Will Israel Survive?

National Review Online: The Country At 60, Still Fighting For Its Survivial

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Lisa Schiffren.

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Israel’s Independence Day, celebrated this week, is an odd holiday for Jews. It is a happy day, with picnics and singing and joy at the existence, after all these millennia of wandering, of a Jewish homeland, which will provide, depending on your religious views, either “the dawn of (messianic) deliverance,” or, at the very least, a point from which to safeguard the physical wellbeing of Jews.

It’s astonishing how many Jewish holidays are days of mourning - commemorations of loss, observed with prayers, fasting, or moments of painful silence. That is also true for modern Israeli holidays. Two days ago was Yom Hazikaron - Remembrance Day for the soldiers who have died defending Israel, much like Memorial Day. A week ago was Yom Hashoah - to pay respect to the six million Jews slaughtered in Europe during the Holocaust.

Even our happiest, most light-hearted holidays, Hannukah and Purim, are about ultimate triumph in face of near-death experience. You could, as I used to, find this depressing. Or you could understand that the annihilation of peoples happens all the time. And what is extraordinary about the Jews is survival over thousands of years as a people with a God and a plan - even if, at the end of that time, there are only 15 million of us left. Though the question of longevity for the Jewish homeland is a different matter altogether.

Very early one June morning when I was about six, I wandered out to the living room to find my normally apolitical mother standing stock-still, listening to the news with tears in her eyes. Israel, she explained, had been attacked by all of the surrounding Arab nations. It was the start of the Six-Day War. And, unlike the wars to follow, the watching adults were not in the least sure that Israel would survive.

But survive it did. At the tender age of 19, the young state beat back an existential threat.

That war changed everything. It changed the way Jews the world over thought of themselves. Suddenly the world’s biggest victims were astonishing warriors. The sons of men and women who had come as living skeletons from the death camps of Europe 20 years earlier could defend their reclaimed homeland. Yeshiva boys in Brooklyn stopped tolerating bullying from their Irish and Italian neighbors. Even the United States of America re-evaluated its relationship with Israel, deciding that a serious alliance might be mutually beneficial.

Those of us Jews who grew up in that era may not have been able to fully grasp Israel’s genuine vulnerability.

In that short week in 1967, the adolescent state assumed a solidity it had not previously possessed. That should have been a pure good for a battered people looking for the normality of a homeland above all. But there are no unalloyed victories in this world. Israel’s newfound strength slowly, over the ensuing decades, became the genesis of the world’s case against the tiny nation - and, of course, the Jews who inhabit it.

It didn’t help that the attacking Arabs had encouraged Israeli Arabs to flee, and the less economically talented of them landed in refugee camps - in which their fellow Arabs have kept them through these many decades. The stunted, death-loving heirs of those unlucky Palestinians, who have, as one writer recently pointed out, created a failed state even before getting a state, became, over time, the cause of the world’s rising antipathy towards Israel. And they became the rationale for continuing Arab antipathy towards Israel, by nations who cannot bring their own people into a reasonable facsimile of modernity.

In 1968 a hit song in Israel was called “Mahar,” which means “tomorrow.” It is a bouncy if saccharine song about all of the happiness, friendship with the neighbors, and children playing in peace that will come, tomorrow. The song was still popular a decade later, when I was a student in Jerusalem. I heard the students at my children’s middle school sing that song last night, and it could not have been a more poignant testament to the naïve generation that hoped the Six Day War had settled matters and put an end to the Arab desire to destroy Israel militarily.

But naïveté is not a crime. And sometimes it is helpful. What would a 20-year-old Israeli in 1967, delighted to have Jerusalem reunited, have thought if you told him that the next 40 years would bring unending hot wars and cold peace? Would he have wanted to raise his children there through wars of attrition, intifadas, battles in Lebanon, Iraqi Scuds falling on Tel Aviv in 1992 because the world resisted a takeover of Kuwait, and terrorism unending? To be sure, for all of the Israelis who found it unbearable and left, others have stayed and turned an impoverished desert strip, founded within a year of Pakistan and Burma, into a democratic first-world outpost. They did that entirely by dint of human capital and hard labor, in the face of a genuinely stupid political system, peopled by politicians with all the usual weaknesses. But ordinary Israelis are tired of living at war.

And now, sometimes the Israeli future seems just a little less clear. There is no sudden news report to instill fear, of course. But there is a daily, incremental accretion of threats to Israel’s existence: A particularly ineffectual prime minister, looking to compensate for his failure in a war, makes untenable concessions of land and sovereignty. An American secretary of state who sees the Palestinians as the oppressed blacks of her Alabama childhood pretends to deplore, yet turns a blind eye to, their willful renunciation of peace and embrace of terror. The terror groups that run the Palestinian territories continue to execute anyone who tips off the Israelis to terrorist threats. A nearby nation, under the sway of radical Islam and finally Jew-free after 2,500 years, threatens to annihilate Israel with nuclear weapons it is building. An American presidential candidate wants to chat with that state’s leaders.

The Arabs have long noted that the Crusaders came to the Holy Land, won some battles, and built some fortresses, but were chased out after a couple hundred years. They could outlast the Israeli invaders too. When I first heard that, a long time ago, Islam seemed weaker than it might have under Saladin, or than it does now. I am sure I sneered. But now a couple of hundred years does not seem like so long a time for a nation. Sixty is just a start.

So, for Israel at 60, the question of survival is still an open one. I can only say that for the first time in my life I now understand the nation’s vulnerability, and the fears its supporters must live with.

[guitar102]

Take a trip to Israel. Enjoy the view because Israel won't be around much longer. It wouldn't be around now without the endless aid given them by the US their one and only ally. This includes state of the art weaponry, loans that never have to be repaid. And what does the US taxpayer get in return? enemies. Israel's #1 export to America is enemies. Certainly should these tireless taxpayers wake up to see who their representatives are really representing - an awareness that is growing day by day thanks to the internet, Israel will have earned even more enemies! It's basically your classic parasite/host relationship. They've never been very good at holding onto real estate for very long! I'd give them 10-15 years tops.

[cthetruth1]

The fog of war is often clearer than the smog of peace. Everything is clouded and very little makes any sense when the conflicting facts of all your comments are placed side by side. When the buildup reaches critical mass... war.
Read the history of the leading up to WWI and WWII, the denials, the payoffs, the apathy and the view becomes clearer. Soon, the boiling point will be reached in the middle east as world oil, energy and economy become unstable to the point of a world depression or major recession. Then, the ethnic cleansing on many levels begins. Let us hope that leaders on both sides create transparency and reason before it is too late. Would the citizens holding them to a higher standard make any difference? Democracy is still young and has yet to prove itself.
With so much misunderstood and so little really clear, I think that again, great trouble ahead.

[microchip470-2009]

To IDNNSG, I understand how the government in Iran works, and even though the Ayatollah hasn''t made public statements about destroying Israel, he never the less has the mind set that it shouldn''t be there. Also, when I was mentioning about Hamas it was in reference to this article because Israel doesn''t communicate with Hamas, and people have been complaining that Israel should. Anyway, the big thing to take away from this is that these people are set in their ways, and no matter how much you talk to them, they are not going to change their opinions. These people are not like normal sovereign countries, they are radical militants (Iranians too, remember how they came to power) who don''t value human life. The only thing that will make these countries happy is to see Israel disappear off the map. To say that if Iran put a statement in their constitution to destroy Israel and then Israel should talk to them and Iran would change its position is ludicrous. By having such a statement in their constitution shows their deep hatred for Israel and diplomatic talks are not going to change these deeply rooted beliefs.

[microchip470-2009]

To galloglaigh, I have been to Israel, and from what I saw there, Muslims and Christians were fully able to get to their areas of prayer. As for Palestinians not being able to get into Israel easily, this is because Palestinians are seen as a security risk to Israel, and if you let them into the country easily, there would be many more militant attacks (maybe that''s what you want). If the US knew there was the possibility of terrorists pouring over the border from Mexico, I think you find that security would become a lot tighter in that area. Over all Israel is smart and has an effective security plan, which you can''t clearly see, are you Palestinian?

[bluestardad]

SO LETS GET THIS STRAIGHT???

WE ARE FIGHTING THE SUNNIS IN IRAQ? OR WHO EVER THREATENS OUR OIL...

WE ARE FUNDING THE SUNNIS IN LEBANON TO DESTABLIZE THAT COUNTRY???

BUSH IS SENDING AID TO ISRAEL IN THE BILLIONS...

BUSH IS SENDING AID TO THE PALESTINIANS IN THE MILLIONS THRU ISRAELI BANKS???

16 OF THE 19 HIJACKERS WERE FROM SAUDI...

CHENEY AND HALIBURTON ARE TIGHT WITH THE SAUDIS...

RUMFELD BROKERED CHEMICAL WEAPONS TO SADDAM IN THE 80S...TO FIGHT IRAN

WE ATTACHED IRAQ TO GET RID OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS...

RICHARD PEARL A DUEL PASSPORT HOLDING ISRAELI AMERICAN NEOCON IS BROKERING AN OIL DEAL WITH THE KURDS...

TURKEY IS FIGHTING THE KURDS...

BILLIONS OF AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING TO THE MIDDLE EAST!

4000 PLUS AMERICANS HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES FIGHTING A CHANGING ENEMY WHO ONE DAY CHANGES FROM ONE SIDE TO THE NEXT...AND WHOS POLITICIANS ARE ON THE TAKE AS BAD AS AMERICAN POLITICIANS ARE?

MISS NO ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE CONDI RICE IS RUNNING THE STATE DEPARTMENT!

WHO IS RUNNING THIS MIDDLE EAST TRAIN?

START WAR CRIMES NOW!

AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!

[sharncedar]

Israel is a fantasy, an attempt by modern humans to create Bible playland, as if they were living 3000 years ago. As such, it doesn''t even exist now, let alone can Israel survive, it is nothing more than a fantasy in the mind of rich Americans of Jewish descent and certain blasphemous bilbe-thumping and child-humping "Christians"..

[tbweb]

The huge influx of Jews from other countries, especially Russia, hasn''t helped the situation. The fact that Israel''s population has outgrown its borders does not give them the right to simply "take" neighboring land from other nations.

Posted by down-ndirty at 02:39 AM : May 10, 2008,,,

Common sense was never too common as it were and now with the advent of computers everywhere a lack of common sense is even worst! That''s the biggest change I notice around the world, people being locked into what a computer screen says they can and cannot do! There was a time when human to human communications worked out and resolved many issues, now you hear things like the computer program won''t let me do that, sorry! Redrawing some world borders or temporarily letting others use land not being used is not the big deal many make it out to be. For many years Russia and China was at each other throats with millions of troops on each others borders, now Russia lets China use and develop land in the Russian Far East, if its not a big deal now, why was it a big deal for so long? If Israel needs more land and its not being used or developed let them use it. Hopefully when the Palestinians get their state and have something to lose things will get better for them and have a positive influence in Lebanon too.

[andylance1]

Obama represents the radical left-wing politics of George McGovern''s 1972 candidacy, which won only one state. It looks like 2008 is going to be a goldmine for the Republicans.

Assuming Obama wins the nomination, Jewish voters no longer have a home in the Democratic party. The nation of Israel turns 60 this year. Czar Nancy goes off to visit the President Asad of Syria and Jimmy Carter gets super friendly with Hezbollah and Hamas. The big question is: will Israel ever see its 70 birthday if Obama is elected president?

Latinos have a lot to be worried about also. Obama supports farm subsidies for corn and bio-fuels/Ethanol. Not only does this raise the prices at the grocery store but also causes starvation in Mexico.

[cthetruth1]

History repeats itself time and time again.
Apathy, indifference, greed, different shades of truth and lies, atrocities beyond comprehension or imagination, the poison of racial hate,
the human history of violence all lead to catastrophy. There is an inevitable collapse of all empires and nations that lose connection with reality,
lose touch with the simplest standards of morality, and who fail to look back at history and human nature as a looking glass to the future. Each side has their arguments and justifications. The violence to come will only parallel the insanity that exists in governments and the people to whom they serve. The difference between the past and the present are the weapons and the potential for human destruction. Based on human history... I see great, great trouble ahead.

[johnshaft4]

At times, it is difficult to fathom that people are killing each over what is one of the most worthless pieces of real estate on the planet. They are equally insane.