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The fourth day of the Hebrew month of Iyyar, and Israel is celebrating its 71st year. It sounds official in 2018, right? But that's just it, it's not. Every year, every Independence Day, brings new wonder, something uniquely Israeli. Members of my generation, who were born into the reality of a sovereign Israel, are still moved every time: how was our generation privileged to fulfill the dream of our forefathers, the founders of the state, the dream of the return to Zion – "we were like those who dream." Why us? Wondering why assumes that our generation is better than the ones before us, because we managed to bring about what our predecessors could not. That's a mistake.
The state of Israel is the fruit of the work of many generations. One after another passed to the next the baton of the dream and the vision. It was a mission, both personal and collective. Judaism and Zionism have been running a relay race for thousands of years. An eternal initiative. My god, may it never end. Maybe herein lies the secret of our success: this is an initiative that is constantly in the making. At age 71, despite its success, the Zionist enterprise is still in its infancy. The country is still waiting for new residents, new immigrants, new babies, and new challenges. Like it was on its first Independence Day. Even 100 years from now, our great-grandchildren will still be thrilled when Israel marks its 171st anniversary. That is how it is on Israel's Independence Day. From "we were like those who dream" we have become a people who live the dream; from the poem by Bialik to the guy who fixes the barbecue grill, we are still searching for the right balance.
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The wonderful idea of the state of Israel contains an inherent contradiction: on one hand, the land has always been promised to us; on the other, at age 71 we are still a people in denial. This contradiction between the dream and the reality began in the time of our patriarch Abraham, the founder of the Israelite nation, who when the great promises made to him prompted him to leave everything and go into the land of Israel, was forced to exert all his strength to buy a grave for his wife at an exorbitant price. The stubborn opposition of various nations throughout history to recognize our people's national and religious idea – establishing an independent state of our own – help makes Independence Day such a delicious holiday. Think for a moment how Titus would respond to the nation-state law.
While we complain about the traffic jams and hospital beds being set up in corridors (important issues that must be addressed, certainly), it would also be appropriate to mention where we were 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. Let's travel back in time for a bit. The year is 19 C.E. Our land of Israel is no longer an independent state. In effect, since 63 BCE we have been under Roman rule. Then, there really was an occupation. Not like today.
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Indeed, the year 19 finds our land under the first Roman prefecture. The prefect is Valerius Gratus, not a particularly nice man. The Romans were determined to clash with the Jewish population and offend our religious sensibilities, which came to a head in 70 C.E. when they destroyed the Second Temple. The year 19 proved that the problem wasn't one for Jews in their own country but rather for Jews in general: Jews in Rome were punished en masse for not wanting to wage war on their Sabbath or holidays.
A thousand years passed. In 1019, the Jews in the land of Israel were under occupation by the princes of Egypt, the Egyptian Shiite Fatimids who in 942 conquered our land. We don't miss them. A few decades later, the Crusaders arrived and in 1099 conquered Jerusalem, mercilessly slaughtering the non-Christian residents, who, of course, included the Jews. Tens of thousands of Jews were killed in their own country, which was not recognized by foreign occupiers. That Crusade, the first, which had begun three years earlier in 1096, left behind a trail of destroyed Jewish communities and thousands of murdered Jews. Our sources call these events the Rhineland massacres.
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Since then, another 1,000 years have passed, and here we are, a free people in their own country for 71 years – albeit with traffic jams, but they are our traffic jams. Israeli traffic jams. The Israeli people understand very well the great privilege of living in these times. As early as the eighth century BCE Isaiah prophesied: "Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the Lord, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does."
The biggest ornament our nation is honored to dorn is the ingathering of the exiles, the millions of Jews who arrived from the four corners of the earth to fulfill the dream of generations.
So yes, from time to time there are unbearable rounds of violence with our neighbors, but despite the difficulty, we have an obligation to look at the broader picture. And to remember: of all the countries in the region, Israel – the one under the biggest threat – is the most successful, thank God. Israel has been ranked eighth in the world in the Power category of the Best Countries Index, ahead of most of the world's nations. There is a reason why we are ranked No. 13 on the U.N. World Happiness Index.
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More than 9 million Israeli citizens, including the employees of Israel Hayom – and me, as their representative – say today, and every day: Thank you. We remember the 23,741 fallen who died so we could live and gave us the fulfillment of the dream and this wonderful country. And you, our readers and all the citizens of Israel of every faith, look around and tell me – would you really want to live in any country besides our lovely little Israel, who is 71 today? Happy Independence Day!
