Israel: A Nation Reborn | Page 7

Israel : A Nation Reborn
Let me put my cards on the table . I ’ m not dispassionate when it comes to Israel . Quite the contrary .
The establishment of the state in 1948 ; the fulfillment of its envisioned role as home and haven for Jews from around the world ; its wholehearted embrace of democracy and the rule of law ; and its impressive scientific , cultural , and economic achievements are accomplishments beyond my wildest imagination .
For centuries , Jews around the world prayed for a return to Zion . We are the lucky ones who have seen those prayers answered . I am grateful to witness this most extraordinary period in Jewish history and Jewish sovereignty – in the words of Hatikvah , Israel ’ s national anthem , “ to be a free people in our land , the land of Zion and Jerusalem .”
And when one adds the key element , namely , that all this took place not in the Middle West but in the Middle East , where Israel ’ s neighbors determined from day one to destroy it through any means available to them — from full-scale wars to wars of attrition ; from diplomatic isolation to international delegitimization ; from primary to secondary to even tertiary economic boycotts ; from terrorism to the spread of antisemitism , often thinly veiled as anti-Zionism or BDS campaigns — the story of Israel becomes all the more remarkable .
No other country has even remotely faced such a constant challenge to its very right to exist , even though the age-old biblical , spiritual , and physical connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel is surely unique in the annals of history .
Indeed , that connection is of a completely different character from the basis on which , say , the United States , Australia , Canada ,
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