About Us Israelis – Israel's Major Achievements at 65

Israelis have become notorious for their country's geo-political circumstances. Less is known about their great achievements and their contribution to humanity. So, let me try and give you a taste of the latter. 

The Jewish People is more than 3000 years old but its nation state is only 65 – a toddler in historic terms. Yet, never in modern history has such a young country achieved so much. We are only humans and we have and continue to disperse our share of mistakes along the timeline; but in the final account of things, it seems that we are doing rather well. In fact, Israelis rated their country in the 14^th place, out of 155 countries, in the latest annual "Happiness Report", conducted by the Earth Institute of Columbia University. We are happier than Brits, Belgians, Germans, Japanese and the French. Surprising, isn't it? Well, not for us!

What is considered by most to be natural and undisputed – the simple notion that people have a God-given right to exist – is by no mean natural and undisputed for Jews living inside and outside Israel. Israel rose out of the ashes of the holocaust with the clear, declared and unequivocal aim of creating a national home for the Jewish People – the most persecuted people in history. This is also one of the greatest Jewish achievements in history.

In this respect, Israel's greatest achievement up to date is its mere existence. This achievement is astonishing when you take into account the hostile forces that surround it, their monumental financial capabilities, the number of players in the international arena and their overwhelming numbers in population. The threat of annihilation is always hanging over our heads, not as a metaphor, but for real. It is stated publically before roaring crowds by all sorts of lunatics – some of them leaders of nations. Bearing in mind our kind of history, don't blame us for taking these threats very seriously.

The years have seen Israel growing strong, absorbing millions of immigrants, making friends with the peoples and nations of the world, and flourishing socially and economically. The Israeli Defense Forces have grown ever-stronger, successfully meeting military challenges and ever-adapting itself to the complicated realities of our region and to new technologies. Our greatest friends, the American People, with their generosity and shared values, have stood by us and helped us grow stronger and more secure. It is a fact that, while still facing many security challenges, Israelis today feel more secure than in the past.  

Another great achievement for us Israelis is the realization of the Zionist dream. Zionism is, not only the dream of returning and settling the Promised Land. It is also to see the day when most of the Jews in the world will be living in it. Well, that day is already here. In 2013, the majority of Jews, some six million strong, are living in Israel. This has taken a high birth-rate, long life-expectancy and years of absorbing new Jewish immigrants from all over the globe to achieve. Although one must admit with all honesty that this so called achievement has also to do with the unfortunate decline in numbers of American Jewry – primarily through low birth rate and assimilation.

Another monumental achievement of our 65 year development is Israel’s miraculous economic success. Defying the annoying lack of natural resources in an area packed with oil and gas mega-powers, Israel today is a proud member of the exclusive OECD club, enjoying one of the most stable economies in the world, led by industries based on cutting-edge technologies, innovation and scientific brilliance.

In the last 20 years, the Israeli market has grown by a stunning 270% while Israel's population grew by only 140%. Israel's 21% growth in the last five years is higher than in all 34 OECD countries. Its GDP per capita is approximately $US 30,000 and its unemployment rate in 2013 is lower than in the United States and in most European countries. Israel's high-tech industry is second only to the United States in the number of start-up companies, in innovation and in its contribution to the world's technological advancement. Suffice to say that if you look at the inside of a computer, cellular phone or tablet, you will find many Israeli hand-prints; and when you switch these on, you will encounter many Israeli applications, vital for these devices mere functioning.

Furthermore, the Jewish state has been ranked number 20 by The Economist in its research bearing the title "the best place to be born." The project's aim is to identify which of the countries of the world will offer their citizens in 2030 the best living conditions, health system, public safety and general prosperity. Not bad considering the world comprises 196 countries – as I write these words. We’re in the top 10 countries for life expectancy and our young population is expected to grow more than 6% by 2020. This insures economic strength and sustainable success for generations to come.  

Another remarkable achievement is Israel's educational system – on all levels. The People of the book always regarded education as its highest priority. While Israeli higher education institutions enjoy immense respect in and outside of Israel, recent years have witnessed a fierce debate among us Israelis with regards to the quality of education provided to primary and high-school pupils. The debate is ongoing and it deals with both the condition of the state-run education apparatus and its curriculum. Critical as we are of everything, Israelis have been bashing and slashing the government for what is perceived as a constant deterioration in the quality of education.

Surprisingly for many of us, studies show otherwise. In fact, they show the opposite. The Progress International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which performs comparative literacy, Mathematics and Science tests, have ranked Israeli children second in the world in literacy, seventh in Mathematics and eighteenth in Sciences. So I guess our educational system is not so awful after all.

Having an efficient public health system is another huge achievement worth mentioning. An international team, consisting of OECD and external experts, studied Israel’s medical services immediately after the country became a member of the Organization. They visited the country's five largest hospitals and many community health funds clinics in Jewish development towns and in numerous Arab villages. They stated in their report that Israel has one of the best healthcare systems in the world. This achievement is unprecedented in light of the fact that the Israeli system covers each and every single Israeli citizen, regardless of age or chronic diseases.
Israel’s health system is especially praiseworthy for its early diagnosis of chronic diseases, which prevents unnecessary hospitalization – this again, according to the European experts’ report.

Another far-reaching Israeli achievement continues to be our Agriculture. Since its birth, our agriculture sector has been forced to provide our citizens with advanced solutions to agricultural challenges. Situated in one of the world’s most arid regions, Israel had to find ways to overcome the grave desert limitations. This led the country to become a pioneers in what is known today as Agri-Tech, namely, finding technological solutions to agricultural problems. Soon, Israelis gave mankind ground-breaking inventions like drip irrigation, recycling, purifying and the reuse of wastewater for agriculture purposes, the genetic engineering of fruits and vegetables durable for desert surroundings, and hot-house technology, which allows growing all kinds of crops regardless of weather conditions. Israeli farmers and researchers, together with government funding and the Israeli agriculture-related industry, have found ways to overcome most of the problems introduced by the harsh Israeli terrain – for the benefit of Israelis as well as humanity.

This brings me to another unprecedented achievement of Israelis - our contribution to humanity. In the first decade of the 21^st century, Israelis of the Jewish faith are ranked first in Nobel Prize laureates. This is an amazing figure considering the fact that Israel's population is 0.2% of the world's population. Israeli Nobel Laureates have conducted research in economics, medicine, chemistry and mathematics, adding to humanity’s understanding of our universe – of our lives.

We have many more achievements to brag about, but I think the point has been made. So when thinking about us Israelis, remember that there is much more to us than the hard-news images the international media chooses to show on your TV screens; and that behind, beside, and ahead of every attention-grabbing news item, there’s usually an equally fascinating story of humanity and the human spirit on the other side. 

The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel

These days my beloved Israel is celebrating 65 years of existence. It's Declaration of Independence from 14 May 1948 still best represents its ideals and values. I recommend to decent people, who really wish to understand Us Israelis better, to read it. For your convenience, here is its text in English:

The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel
May 14, 1948
In the Land of Israel the Jewish People rose. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, defiant returnees, and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people—the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe—was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the community of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom-and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.
Accordingly we, members of the People’s Council, representatives of the Jewish Community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist Movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination of the British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.
We declare that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People’s Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel."
The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
The State of Israel is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
We appeal to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the community of nations.
We appeal—in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months—to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream—the redemption of Israel.
Placing our trust in the Almighty, we affix our signatures to this proclamation at this session of the provisional Council of State, on the soil of the Homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 1948).
Signatories:
David Ben-Gurion, Daniel Auster, Mordekhai Bentov, Yitzchak Ben Zvi, Eliyahu Berligne, Fritz Bernstein, Rabbi Wolf Gold, Meir Grabovsky, Yitzchak Gruenbaum, Dr. Abraham Granovsky, Eliyahu Dobkin, Meir Wilner-Kovner, Zerach Wahrhaftig, Herzl Vardi, Rachel Cohen, Rabbi Kalman Kahana, Saadia Kobashi, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin, Meir David Loewenstein, Zvi Luria, Golda Myerson, Nachum Nir, Zvi Segal, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman, David Zvi Pinkas, Aharon Zisling Moshe Kolodny, Eliezer Kaplan, Abraham Katznelson, Felix Rosenblueth, David Remez, Berl Repetur, Mordekhai Shattner, Ben Zion Sternberg, Bekhor Shitreet, Moshe Shapira, Moshe Shertok.

About Us Israelis - The Unifying Element of Judaism

In a previous blog entry titled The Burden of History, I tried to explain how Israelis of the Jewish faith are born into complex circumstances, carrying on their shoulders from day one, not only the weight of their people's long history, but also that of their embattled homeland's. This complicated reality is also one of the most important and overwhelming elements in our identity. It glues us Israelis together, despite the so-many differences dividing us on other fronts – mainly on the political, cultural and religious ones. This glue is called Judaism.

I don't want to tire you with huge questions, like: what is Judaism? Who is a Jew? Or, what it means to be a Jew? I am not an expert on the matter, and it won't serve my blog's purpose to help you understand us Israelis any better. My intention is to try and explain in a short article how Judaism works to connect us Israelis together, no matter what the internal or external circumstances are.

Judaism for Jews all over the world, but especially for us Israelis, is not simply a word which describes a chosen religious path. Judaism has to do, first and foremost, with our identity. Being a Jew means being a member of a people, distinct from other peoples ethnically, religiously, culturally and historically. As such, distinctions amongst us Israelis of the Jewish faith, like the place of origin and its distinctive culture and traditions, have a lesser impact than they might have elsewhere. In this respect, Judaism allows us to share a common infrastructure of beliefs and values that we consider superior to anything else.

Judaism also symbolizes our common fate. This element in our Jewish identity is so powerful that it influences the way we catch and interpret national and international reality. Israel was created, among others, to safeguard our fate as a people – the Jewish people. Jews were mistreated and persecuted throughout history, not because of their political views or for being unfaithful to their respective homelands. They were mistreated for being Jewish. Remembering history and learning from it has left us with the firm conviction that being stateless and weak is something we cannot afford – if we wish to survive as a people.

The Western Wall - One of Judaism Holliest Places

(Photo Courtesy of Israel Ministry of Tourism)

In his monumental book, The Clash of Civilization, Samuel Huntington claims that a civilization, economically rich and strong as it might be, would still be in great danger if immigration into it would not meet two conditions, one of them being the assimilation and integration of the immigrants into the host society, without changing its identity or succumbing to its distinct cultural pressures for change (the second one is less relevant to our case, dealing with the utilization of the most skilled of immigrants for the benefit of the hosting civilization). He goes further to claim that a civilization cannot survive if, inside of it, other distinct civilizations struggle for dominance. 

How is this relevant to our case?

Judaism is the "super-glue" that keeps us Israelis of the Jewish faith together, giving us the capacity to sustain a country or a civilization – as Huntington might put it – despite being so culturally diverse. For the last two decades, Israeli governments have been encouraging cultural diversity and teaching inter-cultural tolerance. Israel is an immigrant society by definition, and we feel committed to absorb Jews from everywhere, anytime. The result is a very colorful and multi-facetted society, where Jews from Ethiopia, Russia, France, Morocco, Iran and the United States live together in the same apartment building, while their children attend the same classes in the neighborhood's school. I won't lie to you, it is not always silky smooth and we do have our share of problems, but we do our best to fix things as we move along.

Where in other societies, scholars, like Huntington, see societies with diverse cultural identities as a source of social disintegration and political instability; we see it as a beautiful characteristic of our society and are confident in our ability to sustain our unique civilization nonetheless. Our confidence derives from relying on something that has never failed us – our common super-infrastructure in the form and shape of our Jewish identity and values. In this respect, the Israeli experience is proving to be distinctive, defying Huntington's otherwise very sound historical conclusions.  

Thus, for us Israelis, Israel must be a Jewish state. It should remain the country that was created to serve as the safe haven for Jews all around the world if and when the serpent head of anti-Semitism rises again. This is also why most Israelis, for the past decade, have supported the concept of a Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – despite the painful territorial cost in terms of the promised land of Israel it might involve. Most Israelis believe today that the One-State Solution, once a very popular idea amongst Israelis, left and right of the political wings, would result in the continuing clash for dominance of the two main civilizations sharing the land – the Jewish and the Arab.

Jews Praying In front of the Western Wall

(Photo Courtesy of Israel Ministry of Tourism)

In trying to understand us Israelis, one must take into account that we see ourselves first and foremost as Jews. Anybody out there who thinks he can get to second base with any of our future governments regarding a future political settlement without accepting the fact that Israel is and always will be a Jewish state, deems his efforts to complete failure.

So, keep this also in mind when forming your opinion about us Israelis. 

About Us Israelis - The Shrinking of the Jewish People

The diminishing number of the Jewish People is a dark cloud always looming over our heads.

The most troubling example is the low birthrate (just above 1 child per family) and the high intermarriage rate (more than 50%) that have caused the largest Jewish community outside Israel – that of the United States – to shrink by approximately 1 million during the last generation. Since the 1980s, US American Jewry shrunk from about 6 million strong to barely 5.

For more than a decade, Jewish population growth worldwide has been steady at around 0.3% percent, compared to a worldwide population growth of more than 1%. This is due largely to the compensation in birthrate of Jews inside Israel (an average of 3 children per family). Birthrates among the Jews of the Diaspora are in negative percentages, and they keep on dropping. In short, our demography as a people is in dire straits: we bring fewer children into the world and marry more and more outside the boundaries of our faith.

For us Jews, this means deep trouble, but for us Israelis, looking at the distant future, this could mean calamity. If we put the fate of the Jewish people aside, for a moment, and consider the fate of Israel as the only Jewish country in the world, we quickly realize that the shrinking of the Jewish People living in the Diaspora would leave Israel's fate in great danger.  

Facing an automatic majority, working against us in almost any international organization or forum, regardless of the issue on the agenda (21 Arab countries plus another 26 countries with Muslim majorities) Israelis feel alone and singled out in a complicated and uneven international environment. In fact, if it weren't for the decency and kindness of the American people and the might of the great United States of America, who knows what would have become of us by now.

We need our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora to help us explain our positions and actions to their own governments, to help us expose the Israeli narrative to them, to force them to look beyond their economic interests, which are usually deeply rooted in Arab oil or in the huge markets of the Muslim world. The shrinking of the Jewish People of the Diaspora could mean leaving the task of influencing the international community exclusively in the hands of our foes.   

Jewish and Israeli leaders, acknowledging this strategic problem, conceived two programs intended to strengthen the connection between young Jews and their heritage. The first of those programs is "Taglit - Birthright Israel" ("Taglit" in Hebrew means discovery), in which young Jews arrive for a 10-day tour of Israel. The second is "Masa" (voyage in Hebrew) in which thousands of young Jews spend a semester or a whole school year in Israel, helping them build a long-lasting relationship with Israel and Israelis. The goal of both programs is to try and keep these young men and women of the Jewish faith linked to our people.

Successful and innovative as they are, those programs are a drop in the ocean. The Jewish People is shrinking at a troubling rate and, although we will endlessly keep on trying, it seems there is nothing we can do to stop this disturbing inclination.

So, please consider this before forming your opinion about us Israelis.