We've had some wonderful news ahead of Rosh Hashanah. Findings from the Central Bureau of Statistics indicate that 89% of Israelis say they are happy. From what I know of other countries in the world, including Scandinavia, this level of happiness among a nation's citizens appears to be unprecedented.
Most Israelis love their country and wouldn't trade it for anywhere else, and feel good in the Jewish people's national home, even though for the 70 years the state has existed, they have been asked to pay a price from their freedom and independence. The millions of Israelis who have just returned from summer vacations abroad certainly appreciate their country's strength and the good it does them.
I don't know of any other country whose citizens clap when a plane's wheels touch down in the homeland. The impressive happiness is an appropriate response to attempts by the opposition and its media minions to create a dreary, desperate atmosphere, as if everything in Israel was awful.
The once-Zionist Left has confused opposition to the government with opposition to the state itself. Its political talent and the media could have come to their senses, gotten over the shock of the last election, and said a few good words about the leadership whose decisions have made Israel into a happy superpower. Of course, this was too much to ask.
On every platform, from newspaper opinion pieces to the 11 o'clock news, "objective" journalists keep beating their drum of negativity. Political thinkers from the 17th and 18th centuries argued that people had agreed to live in state structures to work together to protect their personal safety and property. Israel is proof of a different theory. The Jews gathered in their historic homeland, willing to pay a heavy price for their personal safety, but out of a belief that living in Israel means something. The vital social cohesion is the result of a belief in a shared past and a vision of the future that unites us. Happiness is not measured by a person's income level, but rather by the meaning he or she finds in life.
I've met happy tycoons and happy poor people. That explains the numbers that show that most Israelis are happy, even if they barely make enough to cover their monthly expenditures. The government has an obligation to the disadvantaged, but their patriotism and happiness aren't affected by their economic situation.
On Tuesday, a number of Israel Hayom employees took a guided tour of Hebron. At the Cave of the Patriarchs, everyone – religious and secular, right-wingers and those who lean left, young and old – felt that we all shared a heritage that connects us to this wonderful land. We aren't always cognizant of that in our day-to-day lives, but it exists deep in our souls and gives up hope that we will remain happy in our only home.
No court, low or high, can revoke the nation-state law that includes the deepest essence of the return to Zion, love of the land, and the boundless happiness of those who live here.
