As another dysfunctional Arab state, Sudan, collapses into chaos, it is not only the Jewish people who should be acknowledging the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the state of Israel – the Middle East’s only functioning democracy and upholder of the rule of law. As Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion once warned: “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.” He could not have been more prescient.
The survival of the Jewish state and all it has achieved against immense odds that have been ranged against it every day since its foundation in 1948 is a miracle of the modern era.
That is not hyperbole; it is the reality of Israel – an estimable, small nation of 9.7 million people surrounded by existential hostility ranging from the determination of Iran’s mullahs to build nuclear weapons with the express aim of annihilating the Jewish state, to constant threats from terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, hellbent on destroying it.
Despite the odds, Israel remains after 75 years a bulwark of remarkable economic progress in a dry land with few resources, apart from human ingenuity, and a stronghold of good sense that has made it a vital ally for the West. The Jewish homeland, commendably, is often the first in line to send help even when adversaries are in trouble, as was the case with the recent earthquakes in Turkey.
Read the editorial in The Australian.