Israel - a Jewish Revolution

I'm not usually one to get sentimental about chronological milestones. I even hate my own birthday. But on Tuesday I did feel emotional about the modern Jewish State turning 58. It is not because the number 58 has any religious significance (that I know of), nor because 58 years is such a long period of time (it is but a second in the context of millennia of Jewish history). Tuesday provided me with a rare opportunity to reflect on how far the Jewish people have come.

Arch one-state solution advocate Professor Tony Judt in his birthday castigation of Israel in Haaretz branded the Jewish state as a self-destructive adolescent and demanded that it grow up. Rather than debate Professor Judt’s position on where Israel should be at 58, I would like to counter his venom by focusing on what Israel has achieved.  Not the immense contribution this tiny state has made to agriculture, medicine, high tech etc (achievements which even Professor Judt begrudgingly acknowledges), but how Zionism has against all odds managed to resurrect the ancient national identity of the Jewish people. 

Before the founding of the modern state of Israel, the Jewish people were shattered. Dispersed, assimilated, oppressed, alienated, hated, murdered. Not only had a large proportion of world Jewry been destroyed in the Holocaust, but 2000 years of exile had meant that Jews had almost lost their national identity (a large part of their ancient religion and culture). And out of the death camps of Europe and the ghettos of the Arab world, this destroyed people began to return to build a modern Jewish state in their biblical homeland. Not an easy task even under favorable circumstances.

They return to find not a land of Milk and Honey as they had imagined, but a wasteland. 2000 year of foreign rulers pillaging the country had taken its toll. Moreover, the once amenable neighborhood had become very hostile to a Jewish presence in the area and worst of all Arab squatters had come to inhabit their ancient homeland. Despite all this they managed to build a strong modern democratic and Jewish state in part of the land of Israel.

Sure they made many mistakes as Professor Judt and his friends are all too eager to point out but comparatively speaking their achievements have been remarkable. Liberia is the only other historical example I can think of where a scattered and enslaved people has returned to their ancient homeland to build a modern state. Using any measure you like from per capita GDP to human rights, Israel in only 58 year is streaks ahead of Liberia after 158 years of independence.

Reconstituting the ancient Jewish nation and modernizing it to be able to compete in our globalised world raises a host of immense problems. What is the difference between a Jew and an Israeli? What role does Judaism have in the running of this state? How does a Jewish state treat its non-Jewish minorities? What say do Diaspora Jews have in the affairs of state and are they responsible for the actions of the state? (To name just a few). Despite Israel’s great success, we would do well to remember that this is only the beginning of the flowering of our redemption.