the State of Israel.
The prophets also taught us that those who aid and participate in this endeavor will be richly rewarded. These prophecies are also being fulfilled fully. We live in momentous times of biblical proportions. In our daily lives we tend to sublimate this knowledge and continue with our everyday lives and endure its tests. But every so often we are jolted into recognition that we live in a very special place and in a very special time of the Jewish story.
The sixty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the state is just such a memory jolt and reality check. How fortunate is our generation to celebrate this sixty -fifth anniversary here in Israel and Jerusalem. May we all yet be fortunate enough to witness the full realization of the visions of the prophets of Israel speedily and in our days.
Shabat shalom.
Berel Wein
