ISRAEL LIVES

By Simon Fischler

The Jewish democratic state of Israel has been living and thriving for 63 years.

I am sure few alive in 1948 would have bet on Israel being around for more than six decades.

Without a doubt the colonialist Arab states that invaded Israel in 1948 thought they’d wipe the nascent Jewish state of the map.

Israel is alive today because she deserves to be. Jewish self-determination has continually fought off colonialist, racist Arabism.

Israel is a miracle not because she is the Jewish democratic state, but because she manages to be the Jewish State while providing equal rights to all of her citizens.

Glaringly we have borne witness to the fact that the Jewish democratic state offers its Israeli Arab citizens not just equal rights, but the safest home for an Arab in the entire Middle East.

The Arabs of Israel are not just one hundred percent citizens with full rights, but they can protest their government’s actions without fear of being murdered in cold blood or rounded up and jailed for speaking out against the state.

This is something that cannot be done in Arab countries or in the Palestinian controlled territories.

Jewish Israelis can look upon the state they have worked so hard to keep and know that they have provided not just for themselves, but for all citizens of Israel.

Israeli companies and technologies coming out of Israel are revolutionizing the world, while Israel’s Arab neighbors can barely provide for their own citizens.

Billions of dollars have been poured into Arab states and to the Palestinian Authority, but most of this money never reaches the citizens for which it is intended. Instead, it winds up in the hands of a few tyrannical leaders.

In contrast Israel runs a hybrid socialist/free market system that provides growth while still looking after her citizens who are less lucky. She also has a universal health care system that most Americans envy.

For 63 years Israel has managed all of this while also providing a home for Jewish refugees.

There is no Jewish Refugee problem today because the NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND Jewish refugees tossed out of Arab and Muslim countries after Israel’s independence were absorbed into Israeli society like family.

Israel has also provided a home for the Jews of Ethiopia and today there are about 120,000 Israelis of Ethiopian decent.

All of this has happened while Israel has faced a state of constant war by her Arab neighbors.

The surrounding Arabs, and Palestinian Arabs especially, have put the destruction of Israel before their own national goals. Because of this most citizens of every Arab state lack the most basic freedoms that all Israelis (Israeli Arabs included) enjoy.

For 63 years Israel has also sought peace with her Arab neighbors, even as they plot her destruction.

Egypt received all of the Sinai Peninsula in return for signing a piece of paper. Neighboring Jordan finally signed a peace treaty with Israel. Numerous Israeli governments have attempted to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians that would create a Palestinian State. On each occasion the Palestinian leadership chose war instead.

For 63 years Israel has existed, has managed to thrive and grow despite the almost constant threat from outside her borders, while the Arabs have sulked, plotted and attempted to destroy the Jewish nation.

This is why we are right. This is why we should not be bamboozled by the latest attempts of modern anti-Semitism that attempt to make Israel and Israelis sorry for living and succeeding.

While Israel’s enemies hope to see her fail, the opposite has happened for 63 years, continues to happen, and will continue to happen.

Israel thrives and will continue thriving because the Jewish Nation has the right to live on the land of Israel where our nation was born and where our people have always lived.

Happy 63rd birthday Israel; I am proud to be citizen of your amazing nation.