March is Women's History Month, a great opportunity to celebrate the contribution of Israeli women to female freedom, dignity and inclusion all over the world.

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In America, it is rightly celebrated that women in frontier states and territories were often the first to win rights and social respect, with women being given the vote in 1869 in Wyoming Territory. Similarly, the idealistic Jews who built the Zionist society in pre-state Ottoman and British Mandatory Palestine gave social status and rights to women that were ahead of virtually every contemporary society.

In 1898, ahead of the Second Zionist Congress, visionary leader Theodor Herzl decided that women would have the right to vote in institutions created by the Zionist society in the Land of Israel – the Yishuv. Debate on universal women's suffrage began immediately with the British liberation of then-Palestine from the Ottoman Turks in 1917 and when 25 women were elected to the Yishuv's first Constituent Assembly in 1925.

My grandmother was one of the strong women who came to Israel to live at the first kibbutz – Degania Alef. This kibbutz granted women equal rights to men, including, of course, the vote, in 1911 – the year after it was founded. My grandmother had made a harrowing journey to escape the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and participate in the building of a progressive Jewish society in Israel.

In the fight for Israeli independence in 1947-49, women in the elite Palmach often fought on the front lines. To this day, the Israel Defense Forces are renowned worldwide for the complete inclusion of women, including in the mandatory draft and even in combat roles.

In 1951, just three years after the modern State of Israel was established, the First Knesset successfully passed the Women's Equal Rights Law, which guaranteed the equal status of men and women. Eleven women served in the First Knesset, making up 9% of its members. That year, there were only 10 women in both houses of the US Congress. Women's equality in Israel was based upon the new country's Declaration of Independence, which specifies equality for everyone with no discrimination based on religion, race or gender.

One of the great icons of 20th-century women's leadership was Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who spent many of her formative years in Wisconsin. From 1969-1974, she provided bold leadership in turbulent times, successfully leading Israel through the mortal threat of the treacherous surprise invasion by the Egyptian and Syrian armies on the national fast day of Yom Kippur in 1973.

Meir was also renowned for the wisdom and humanity of her pithy aphorisms, such as, "Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us." Her service was generations ahead of the Arab countries, which did not elect a female prime minister until the groundbreaking election of Tunisia's incumbent female Prime Minister Najla Bouden Romdhan in 2021.

It's a privilege to be a woman in Israel today. According to Georgetown University's Women, Peace and Security Index, Israel ranks among the top 30 countries in the world to be a woman. Women now make up 57% of students in higher education in Israel. Israel grants women access to abortifacient pills through the country's universal health system and, last year, further liberalized abortion laws. Women who choose to have children are supported with a monthly stipend per child, regardless of income, so they don't have to worry about how they'll pay for their growing family.

Women have succeeded at all levels of Israeli society. Two stunning recent examples are Ada Yonath, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, and Dorit Beinisch, who served as the ninth president of Israel's Supreme Court from 2006-2012.

Israel enabled me to pursue and fulfill my own dreams. From being a child star to becoming a producer in Hollywood, an author and Israel's Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism, I have never known a difference between what I can achieve and what a man can achieve. Israeli women are known to be tough – and we are.

But in other Middle Eastern countries, women are living a nightmare instead of achieving their dreams. In Saudi Arabia, a woman needs permission from a male guardian to get married. Once married, she is legally obligated to obey her husband. In Iran, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women have been forced to wear head-to-toe headscarves in public. Government thugs sometimes rape those who ditch them for modern clothing in protest. Some of these rebels are even executed by the brutal theocratic regime.

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As for Afghanistan, since its recapture by the Taliban in 2021, it is now the most repressive country in the world for women. Female Afghan politician Mursal Nabizada was recently murdered for standing up to the new ultra-religious dictatorship.

If I had been born in any of these neighboring countries, I would never have had the opportunities life in Israel brought me. Instead of being able to work in the field I wanted or simply express my opinion, I would have been married off to a man I didn't love, whom I would have been legally compelled to obey.

Yet the media overwhelmingly highlights negative narratives about Israel and often blatantly lies about us, smearing us as an "apartheid" state in a heartbreaking comparison to the institutional racism of pre-Mandela South Africa.

If you go to Israel, you will see the truth. Everyone, no matter what his or her gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or age is treated equally. Unlike other Middle Eastern countries, Israel has always been dedicated to providing its citizens – including girls and women of all backgrounds – fundamental rights and equal opportunities to succeed.

This Women's History Month, let's celebrate Israel's success in advancing women's rights while vigorously calling for the end of the oppression of women in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Taliban Afghanistan.

I'm proud to be an Israeli woman. Because I grew up in Israel, I was able to go after my dreams. All women in the region deserve the opportunities I had thanks to the inclusion of women in the building of modern Israel and the strong leadership of women like my grandmothers and Golda Meir.

I call on my sisters around the world to recognize Israel's legacy of empowering women and vigorously support women's rights across the greater Middle East.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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On July 13, 2022, US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel for the tenth visit of his career. Addressing Israel's president and prime minister, he gave inspiring remarks, stating passionately, "You need not be a Jew to be a Zionist." Truer words have rarely been spoken. While the restoration of Jewish nationhood in the land of Israel has deep roots in an ancient faith, most Americans – and freedom-lovers around the world – support the Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle East. The truth is that Israel has deep roots in common with the world's other free nations.

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This is why Israel has been consistently supported by US administrations, starting on the very day of Israel's independence, when President Harry Truman was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel. As President John F. Kennedy once said, "The cause of Israel stands beyond Jewish life. In our pluralistic society … it has not been merely a Jewish cause, any more than Irish independence was the cause merely of those of Irish descent, because wherever freedom exists, there we are all committed. And wherever it is endangered, there we are all endangered." In 1974, Richard Nixon became the first president to visit Israel. Most presidents since have followed suit, deepening America's commitment to its gallant ally.

From the very beginning, Zionism – the movement for the reestablishment of a sovereign Jewish nation – has counted non-Jews among its most enthusiastic supporters. In 1891, several years before the modern Zionist movement was formally organized, a petition known as the Blackstone Memorial was presented to President Benjamin Harrison calling for the return of the Jewish people to their historic homeland, signed by "431 prominent Americans, including J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, future President William McKinley and numerous congresspeople, as well as several notable organizations, including The Washington Post and New York Times."

It's easy to understand the reason so many leaders support Zionism. As President Biden put it, "the connection between the Israeli people and the American people is bone deep. … We dream together." In response to this statement, historian Gil Troy noted: "While belonging to that exclusive club of democracies, Israel and America belong to an even smaller subset of 'democracies,' countries founded around defining ideas, not just shared space. … America is forged by a shared commitment to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' Similarly, Israel is more than a smaller, more contested, home – Israelis share a desire 'to be a free people in our ancient homeland.' Although particular to each nation, these dreams overlap in a universal vision."

Our mutual support is explained by the depth of our shared values. Many of us have heard the increasingly shrill extremist voices calling for the United States to reverse its historic friendship with our fellow democracy and instead side with the dictatorships and terrorist groups arrayed against it. While in Israel, President Biden gave the first interview of his presidency to foreign media when he sat down with Israel's Channel 12 reporter Yonit Levy. She took the opportunity to ask him directly about the "voices in the Democratic Party" calling for the destruction of Israel, and he admitted, "There are a few of them." But he countered, "I think they're wrong. I think they're making a mistake. Israel is a democracy. Israel is our ally. Israel is a friend."

The United States and Israel also took a strong step with the adoption on July 14 of the Jerusalem US-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration. This document states, "The United States and Israel affirm that they will continue to work together to combat all efforts to boycott or delegitimize Israel, to deny its right to self-defense or to unfairly single it out in any forum. … While fully respecting the right to freedom of expression, they firmly reject the BDS campaign."

Due to a well-organized campaign against it, Zionism is now considered a slur in certain circles. Inspired by the Soviet-sponsored and later revoked UN resolution declaring Zionism racism, some in the US are now invested in this false notion. But Zionism is in fact a progressive movement. It was created to progress Jews from two millennia of discrimination, pogroms and persecution to self-governance and self-determination in their indigenous land. Zionism is not in opposition to anyone else's self-governance and self-determination, Palestinians included. On the other hand, "Free Palestine from the river to the sea," the chant adopted by BDS and its celebrity followers, is indeed that – a call for the destruction of the single Jewish state in the world, a shamelessly anti-Semitic goal.

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Biden and, fortunately, the majority of Americans, understand this. Indeed, Biden has done more than state his support; he has come through for the region and the world by helping increase ties between Israel and its neighbors. Following his visit, Biden became the first US president to fly directly to Saudi Arabia from Israel. On July 15, Saudi Arabia made the historic announcement that it would open its airspace to aircraft of all nations, including flights originating in Israel. Two days later, Israel's national airline, El Al, submitted an official request to overfly Saudi airspace. These may not seem like major steps to anyone outside the region, but their meanings are significant and they are the real-life manifestation and a clear indication of a transforming Middle East.

Lovers of democracy around the world understand that Israel – like those other precariously placed democracies including Ukraine and Taiwan – is fighting the battle for all free people to live in peace and dignity. President Biden got it exactly right. The truth is that while there are only a few million Jews in the world, there are hundreds of millions of Zionists.

Featured on JNS.org, this article was originally published by Jewish Journal.

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On May 14, 1948, 2,000 years of exile came to an end. My parents have described this moment to me dozens of times. My father in Jerusalem, my mother at Kibbutz Kfar Hamaccabi, both of them, along with our entire persecuted nation, glued to their transistor radio. Israel's establishment was a defining moment in their lives and the lives of the Jewish people, who felt an excitement the likes of which it seems we would find difficult to imagine today.

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At the very moment when that historic declaration was read, a unique bond was formed between the State of Israel and the United States.

The Declaration of Independence, the closest thing to a constitution that Israel has, includes universal, democratic and liberal principles that reflect those same principles upon which the United States was founded. As Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion said, "The State of Israel … will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

A genius document, to be sure.

When I was asked to write about the special relationship between the two countries, I was reminded of a defining moment in my life, my US citizenship ceremony. At that time, the issue of citizenship was fairly negligible from my perspective. I didn't give it much thought. I had been a green card-carrying US resident for a number of years, and I applied for citizenship for purely technical reasons. But the ceremony itself surprised me.

Imagine thousands of people of all races, backgrounds and belonging to every social status gathered together in a dreary sports arena, taking an oath of allegiance and pledging to abide by a series of laws, which while written a long time ago, remain groundbreaking to this day. I was surprised by how emotional the ceremony left me. I mean, I am the proudest Jewish Israeli there is. Why should I get all emotional over an American political ceremony? Until suddenly, I got it. I understand the uniqueness of the US political structure and the connection and similarity between Israel and the United States.

You are considered an American citizen if you agree to play by the rules of the American Declaration of Independence, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

Israel's Declaration of Independence and the US Declaration of Independence are a reflection of one another.

They are sisters, just like their countries.

Continuously striving to improve

Throughout the Western world, there are many today who question the ethics of liberal democracy. Liberal democracy is not the unequivocal decision that "majority rules." The majority does not rule; the majority has a moral responsibility. Liberal democracy looks out for the rights of the minority with great fervor. This is no simple task, and sometimes it's downright infuriating, but even Ben-Gurion and Jefferson knew they needed to set these foundations out in writing for future generations, lest we momentarily forget.

I have done my part for Israeli public diplomacy, in public and behind the scenes, for over a decade. I have spoken to thousands of people from all over the world thousands of times, it's in my blood. After years of public diplomacy work, I can confidently say that I know what works, and what will subtly, but definitively, silence Israel's detractors: Minority rights, women's rights, Arab rights, LGBT rights, freedom of worship and freedom of speech, even if what is being said makes us uncomfortable, government support for Israeli artists even if their work is critical of the state: All these things prove to the world that Israel, just like the US, encourages dialogue and discussion and is even attentive to them.

Liberal democracy is what allows for discussion, even if that discussion is heated. If we continue to preserve the values that both Israel and the US were founded upon, who will defeat us? As long as we take care to maintain these principles, the special relationship between the countries will also be maintained, and the BDS movement, along with all the other boycott movements, will lose their power and be swept into their natural place in the trash bin of history.

And if we could borrow one more element from the Americans, let it be the principle laid out in the preamble to the US Declaration of Independence, which notes that this historic document has been ordained and established "in order to form a more perfect Union."

Yes, the country they were fighting for and willing to give their lives for is not perfect, nor will it ever be. But they aspired to continue to improve that union, that same idea, that country. They understood the process was ongoing and would never be fully complete, but that the very existence of the process would ensure its principles were preserved.

How inspiring.

Thank you for everything, our older and wiser sister.

Noa Tishby is an Israeli actress, producer and singer.

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