75 not out
As we celebrate seventy-five years of re-established Jewish independence, I can’t help thinking is Israel still loved at 75?
Michael Kuttner
When it comes to Israel in general and Jews in particular, the question should elicit a good old Jewish response which is another question.
“When in fact, have Jews and Israel ever been unconditionally loved?”
Despite the horrendous horrors of the Shoah years, the rebirth of Israel as the reconstituted homeland of the Jews was not a given. It was accompanied by duplicitous deceptions on the part of the British Foreign Office, denial of a safe haven for desperate refugees fleeing certain German annihilation and a post-war adamant refusal to admit survivors. Moreover, having already shamefully in 1921 handed half of the promised Jewish territory to its Arab Hashemite friends the Mandate authorities set the scene for much of today’s problems.
In one of those miracles that people tend to forget these days, both the USA and the Soviet Union actually voted in favour of the UN 1947 partition plan. This decision, of course, was vehemently rejected by all Arab States who proceeded to launch intensified terror with the aim of snuffing out any chance of the Jews living long enough to enjoy their independence.
The intended genocidal aims of our adversaries were thwarted as a result of British military help to the Hashemite Kingdom and military bans by so-called friendly nations against Israel.
We may have survived this onslaught, but it was at an enormous cost, both in lives and economically. Arab boycotts and continuing terror combined with a hostile and indifferent international community resulted in many years of deprivation and hardship.
Shamefully overlooked is the mass exodus of Jews from Arab and Moslem countries as a result of pogroms and deliberate anti-Jewish policies. Israel absorbed these refugees and, at great cost, gradually integrated them into the life of the new nation.
Today, of course, there are no refugee camps where Jews languish.
Instead, there are UNRWA refugee camps funded by the gullible taxpayers of the UN where generations of Arabs are born, educated to hate Jews and fed fables about their own self-inflicted Nakba (catastrophe).
As citizens stand while the sirens wail, evening and morning, the enormity of the sacrifices made in defence of the nation hit home. It is very sobering to realise that since at least 1920, those who wish to deny Jews any sort of presence here have inflicted and continue to inflict such staggering casualties.
The statistics reveal the numbers, but they do not reflect the ongoing lifelong after effects and tragedies which so many families have suffered. The numbers certainly do not resonate with all those UN member nations which continue to pillory and condemn Israel and lose no opportunity to deny our historical and legal entitlement to the land.
The number who have been killed pre-State from 1920 and in the defence of the country from 1948 amount to more than 24,000.
In the same period, the number of wounded totalled 75,000 and counting.
At least 100,000 armed forces veterans have been classified as disabled.
The number of Israelis murdered in Arab terror since 1948 totals more than 4,200.
Many people are under the impression that Arab terror only commenced in 1948. This, of course, is not true as pogroms and terror attacks date from at least 1920, if not earlier.
You should get some idea of what Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) actually means to countless Israeli families when you take into account the cost of hospitalisation, rehabilitation and personal effects on so many families.
On Yom Hazikaron this week, the UN Security Council decided to meet for its monthly session devoted to accusing and condemning Israel for the usual range of alleged “war crimes.” This session is being chaired by the Russian Foreign Minister, a dubious apostle of peace and democracy if ever there was one. In view of the fact that the meeting was scheduled for Yom Hazikaron he was asked by the Israeli representative to postpone it to another date. This request was refused, which neatly encapsulates the depths to which the UN has sunk. Israel’s Ambassador read out the names of those murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists, lit a memorial candle and then led his delegation out of the meeting. The best next step would be to permanently walk out of the United Nations.
The transition from mourning and national grief to celebration and joy as Yom Hazikaron transits to Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) is an occurrence which amazes non-Israelis.
How is it they wonder that in an instant, the mood of the day can suddenly change?
To really understand this transformation, one has to know something of the resilience and, indeed, faith that has been a hallmark of the Jewish experience since Biblical times. No other group of people, small in numbers as they have always been, has managed to survive the decimations, persecutions, exiles and unrelenting hate of powerful empires. They have not only survived but they have thrived and contributed so much to an ungrateful world.
It is miraculous what has been achieved in the last seventy-five years in the face of obstacles and threats which would have vanquished most. One can only appreciate the scale of the achievements if one has lived here for some time and witnessed them. Even in the comparatively short span of thirty-two years that we have been in Israel, we have seen enormous progress in every field of endeavour.
Does this mean that there are no longer any problems to solve and overcome?
Of course not, and like every other nation in the world, there are numerous challenges and inequalities which need to be rectified. The difference, however, is that Israel must grapple with threats to its very existence at the same time as trying to improve the lives of its citizens. This is a superhuman task and one which we have faced far too often in the past annals of our history.
What other country faces relentless daily assaults by terrorists and verbal slanders and delegitimisation by those who promote this country’s illegitimacy and perceived sins?
In addition, we face the phenomenon of self loathers, domestic and foreign, whose activities fuel the media and all those looking for any excuse to rubbish the country.
Whenever there is a reason to celebrate remarkable Israeli milestones and bask in the success of an enterprise that pundits said was doomed from the beginning, you can always guarantee that there will be party poopers ready to ruin the party. The doomsday prognosticators are having a field day this year predicting the “death” of democracy, assaults on freedoms and threats of civil war. Instead of using the ballot box to achieve their supposed aims, they prefer to offer up a media spectacle by trying to ruin the celebrations on Independence Day. The media love nothing better than scenes of mayhem.
You can guarantee that what will be reported are acts of discord rather than a sober summary of Israel’s amazing achievements after the short space of seven and a half decades.
The best response is to make sure that the next seventy-five years are even more spectacularly successful than the first.
The road map is clearly laid out by our prophets of old.
Our task is not to complete the job but to ensure that succeeding generations carry on building and developing the Land which was promised to us at the dawn of Jewish history as a perpetual inheritance.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
