Happy Birthday, Israel — this is why I love you
For all its problems, the Jewish state is a modern miracle and we should all be grateful for it
I’M NOT a worrier. It’s not in my nature. I’ll worry about my kids if they aren’t home on time and I pray they are safe. But if I had to list my various personality traits, fearful wouldn’t be among them. True, I do have a healthy fear of heights, which my husband finds amusing and likes to catch on video... but otherwise, I’m not scared of very much. There is one thing, however, that if I think about for too long, brings out all of these emotions for me: worry, fear, and even dread. That is when I allow myself to contemplate the end of Israel. You may ask why this is even a thought in my head. Who thinks about the end of a country? But the fact is that putting an end to Israel as the Jewish State is a hope that lives in the hearts of many. And those many are loud.
Some couch it in PC terms such as “one state for all its citizens”; others advocate for another fully Arab state; and others simply want to “wipe the Zionist entity off the map”.
A world without Israel, without the Jewish State, is too painful for me to bear. Not only because the world needs a place where Jews can live in selfdetermination, where they can be Jews without hiding, but also because Israel itself is a miracle and we need more of those.
Far from being a colonial state, we are a modern-day miracle. A nation, exiled 2,000 years ago from her land, has returned! That is no small feat – it is the epitome of the human spirit, of love of people and place and of never losing hope.
I see this every time I hear English, Russian, French, Arabic, Amharic and so many more languages in the span of one day. I smile at the class list: Abuhav, Balata, Ben Ami, Friedberg, Ashkenazi, and Mizrachi. For all its faults, and there are a number, every time I witness a flight from Ethiopia or attend a wedding of Bnei Menashe Jews from India, I remember that I live in a miracle.
At no time over the last 2,000 years have Jews lived in a country where Jewish holidays set the calendar, where Saturday is the day of rest and where transportation halts on Yom Kippur. Here, the radio and television speak our ancient language, revived from Torah learning, prayer books and the tears of a nation longing for home.
The streets of Jerusalem are once again filled with the laughter of the Jewish bride and the joy of the Jewish groom. Men and women with
Hitler’s numbers on their arms raise Jewish great-grandchildren and families expelled from North Africa and the Middle East have returned to their homeland.
It’s true, we - still - don’t have a government. It’s true, we are in a silent war with Iran, that murderous regime that threatens to wipe us off the map, supports terrorists on our borders, attacks our ships, and was likely responsible for the tons of tar that blanketed our beaches. It’s true, our conflict with the Palestinians is not near to being resolved. It’s true, our society is battered, the right and left are divided, the religious and secular too. It’s true, extremists who want a solely Jewish state (or at least one where all non-Jews pledge loyalty) and believe that parents can only mean a mother and a father, have been elected to the Knesset.
But.
It is also true that an Arab party, for the first time in our 73 year history, is contemplating joining the government and in fact may hold the keys to it. It is also true that we have
peace, a warm and wonderful peace with the UAE and other Arab countries. Already, Dubai has seen 130,000 Israelis visit-- and that’s with two airport closures and lockdowns! It’s also true that the extremists, who want to bring an end to the Jewishness of the State and those who want it exclusively that way, are in the minority. There are many things that threaten Israel; external war, internal conflict, those who see the idea of a Jewish national home as a racist, colonial endeavour.
But for those of us who love her, who need her and who protect her, the answer to all threats is the same that it has always been: the never ending hope of the Jewish people. Happy Birthday, Israel. I love you.