World

Israel's Difficult Birthday

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 28, 1998 / 2:47 PM EDT / CBS

With pride bordering on bravado, Nir Freinbuch relishes the opportunity to roll call his country's accomplishments since its birth a half-century ago.

In only fifty years, he says, Israel has developed a fearsome military, a vibrant democratic system, and has absorbed millions of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution around the world.

"We went from sand to a technologically advanced society with a Western lifestyle," he says. "We maintained our democratic principles while we made sure that there would never be another Holocaust."

But even as Israeli Jews are becoming more and more confident that their country can survive in arguably the world's toughest neighborhood, Israel's 50th birthday has become yet another bittersweet celebration for a nation with a multitude of successes, but few opportunities to savor them.

Amir Milstein rubs noses
with his 4-year-old son, Roi.

This year's festivities are tempered by several factors, not the least of which is a standing threat from the militant Islamic organization Hamas to avenge the death of their chief bombmaker a month ago.

Despite fervent Israeli denials of responsibility for the death -- which have been backed up by Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority -- accusations of Israeli culpability continue to resonate among Islamic militants. And in a region where facts often take a back seat to perceptions, Israel is preparing for the worst.

"There's always a threat of terror in Israel. You don't know where or when terror will take place. Life has to go on," says Amir Milstein, a jazz musician who is scheduled to play at several celebration events.

Nati Ravich

"Looking at my family and friends, I can only look forward to a better future, and this better future will only come with peace," he says.

In addition to the heightened threat of terror, deep ideological rifts within the Jewish State are straining the golden anniversary.

Israelis have become increasingly divided into ethnic, ideological, and religious factions with vastly different interpretations of what kind of country Israel has become, what it should strive to be, and even what it has been in the past.

An Arab woman walks along
the beach outside of Jaffa

Emblematic of the divisions, the state-run Israel Broadcast Authority has sparked a bitter debate for producing a 20-part documentary that charts the birth of Israel, from the Holocaust through independence.

Critics charge tha the series has given too much airtime to Palestinian grievances, and painted too flattering a picture of the Arab guerillas that targeted the Jewish State.

Others say that the time is right for a more open, honest look back.

"Tkuma [the documentary] is shining a light on things that we don't want to see. It's a reflection," says Nati Ravich, a rising star on Israeli television. "It didn't divide the country. The country was already divided."

Noam Sender

In addition to the divisions among Israeli Jews, Israel's 50th anniversary is highlighting the chasm that still exists between the country's Jewish majority and the Arab minority.

To Palestinians, Israel's 50th birthday is being commemorated as the 50th anniversary of "Al Nakba," or the "great catastrophe." Few Arabs, if any, are celebrating.

But for Israeli Jews like Noam Sender, a 30-year-old father from Tel-Aviv, the divisions and threats are not nearly enough to put a damper on the festivities.

"It's a historic event after living 2,000 years in exile," he says. "Jewish people from all over the world are celebrating together in the land of Israel."