Video Of The Week -The TOP 5 New Israeli Inventions of The Year https://tinyurl.com/5tkm7hn2
Article by Joseph Puder, from The Detroit Jewish News
Most remarkable has been the
nation’s many decades of successful integration of people of widely diverse
backgrounds.
Today’s
Israel is much different from the Israel of my youth. It is richer, stronger
and much more diverse. I grew up in a seemingly egalitarian Israel, where our
economy rested on socialist principles. The kibbutz (collective farm community)
was the symbol of our society’s success well into 1970s and beyond, and it
produced most of our military and political leadership. Capitalism was almost a
dirty word, yet Western culture permeated much of our urban life in the state’s
early decades.
Growing
up in the shadow of the Holocaust made Israel determined to overcome the odds
against it. In its first war for survival, the 1948 War of Independence, Israel
prevailed over the combined Arab armies of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and
Syria, who openly declared to the world their world intention to destroy us.
George Marshall, President Harry Truman’s secretary of state, didn’t think the
nascent Jewish state could survive. He cautioned Truman against recognizing the
Jewish state.
The
early years were bleak. Between 1949 (immediately after the War of
Independence) and 1951, the country absorbed more people than it previously had
on May 14, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion (Israel’s founding father and first
prime minister) declared the independence of the Jewish state.
The
absorption of over a million Jews, Holocaust survivors and Middle Eastern Jews
expelled from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Libya, etc., necessitated an
austerity program. This era in the early 1950s was called Tzena. Families
received coupons for basic foods such as milk, eggs, potatoes, etc. Meat was
scarce and expensive. Private cars were rare, and such essentials taken for
granted today, including refrigerators (we used ice boxes), telephones and
television sets were the property of few. Those individuals who owned a TV
could only receive broadcasts from the Arab states and Europe. Israel launched its
TV broadcasting in May 1968.
Another
dramatic rise in Israel’s Jewish population came in the early 1990s with the
influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. Almost 1.5 million
arrived and impacted the demographic balance between Israelis and the
Palestinians. Yasser Arafat’s threat that “Palestinian-Arab wombs would bury
Israel” didn’t materialize.
Israel’s
population grew from around 806,000 in 1948 to about 9.7 million in 2023, with
the Jewish population numbering 7.1 million (figures given by Times of
Israel). Today, Jewish birthrates in Israel are in parity with the
Palestinians. Most remarkable has been the nation’s many decades of successful
integration of people of widely diverse backgrounds.
Technological
Advances
Not
long ago, Israel was energy-dependent and water-starved. But with freedom of
thought and creativity encouraged, the discovery of significant gas deposits
off Israel’s shores are making the country a potential energy exporter. Its
desalination plants, a model for the world, makes Israel water self-sufficient.
Still,
lacking natural resources, Israel’s brain power and ingenuity have made it a
world leader in the crucial areas of medicine, water technology, desert
agriculture and environmental protection, recycling as much as 90% of its wastewater. Israel has been sharing
its important advances and conservation practices with nations rich and poor
throughout the world, enhancing our parched planet.
The
country has become known globally as the Startup Nation, being the next country
after the U.S. in companies represented on the USA Stock Exchange.
For
decades, the Arab League economic boycott of Israel aimed at stifling its
growth and causing its people to abandon the country didn’t succeed. The
privatization policies of Benjamin Netanyahu in the 21st century propelled
Israel into becoming a major economic success story. It resulted in the Arab
boycott disappearing and Israel’s growing acceptance among its hitherto enemies
in the Arab world.
This
ultimately translated into the Abraham Accords of September 2020, when Bahrain
and the United Arab Emirates signed a peace treaty with Israel, to which
Morocco and Sudan (still pending) also joined. Egypt and Jordan, acknowledging
Israel as a formidable neighbor, signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and
1994, respectively.
Today’s
Challenges
Domestically,
Israel has some challenges, as do all nations. Constitutional issues that in
Israel are referred to as Judicial Reform have sharpened some divisions in the
country between left and right, secular and religious Israelis. Yet, democracy
and free speech have been on full display.
In
the foreseeable future, Israel is facing a gathering storm. The Islamic
Republic of Iran and its proxies are threatening to attack Israeli population
centers from multiple fronts. Saudi Arabia, until recently a major prospect to
join the USA-backed Abraham Accords, has instead turned and reached a
rapprochement with Iran via Chinese mediation. This stunning event follows
repeated public criticism of the Saudis by President Biden over the Khashoggi
killing. Riyadh reacted to Biden’s hostility and softening of American support.
The
growing influence of China and Russia in the Middle East does not bode well for
Israel or the USA. Furthermore, Israel, unlike any other country, faces the
existential threat of annihilation. A soon-to-be nuclear Iran, which openly
proclaims to the world its intention to destroy Israel, remains a challenge.
The sophisticated Israeli military is, however, addressing these challenges.
Israel has repeatedly agreed to the existence of a Palestinian state but only
if Palestinians agree to live permanently at peace next to Israel and not
replace it.
Israelis,
despite the arguments and division, recognize the incredible achievements of
the Jewish state. Israel is among the freest countries in the world, where
religious freedom, free speech (as witnessed by the massive recent protests)
human and civil rights are protected. Israel is the only place in the Middle
East with a growing Christian population, expanding by roughly 2% annually.
Israel is the only place in the Middle East where the LGBTQ community can live
without fear of oppression.
Israel
is a world leader in high-tech and research and development, spending nearly 5%
of GDP on innovation. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been called the most
moral army in the Middle East, if not worldwide. While Palestinian propaganda
seeks to portray Israel as being colonialist, Israel represents, more than
anything, the return of an indigenous people to their own land.
Israel
has come a long way from the early days. Its GDP per capita income rose from
around $7,000 in 1948 to $52,170 (2021).
Seventy-five
years into Israel’s existence, the Jewish state is not merely surviving, it is
thriving.
Although
I miss the intimacy that typified the Israeli society of my youth, Israel today
is a more mature, highly developed nation. There are still unsolved domestic
and external problems, including the cost of living and achieving the yearned
for peace with all its neighbors. However, success came at a price in blood:
24,213 Israelis who died in defense of the Jewish state and 4,255 victims of
terror.
It
is fitting to recall Israel’s beloved poet Nathan Alterman’s famous poem: “Full
of endless fatigue and unrested, yet the dew of their youth is still seen on
their head, thus they stand at attention, giving no sign of life or death, then
a nation in tears and amazement will ask: Who are you? And they will answer
quietly, “We are the silver platter on which the Jewish state was given.”
So,
Happy 75th birthday, Israel!
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