Israel at 62, Some Personal Reflections

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 62 Years Ago, the Hope Was Realized as Ben Gurion Reads the Declaration of of the state of Israel declaration of the state of Tel Aviv on the 5th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, 5708 (May 14, 1948). This year, the 5th of Iyar begins Tonight April 19th at sundown:

The nascent Jewish people had just crossed the Reed Sea. They had just seen the Hand of God split the sea after delivering ten harsh plagues against the Egyptians. The first thing they did after crossing the waters was complain, they hated the food, there was not enough water, on and on. No wonder the Torah keeps talking about us as a stiff-necked people. That was almost 3,500 hundred years ago and we never stopped complaining. Its kind of the national pastime of the Jewish people (along with worrying and guilt). Israelis have turned this pastime into an art. If you listen to many

Israelis, the country is going to hell in a hand basket but the fact is when annual quality of life polls are taken, the positive scores from Israelis are into the 90th percentile. You see, for all of its supposed faults, Life in Israel is pretty amazing.

Often when people think of the Jewish State, we tend to look at its sixty plus year battle for survival, or its biblical landmarks. Since its establishment, the State of Israel, has been a world leader in science and engineering. Israeli scientists have contributed in the areas of genetics, medicine, agriculture, computer sciences, electronics, optics, engineering and other high-tech industries.

As a dry land, Israel has pioneered in advanced agricultural technology such as water-conserving irrigation methods, anaerobic digestion, salinity research, enriched compost, irrigation, and enhanced genetic engineered crops. Israel also has a high reputation in theoretical physics. Israeli physicists tend to deal more with theoretical and conceptual aspects of physics, especially in questions of time and space, and the paradoxes and strange phenomena of quantum mechanics.

Israel is also known for its well-developed and revolutionary medicine. Israel medical researchers and surgeons have worldwide reputation, in searching for new cures as well in high technology and reliability.

Recently, a group of researchers from the Weizmann Institute developed a molecular biocomputer to assist in cancer research. Hebrew University scientists are are mimicking processes that occur in pregnancy and helping older animals' liver cells to regenerate better and faster believing that it will do the same for people.


Many of the technology you use to surf the net, AIM for example, were developed in Israel. And fresh from the computer lab,Israeli company MeCanto has developed a platform that will allow you to stream your entire music collection via your mobile device, while protecting music rights.

My last trip to Israel was way too long ago, during the summer of 2005. One of the first things I noticed when I saw Israel was the trees. For over one hundred years, Jews have been planting trees on the land. In fact Israel is the country in the world that has more trees today than it did at the turn of the century.

Trees also show the difference between Israel and her neighbors. The second thing I noticed is that one can tell were the border between Israel and her neighbors are, its where the forests stop. If only Israel's Muslim neighbors spent as much time on planting forests as Israel does, this world would be much more peaceful.

Miners used to hang an canary cage in coal mines, not as a pet but as a check on the air quality. If the canary dies it means its time to get the heck out of the mine. Israel has acted as the worlds canary in the coal mine when it comes to Islamic fascism and terrorism.

 She has been fighting the Islamist terrorists trying to build a world wide caliphate for over 62 years, during most of that period the western world's leaders have been appeasing terrorists. God-Forbid if Israel "dies" in the coal mine, so will most of the free world.

The battle for Israel's birth began 61 years ago, but there are those who say the modern state of Israel wasn't born in 1948. The state created in 1948 had no Hebron and no Jerusalem, these two cities represent Judaism's heart and soul.  Jews have been the Majority in the City of Jerusalem even during most of the 2000 years that there was no Jewish State. Hebron is the birthplace of the Jewish homeland where Abraham first bought land. Sadly we were forced out of that holy city in 1929, after the residents were massacred by the local Muslim community.

Israel is the heart of the Jewish People, Jerusalem is the Heart of Israel, The Temple Mount is the Heart of Jerusalem. Israel is a sacred gift from G-d to the Jewish people, but there are at least two places in the the holy land that were not a gift, but were actual purchases made by Jews from their original Canaanite owners. The first is the cave in Hebron , that Avraham purchased the bury his beloved wife, the second is the Threshing Floor of Araunah on top of Mount Moriah which was purchased by David, and became site of two Jewish Temples. I am no Rabbi, nor do I play one on TV, but I do believe that there is significance that the future site of the Temples was purchased.I think that God is trying to tell us that we OWN it, we paid for it by the King of the Jewish Nation David, who's status as a holy figure is recognized by Christianity, Muslims (they call him Dawood), as well as Jews. The Temple is not a disputed site....King David bought it and three religions say it !!!!! (of course your friendly neighborhood Imam might try to cover that up).

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

I never truly understood those words till I experienced the joy of the Holy City of Jerusalem. As soon as we drove through the hills and I got my my first peek at Jerusalem, for the first time in my life I felt comfortable in my surroundings. For me Jerusalem felt like home, despite the fact that I had never been there in my life. The strange part is I knew where to go and how to get around this holy city without looking at a map. There were times that I would tell my family that I had a shortcut to travel where we needed to go, and my wife who had been to Israel before would tell me I was crazy (true but irrelevant)---I was always correct. Everywhere I went, I knew where we were and its relation to the Temple Mount. It felt like an invitation from my Maker, "Come Visit so we can talk."


If you have never been to Jerusalem you cannot understand what I am about to say, but I promise it is true.

One can feel the presence of God stronger in Israel than in any other country in the world. In Jerusalem, you feel it stronger than anywhere else in Israel, and at the Kotel, next to the Temple Mount you can feel it stronger than anywhere else in Jerusalem. Ask anyone who has been there (anyone with even the slightest  belief in God) and see if they felt any different.

For 62 years, Israel has survived despite the fact that it has been hated by the billions of Muslims that surround her. Despite the fact that a US President chose to
recognize her over the objections of a US State Department. Even despite the fact that when British Troops left the land, they did everything they could to hand over key military positions to those who would destroy her. In those 62 years many of those who hate the Jewish people in general has converted it to  a hatred of the Jewish State.  Yet still this land exists, and still the people exist, there can only be one rational reason for this : 

Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist. David Ben-Gurion 


This year Israel faces the threat of an American President whose vision of the Middle East is naive at
best. He believe the source of all problems in the Middle East is the Israel/Palestinian conflict. But as Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu said in an interview this morning. 

...And in fact they don't hate American because of Israel. They hate Israel because of America. Because they see us as an outpost of that free, open civilization that you represent. And you know what? They're right.  

Unfortunately President Obama and his crew of Arabists are subscribers to the invalid theory that everything in the Middle East stems from the Israel/Palestinian conflict. What that theory is really attempting is to shift the blame for the Arab-Muslim dysfunction and placing it on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and on Israeli  in particular. This theory plays into the hands of all the Muslim dictators, autocrats and mullahs who use the term "Zionist" as a scapegoat to justify their refusal to embrace modernization, democratization and economic reform.


 But this is a day for celebration, and like most Jewish days of celebration we begin it with this prayer:

Baruch Atah Hashem, Elokaynu Melech Haolam, Shehecaynu v’key’manu v’higi-amu la-zman hazeh. 

Praised are you our God, who rules the universe, granting us life, sustaining us and enabling us to reach this day.
Happy Birthday, Israel-Am Yisroael Chai (The Nation of Israel Lives). God Willing, It will live for a very long time. And the world is much better off for her
presence

The Israeli National Anthem, Hatikva-The hope

As long as deep in the heart,

The soul of a Jew yearns,

And forward to the East

To Zion, an eye looks

Our hope will not be lost,

The hope of two thousand years,

To be a free nation in our land,

The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

 There is a prayer that Jews many times during each and every service it is a prayer for peace and is appropriate for today:

Oseh shalom bimromav Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu V'al kol Yisrael V'imru, v'imru amen.
May he who makes peace in high places,make peace for us and for all Israel, and let us say, amen.
May the nation of Israel and the people of Israel find the peace they so desperately want.

Oh and one more thing, please take care of the trees we planted please God, we will be back to check on them soon.