May 8, 2008, - 10:40 am
Happy 60th, ISRAEL!
By Debbie Schlussel
Today is the 60th birthday of Israel.
It’s not only a calendar milestone, but a fantastic achievement, considering the tiny state has for six decades fought off large armies from all of its neighbors and ceaseless terrorist attacks from within.
Despite not a single day of peace for the Jewish State, Israel survived because of a historic will of the Jewish people to survive, to be strong–despite a stereotype of the opposite–in the face of all enemies.
Today, Israel is not as strong as it once was. That’s not because of its enemies, which have always been and will always be there, regardless of what phony, empty pieces of paper are signed. It is not as strong because of weak-minded “leaders,” like Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, and before them, Ariel Sharon, who forcibly removed Jews from their Israeli homes, Judenrein-style. And because of spineless, weak, unelected Jewish liberal “leaders” in America, who have pushed the country to this point.
Now, there is talk–as there has been for well over a decade, actually–of giving Syria the strategic Golan Heights, against the wish of not just the Jews who irrigated and developed the area, but the many Druze Arabs who did the same and who enjoy the freedom and safety of being Israelis. They are loyal Israelis, and they want to keep their homes in Israel, just as Jews–many of whom were persecuted and treated like trash in their former Arab Muslim country ancestral homes–do.
Despite being a tiny state, just smaller than the size of New Jersey, the Gross Domestic Product of Israel is greater than that of all of its Arab neighbors. Israel has provided America, and America’s military, the greatest in technological advancements. The country has provided the world with amazing advances in healthcare and tremendous medical advancements and discoveries to cure cancers, diseases, and other medical maladies. You see none of this in the backward Greater Barbaria that surrounds it and which produces only “advancements” in levels of hatred and desire to eliminate the Jewish people.
But, despite the hateful neighbors surrounding it, terrorist interlopers within, and Neville Chamberlain-esque “leadership” disaster at the top, Israel has survived for 60 years, officially–though it has been the home of the Jewish people for thousands of years.
And, G-d-willing, Israel will be around in another 60. Yom Huledet Sameach, Yisrael–Happy Birthday, Israel!
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Here is a video of Israel’s national anthem, “HaTikvah”–“The Hope” with English translation of the lyrics, also posted below, and one of my favorite HaTikvah videos–of beautiful Israeli singer, Shiri Maimon, at an Israeli soccer game:
English lyrics from the Israel Science and Technology Page:
As long as deep in the heart,
The soul of a Jew yearns,
And forward to the East
To Zion, an eye looks
Our hope will not be lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
(Listen to a moving version of HaTikvah sung by Jews just liberated from Bergen Belsen concentration camp in 1945.)
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Here are a couple of videos, outlining what Israel has done for the world, and what we’d be missing if there were no Israel. You’ve never seen–and you never will–of this kind of stuff coming out of any Arab or Muslim nation. The producer, Holly, writes:
The State of Israel has entered its sixth decade of wondrous achievements!
People keep asking me: “why do you support Israel?”
This video is my answer.
Israel is quite simply a modern marvel, and all of this without knowing a day free of war or terror and being the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth.
Oh, and don’t forget, without Israel, Saddam Hussein would have had nuclear weapons.
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Read about how the IDF celebrated Israel Independence Day. Watch a video of the Israeli Air Force practicing for the Independence Day celebration.
Bad ass little country.
samurai on May 8, 2008 at 12:17 pm