Yom Ha’atzmaut/Independence Day: Israel at 68: Baruch Cohen, CIJR, May 12, 2016— For a country that has had to fight so valiantly just to stay alive, the idea of peace may seem like a mirage.
What Israel Has Accomplished: Rafael Barak, National Post, May 12, 2016 — Today, as Israel marks 68 years of independence, we celebrate the story of how a tiny nation turned its adversity into its competitive advantage.
On Celebrating Independence Day: Isi Leibler, Candidly Speaking, May 10, 2016— Last week, we commemorated the genocidal murder of 6 million Jews – the most barbaric episode in our 2,000 years of exile which was sporadically interspersed with discrimination, persecution, expulsion and pogroms.
Yom Ha’atzmaut: An Unyielding Marriage of 3,500+ Years: Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Times of Israel, May 9, 2016 — This year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut commemorates the 68th anniversary of a marriage that has lasted more than 3,500 years.
Take a 150-Second Trip Around Israel to Celebrate Independence Day (Video): Nicky Blackburn, Israel 21C, May 1, 2016
68 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Israel (Video): May 8, 2016
Ottawa’s Support of Israel Deserves More Than Just Words: Barbara Kay, National Post, Apr. 4, 2016
Israel, the Only Country Standing in the Way of the Mideast Descending Into Total Chaos: Robert Fulford, National Post, Mar. 18, 2016
YOM HA’ATZMAUT/INDEPENDENCE DAY: ISRAEL AT 68
Baruch Cohen
CIJR, May 12, 2016
In Loving Memory of Malca z’l
For a country that has had to fight so valiantly just to stay alive, the idea of peace may seem like a mirage. But as Israel marks its 68th anniversary, Jews all over the world celebrate knowing that Israel is more than a country, and that, remarkably, a relative stability, if not yet full peace, has been secured.
Israel today inspires millions of Jews around the world. From the ruins of a decimated Europe, from the ashes of the gas chambers, from Jews escaping antisemitism from all parts of the world–Russia, Egypt, Morocco, Ethiopia, and dozens of other lands–our people, the Jewish people, created a vital new land, dynamic and democratic, and sustained by our ancient faith: Am Israel Chai! The Jewish People Lives!
Theodor Herzl’s dream became reality due to the sacrifices of the entire Am Israel. Today, the Zionist dream is fulfilled: Israel is the Jewish state for all Jews, with the proud Israel Defense Forces guaranteeing that they will live in peace. As Am Israel celebrates its 68th birthday, Israel is a strong, powerful nation, economically, culturally and technologically successful, the fulfillment of the Zionist dreams of Theodor Herzl, David Ben Gurion and Menachem Begin.
Am Yisrael Chai! Od Avinu Chai! L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim! The Nation of Israel lives! Our Father still lives! Next Year in Jerusalem! In our eternal Land, created for all our People.
Happy Birthday Israel!
(Baruch Cohen, who will be 97 in October [!],
is Research Chairman of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)
Rafael Barak
National Post, May 12, 2016
Today, as Israel marks 68 years of independence, we celebrate the story of how a tiny nation turned its adversity into its competitive advantage. Geography has never been in Israel’s favour. Not only are we surrounded by enemies, we are also a small country, over half of which is a desert, with few natural resources and no regional trading partners. This unique experience, as our region’s only democratic country living in a state of perpetual threat, has fostered one of the world’s most resilient and surprisingly optimistic people, who always have an eye to a better future.
Although much ink has been spilled on the miracle of our physical survival, the history of modern Israel is also a social and economic miracle. Few countries have experienced such a dramatic shift over a relatively short period of time. Since our birth in 1948, our population has grown more than tenfold (600,000 to 8.2 million) and 68-fold in GDP ($4.5 billion to $305 billion). We began as a developing country barely able to feed and house Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe and those forced to flee their homes in Arab lands. Out of necessity, we overcame this adversity through ingenuity, stubborn determination and technological innovation.
Nothing exemplifies this dogged perseverance better than our achievements with water. In May 1939, at the dawn of Nazi Germany’s advance throughout Europe and when the Jewish community in present-day Israel was under British rule, colonial officials claimed that Jews must be restricted from returning to their national homeland because of inadequate water resources. Nonetheless, Israeli leaders were not deterred and began work on a sophisticated national water plan to prove the British wrong.
Over the years, Israel has implemented centralized water planning and real pricing, educated citizens to conserve water, desalinated sea water, seeded rain clouds, used drip irrigation and recycled nearly all its wastewater to use on crops. Today, despite the fact our population has grown tenfold and rainwater has even diminished by half, there is no water shortage. On the contrary, there is a water surplus and we even export this invaluable resource and water technologies to our Arab neighbours and around the world. When California and eastern Africa recently faced severe droughts, the first place they turned to was Israel.
Now more than ever, the world is coming to Israel for partnerships and Canada has been designated a priority nation. Israel and Canada are natural partners. Ranked first and second as the most educated populations in the OECD, we share democratic values and a yearning to make the world a better place. Our friendship goes beyond party lines. Strong people-to-people ties sustain our bilateral relationship with daily connections between the very best of our scientists, business leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers, political officials, artists and youth.
Next Sunday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne will land in Tel Aviv to kick off a weeklong trade mission. From the outside looking in, tiny Israel plays a rather unique part in the Premier’s 2016 global trade agenda, considering the other stops were China and India. The over 150 delegates from diverse sectors in business and academia are not coming for our market, but to partner with us to collaborate on upgrading their capabilities and technologies. In addition to solutions in water technology, we are working with Canada and other friendly countries to commercialize knowledge in life sciences, agri-tech, medicine, quantum computing, nanotechnology and cybersecurity.
Looking back, we have achieved so much in our 68 years. Despite our ceaseless efforts to keep our people safe, we continue to hope for a better future and we value our peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. We also understand that our region is getting worse — whether it is Iran flaunting its defiance to its international commitments or the introduction of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war — and we don’t foresee it getting better anytime soon. Israelis wake up every morning not knowing what to expect and have become accustomed to a perpetual state of regional instability.
Despite this reality, we are ultimately an optimistic people who make the most out of every single day. Like a diamond, the pressure around us has turned us into a strong, beautiful nation. Our resiliency and ingenuity have not only kept us alive, but have catapulted us to the forefront of science and the global economy. Above all else, our friendship with like-minded countries such as Canada serves as a pillar of strength by connecting us to a better world that exists beyond our challenging neighbourhood.
ON CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY
Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking, May 10, 2016
Last week, we commemorated the genocidal murder of 6 million Jews – the most barbaric episode in our 2,000 years of exile which was sporadically interspersed with discrimination, persecution, expulsion and pogroms. Today, the nation mourns those who sacrificed their lives in the course of the creation and ongoing defense of our Jewish state. Against this somber background, tomorrow we will celebrate the 68th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. This period evokes mixed feelings. Our prayers for peace with our neighbors and our desperate hope that our children and grandchildren shall not be obliged to fight wars, remain but a dream with no respite on the horizon.
Moreover, those who believed that after Auschwitz, anti-Semites would represent an extinct species, were deluded and are dismayed at the upsurge of mankind’s most enduring hatred. Prior to the creation of the State of Israel, anti-Semites accused Jews of being the source of all the evils confronting mankind. Today hatred of the Jew as an individual has been transcended by global hatred of the Jewish state, which is widely perceived as the prime source of global instability, the greatest threat to peace and one of the most oppressive countries in the world. This warped view is promoted at a time when the Dark Ages of barbarism have returned to the region, with millions being killed, displaced and denied human rights.
Moreover, even Western countries – especially Europe whose soil was soaked with Jewish blood during the Holocaust – once again stand by and either abstain or even formally support efforts to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state. It is somewhat like a déjà vu of the world’s indifference to the Nazi extermination of the Jewish people.
But, on Independence Day, while fully conscious of the evil surrounding us, we must resist the whining of the prophets of doom in our ranks. We should celebrate that we are the most blessed Jewish generation in 2,000 years. Jewish youngsters today graduating from schools and universities have no appreciation of the fear and insecurity that dominated the lives of Jews before the creation of the state empowered us.
As we follow the chilling anti-Semitic tsunami in Europe, including recent expressions in the British Labour Party, and observe European Jews once again being transformed into pariahs, we are angered rather than fearful. That is because a Jewish state guarantees that today Jews threatened with murder or oppression have a haven. We should celebrate the fact that Israel has created the most powerful military force in the region. Our tiny state is one of the top 10 world military powers, with the ability to deter and defend itself against the combined forces of all our adversaries. Could Holocaust survivors, Jews oppressed in Arab countries, or Soviet Jews facing anti-Semitism 70 years ago, have even remotely dreamed that their descendants would enjoy the status we have achieved in an empowered Israel? That alone provides boundless grounds for rejoicing.
Furthermore, we have cause to celebrate the ingathering of our exiles, ranging from broken survivors of concentration camps to Ethiopian Jews – and the extraordinary success in which these Jews from all corners of the world and different levels of society have been molded into a vibrant nation.
Our political system is frequently condemned as dysfunctional and only a small percentage of our more talented citizens are tempted to enter into professional politics. Yet, the fact remains that despite being the only country in the world whose existence is constantly challenged, and facing ongoing terrorism and wars, we have succeeded in retaining one of the most democratic systems in the world. Indeed, our freedom of expression and robust press has frequently been condemned for being over indulgent in providing platforms for elements promoting our enemies. We rightfully grant full equality to Arab Israelis, notwithstanding that their radical parliamentary representatives support our enemies and demonize their own state.
Our legal system, despite its weaknesses and the controversy over the excessive interventionist power of the High Court, ensures that all Israelis are treated with equality. Indeed the fact that a president, prime minister and senior cabinet ministers were indicted, convicted and imprisoned, highlights the proper functioning of our legal system. This, too, is an aspect of life in which we should take pride and celebrate. We are blessed to have one of the most robust economies in the world and we must rejoice in the fact that we have more new high-tech initiatives and start-ups per capita than any other nation. Not to mention that over the past decade, our own desalination processes have overcome an endemic drought condition and, despite prevarications, we will in future become a gas exporting nation.
Beyond this, we can take pride in our vibrant cultural and religious life. This is a Jewish state that pulsates in accordance with the Jewish calendar, catering for religiously observant as well as secular streams. There is also positive evidence that more of the ultra-Orthodox are serving in the army and entering the workforce and there is gradual and steady progress of their integration into mainstream society. By and large, aside from the excessive influence of the ultra-Orthodox establishment and the Chief Rabbinate, there is a broad spiritual awakening and greater understanding between the various sectors of Israeli society. The Israeli Jewish identity is still evolving, but at a time when assimilation and intermarriage are having a devastating impact on the number of Diaspora Jews, Israel guarantees the continuity of the Jewish people. This, too, is something to celebrate.
Finally, we should rejoice that, aside from parochial politics, the nation is today more united than it has been since the great divide over the Oslo Accords. Whether one supports or opposes Benjamin Netanyahu as leader, it is clear that the reason for the failure in peace negotiations is due to the Palestinian determination to bring about an end to Jewish sovereignty. We should be celebrating that today, aside from the extreme Left and Right, there is a consensus on these issues with the major Zionist political parties in accord that our objective is to separate ourselves from the Palestinians, but that for security reasons, we cannot move forward until a genuine peace partner emerges from their ranks.
So as we celebrate 68 years of statehood, we should dismiss the doomsayers and rejoice at our extraordinary achievements. If we review the progress we have made since 1967 – despite misgivings about retaining the status quo – we have every reason to celebrate this Independence Day. That in recent years Israelis have consistently polled as one of the happiest nations in the world, speaks for itself. We pray that, with the help of the Almighty, we will continue to flourish and grow even stronger and ultimately realize our dreams for peace with our neighbors. Chag sameach
YOM HA’ATZMAUT: AN UNYIELDING MARRIAGE OF 3,500+ YEARS
Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Times of Israel, May 9, 2016
This year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut commemorates the 68th anniversary of a marriage that has lasted more than 3,500 years. This may sound like a paradox, but it is the inescapable truth about the Land of Israel and the Jews. No marriage has lasted so long, been so deep in its commitment and so overwhelming in its love as the one between the Jews and their homeland. Yet no marriage has been so painful or so tragic, for the partners were forced apart by the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago. The bride and groom pledged unconditional love but were not reunited for another 1878 years. But for all those years, nothing – absolutely nothing – could emotionally separate the partners even when they were thousands of miles away from each other. This marriage did not depend on where the partners were located, but rather where their souls dwelt.
For the marriage to succeed, the Jews, metaphorically and unprecedentedly, lifted the Land of Israel from its native soil and transformed it into a portable homeland, taking it with them to all four corners of the earth. Only in 1948 were the people and its land physically reunited.
The founding of the State of Israel, then, is not the beginning of the marriage between the land and the Jewish people, but rather a reaffirmation of the marriage commitment that took place thousands of years ago between God and Abraham. The State of Israel was not established in 1948, but more than 3,000 years ago when Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah in order to bury his wife Sara. It was reaffirmed a few hundred years later when the Israelites inherited the land under the leadership of Joshua, immediately after Moshe’s death.
But no marriage should be taken for granted. Not even after 3,500 years. When a bridegroom offers his new wife a ring as a sign of commitment, he knows that this is only the first installment of an ongoing pledge. No marriage can endure if both partners do not constantly reinvest in their relationship. The moment a marriage is counted in years rather than marked by shared striving for new opportunities, it has come to an end. Only a mission – a common dream – can sustain a marriage, and only something greater than it will allow it to succeed. To paraphrase Aristotle, marriage is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. But a soul that has lost its purpose has lost itself.
Ironically, a significant part of the people of Israel today are struggling to stay spiritually wed to their land. Rampant materialism, secularism and religious fanaticism have eroded Israel’s sense of Jewish identity and the historical consciousness that gives meaning to its national existence. Growing numbers of its people lack Jewish self-understanding and question why they should live in this country at all. It is true that the wonderful Israeli soldiers are ready to sacrifice their lives for our country. But how long can this continue when Israel is nothing more than just a country? People are willing to die only for that by which they have lived. And human beings can live meaningful lives only when they know that there is something eternal worth dying for.
It is thus crucial to identify the element that has bound the two partners together for these thousands of years. And that element is, unequivocally, the mission to be “a light unto the nations,” as pronounced by God to the prophet Isaiah. The marriage was created to give birth to a wellspring of religious and moral teachings that will suffuse mankind with the knowledge that life is holy and that God awaits man’s response to His call in order to redeem His world. This then is the task of the Land and People of Israel: to elevate the human race so that it becomes a link between the divine and the earthly. For life is a mandate, a privilege – not a game or mere triviality. The Jewish people married the land in order to create a model society to be emulated by all mankind.
It is the rabbis who consecrate a marriage. But that is only part of their task. As pastors, their responsibility is to ensure the marriage’s success and tend to it if it flounders or stagnates. This is the task of Israel’s religious leaders today. They must transform the Jewish people by creating a spiritual longing for its unique mission, thereby restoring their marriage to its full potential after the long and difficult separation. True religious leaders should not be “honored” or “well respected.” Rather, as men of truth they should stir unprecedented awe among Israelis and all Jews. Simultaneously their towering personalities should draw people closer with their overflowing love.
The times demand unwavering religious and moral guidance. The religious leadership must extricate itself from the morass in which has become mired. In an unprecedented initiative, it must steer the ship of an inspiring, rejuvenated Judaism in full sail right into the heart of Israeli society, causing shockwaves that will impact every aspect of life. It can no longer be concerned just with the kashruth of our food, or with our Jewishness. Above all, it needs to inspire the kashruth of our souls. Like the prophets of old, our religious leaders must generate a spiritual revolution, triggering an ethical-religious uproar that shakes the very foundations of the state. Their complete failure to do so is nothing less than a tragic dereliction of duty. Israelis are waiting for such a move, and there is little doubt that their response will be overwhelming.
Only then will the Jewish people re-engage with its land. Only then can the Jewish people stay eternally married to its land. Only then will no third party, whether it is European Anti-Semitism, BDS efforts, Moslem Extremism, Jewish self-hate or the deceitfulness of UNESCO dare to interfere in its matrimonial bond. This is Israel’s hope and future. May God bless this eternal marriage!
Take a 150-Second Trip Around Israel to Celebrate Independence Day (Video): Nicky Blackburn, Israel 21C, May 1, 2016—It may be smaller in size than Lake Michigan, but Israel is unforgettable. From Eilat and the Red Sea in the country’s south, to the awe-inspiring Negev desert, and on to the beaches of the Mediterranean, the verdant hills of the Galilee, and to both ancient and modern cities, this is a country bursting with life and diversity.
68 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Israel (Video): May 8, 2016—68 reasons to celebrate Israel: diversity, hi-tech, fun, delicious snacks and much more. Share this to wish Israel a happy 68th birthday!
Ottawa’s Support of Israel Deserves More Than Just Words: Barbara Kay, National Post, Apr. 4, 2016 —There are 192 member states in the United Nations. In the worst of them, girls and women are raped and trafficked as a matter of course. In many others, women have fewer legal, educational and employment rights than men.
Israel, the Only Country Standing in the Way of the Mideast Descending Into Total Chaos: Robert Fulford, National Post, Mar. 18, 2016 —Across the Arab world, dictators denounce Israel as a way of diverting the masses from their miserable condition. Surprisingly, this devious strategy works as well in 2016 as it did in the 1950s. And it fools educated Westerners as easily as it tricks starving Arabs.
