Much to Celebrate in Israel
The Jewish state turned 75 on May 14, mostly in a sour mood.
The country is governed by a coalition that includes political extremists, proud homophobes, ideological monomaniacs, and the merely corrupt. A proposed judicial reform that would have gutted the principal institutional check on rank majoritarianism has been paused, but not quite stopped, by some of the largest protests in Israeli history. Secular Israelis fear the country’s demographic balance is tilting to the religious extreme. Benjamin Netanyahu cannot get an invitation to the White House. It does not seem to bother most American Jews, who struggle to understand the prime minister’s characteristically self-serving, but uncharacteristically inept, leadership.
To top it off, Israelis recently endured five days of rocket fire from the Gaza-based, Iranian-backed terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It is a reminder that, notwithstanding Israel’s recent successes in normalizing relations with parts of the Arab world, many of its neighbors still want it wiped off the map.
And for all this, Israel is doing remarkably well.
It helps to remember the circumstances in which the country was born. Israel is a post-colonial state. It started its national life dirt-poor. Its peer group of countries includes Syria, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and North and South Korea. These states came into being with many of the same core problems: hostile neighbors, unsettled borders, deep poverty, restive ethnic and religious minorities, and other unresolved issues from their independence struggles.
As with Israel, many of those problems still dog most of those states. The Koreas do not have a settled border. India and Pakistan have painful memories of forced population transfers. Those who think the Palestinian issue is unique should consider the situation of Kashmiris in India, Tamils in Sri Lanka, or Kurds in Syria.
But if Israelis have not settled the conflict with the Palestinians and other neighbors, neither have they allowed themselves to be consumed by it. Israel is not a country that defines itself in terms of what it is against, what it is not, or who has done what to it. There is also an affirmative vision of Israeli identity, centered on the ideal of a renewed Jewish civilization within which its citizens can find prosperity, a sense of purpose and relative security.
It is easy to take for granted how fully that vision has been realized. “We will know we have become a normal country when Jewish thieves and Jewish prostitutes conduct their business in Hebrew,” was how David Ben-Gurion defined normality. Israel got there long ago. On a recent visit, I casually checked an iPhone app to see where rockets were falling — not too worried, since the Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile systems provide effective defense.
If success can be measured by the speed at which the miraculous becomes the mundane, Israel is doing fine.
In Jerusalem, I visited a center for new immigrants, most in their 20s and 30s, from Ethiopia, Argentina, France and Russia. Israel welcomed nearly 75,000 newcomers in 2022, the equivalent of more than 2.5 million in the United States. Nations that attract immigrants tend to succeed.
Countries that make a future also have one. Israel’s fertility rate, around three births per woman, is significantly higher than India’s (2.05), the United States’ (1.7) and South Korea’s (0.8). Israel’s high birthrate correlates with strong economic growth. Last year, Israel’s economy grew by 6.5 percent, compared with an average among developed countries of 2.8 percent. Israel now has a higher gross domestic product per capita than Germany and attracts more foreign direct investment than Britain. What about politics? Seen in one light, the debate over judicial reform was a near-death experience for Israeli democracy. In another, it has thus far been a stunning display of responsible civic activism, evidence that the center can still hold in a polarized country and that arrogant leaders will bow to public demands.
As for Israel’s disreputable political figures, to whom shall they be compared? The ruling coalition in Sweden governs “in cooperation” with the far-right, xenophobic Sweden Democrats party; nobody thinks of Sweden or most other democracies with such unsavory figures as exemplars of political extremism. Elsewhere, when wouldbe despots come to power, they ban protests, imprison or assassinate their opponents, impose a reign of terror.
In Israel, by contrast, the protests resume every week while Netanyahu is charged with abusing his authority by trying to buy more favorable media coverage. If that is what counts as Israeli “fascism” — a word some leftwing Israelis like bandying about — Israelis should count themselves lucky.
Seventy-five is an awkward age at which to judge a nation. But for a country that is as widely criticized — and as critical of itself — as Israel, its people have a lot to celebrate. So many post-colonial states wilted. Israel defies the trend.
Prosperity, a sense of purpose and relative security.