Happy Independence Day!

No, I am not 3 months too early.  Today WAS independence day...Israel Independence Day, the 62d anniversary of Israel's declaration as a State on May 14, 1948.  (I know, I know: it isn't May 14th.  But it was the 5th of Iyar, the anniversary date according to the Hebrew calendar).

Some Jews observe Israel Independence day as a religious holiday, some as a secular one, some as a hybrid of the two and some not at all.  Many Jews don't even know or care the day exists and that is a little troubling.

Whatever one believes about the religious significance of the founding and continued existence of the Israeli state, no one can doubt its significance in the history of mankind.  Anyone who fails to be astonished at the improbability of the entire enterprise either has no sense of history or is cynical in the extreme.  62 years ago European Jewry had been decimated by Hitlerism and its bedraggled remnants left homeless and penniless.  For many, little Palestine was the only refuge, but it was a poor and troubled land surrounded by hostile Arab countries and governed by the brutish and arrogant British who did all they could to keep the Jewish refugees away.

Israel today is still troubled, still surrounded by the same hostile forces (and pestered by some new ones).  But it is now home to almost as many Jews as were lost in Europe, and now represent a plurality of Jews living on the planet.  Its economy is the envy of the Middle East and its standard of living exceeds that of most European countries.  It boasts on a per capita basis more patents and more start-up companies than practically any country in the world.

Along the way, tiny Israel managed to beat back the armies if its many enemies in three major wars and many other skirmishes.  Its soldiers liberated its capital with its cherished Western Wall, and once again Jews were able to pray near the site where Abraham (almost) sacrificed Isaac and where two holy Temples stood.  Israel expanded her borders not through conquest but as a consequence of war that it never sought.  (If only she had annexed rather than administered the captured territories, we would hear little talk from the global elites about population withdrawals from "occupied" lands).

With all the talk about Israel's material success it is possible to forget that Israel is only quasi-democratic and vaguely socialist.  It is ruled by a governing elite which is quite deaf and blind to the best interests of all its citizens.  Its political parties are comprised mainly of rent-seekers and fixers who finagle the system to extract as much money for their constituents as possible.  With nearly free healthcare and education, housing subsidies, immigration subsidies, almost universal military service and an expensive security apparatus, its citizens are among the highest taxed anywhere.  The government--even Likud-- is beholden to Left-leaning interests in the media, academia, the police and the judiciary.  There is no constitution to restrain the ruling elite's voracious appetite for authority over the people.

Still, Israel being Israel, all of this is accepted with barely a shrug.  Jews have been dealing with this and worse for millenia.  And besides, there are common enemies which almost everyone takes seriously, and so the day-to-day grind of bureaucratic ennui seems benign by comparison to the real dangers that lurk inside and outside the country.

Finally, it must be remembered that Israel is first, last and always a Jewish state.  The Jewish State.  As much as its elites may want Israel to be a "state of all its citizens", there is no escaping its Jewish character.  And it is not just the Jewish State, but a Jewish state in the land of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rachel and Leah.  It is where most of the great events of the bible took place, where Jews forged their religious and historical identity, the heart and soul of Jews for 3500 years.  The daily prayer for the return to Zion and the rebuilding of the Temple is not merely aspirational; it represents our unshakeable belief  that God will speedily--and in our days--gather the Jews from the four corners of the earth and bring us home.

Those who commemorate Israel Independence Day as a religious holiday believe that the establishment of the Jewish State and its continued existence is the "first flowering" of the ingathering promised by God.  Others are less sure, believing that only the Messiah can usher in the final redemption.  Still others celebrate the day out of national pride, much like Americans celebrate the 4th of July.  And as I said above, many others don't think of Israel at all.

We ought to be able to all agree that whatever one's worldview--Jew or non-Jew, religious or not--the story of Israel is a remarkable one and its birthday should be heartily acknowledged.

Happy Birthday, Israel.