Israel at Seventy-Seven: Rebirth and Redemption

On the 14 May 1948 at 4:00pm, Israel was declared a nation-state and successor of the British Mandate in Palestine. Minutes later, the American President, Harry S Truman, against the counsel of his top advisors, recognised the infant Jewish state. By midnight, Egyptian planes were bombing Tel Aviv, and the 1948 War (known in Israel as the war of independence), and the battle for Jerusalem had begun in earnest. Israel was birthed in the fire. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, the Jewish state survived. Jerusalem was divided: Israel captured West Jerusalem, the New City and Jordan occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City.

All of this was seventy-seven years ago. Have the events since 1948 been a rebirth and redemption?

Accomplishments

Guess which US President said: “More than 3,000 years ago, the Jewish people lived here, tended the land here, prayed to God here. And after centuries of exile and persecution, unparalleled in the history of man, the founding of the Jewish State of Israel was a rebirth, a redemption unlike any in history.” Was it Reagan, Bush, Clinton, or Trump? No. It was Barack Obama in 2013.

Unlike many other nation-states, which were born once, Israel was born again (the same could be said of Poland, which was wiped off the world map in 1795 and reappeared after World War I). Rebirth, redemption, and restoration are apt adjectives that describe what happened seventy-seven years ago.

• • A reborn language:
    Thanks to the tireless work of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the long dormant Hebrew language— tongue of the kings, priests, and
    prophets has been resurrected as a living language again. This alone is unparalleled in history.

• • A culture reborn:
    The unique, if not miraculous, preservation of the Jewish people and their culture after two thousand years of dispersion and exile, faced with the twin threats of assimilation or annihilation, is remarkable. Jewish feasts, traditions and culture are thriving. And it never ceases to amaze the onlooker how a bustling, dynamic, robust society comes to a grinding halt nationwide every Friday evening for the Sabbath.

• • A currency reborn:
    The shekel was the coinage of ancient Israel. A half a shekel was the flat rate tax on every Jewish male; Jesus of Nazareth paid it (Matthew 17:24-27). The coinage is back, known as NIS, New Israeli shekel.

• • Ecology reborn:
    Though forested in antiquity, in recent centuries, especially in Ottoman Palestine, trees were cut down to avoid taxation. In the last 120 years, the Jewish National Fund has planted 240 million trees.

• • Agriculture expanded:
    Ancient Israel was an agrarian nation (Acts 12:20). Water is a scarce resource but Israel managed to channel water from the only freshwater lake in the Middle East —the Sea of Galilee—to the fertile but arid Negev region in the South. With modern drip irrigation Israel has performed agricultural miracles, the desert is blooming (Isaiah 35:1), and it has become an exporter of food.

• • Immigration Record:
    Modern political Zionism strived to establish a Jewish state for the ingathering of the Jewish exiles in the Diaspora. Israel has successfully absorbed Jewish migrants from over a hundred nations. History was made in May 1991, when Operation Solomon, using 35 aircraft in 36 hours, evacuated 14,325 migrants from Ethiopia to Israel. Two babies were born during the flight.

Challenges

The Jewish state has survived and thrived during the last seventy-seven years. This ancient yet dynamic modern nation has built up a robust economy, specialising in agriculture, tourism, diamond cutting, and hi-tech (It has its own ‘Silicon Valley’). Its armed forces are among the most highly rated in the world.

Yet this nation faces some very real challenges. They include:

• • Fierce adversaries:
    Enemies who are sworn to Israel’s destruction. That cloud has been overhead since May 1948. One of these enemies is close to nuclear breakout.

• • Who is a Jew?
    Verifying Jewish identity, particularly when it comes to immigration to Israel under the Law of Return, is not an exact science.

• • Messianic Believers:
    Are they still Jews? Jewish-Christian relationship over the centuries has been bitter, with a high degree of verbal and physical persecution. The sense of betrayal by Jewish people towards loved ones who have converted to Christianity is very real. One Messianic leader said it would be like an American joining al-Qaeda after 9/11. Discrimination against Messianics is an issue.

• • Legitimacy:
    Despite Israel’s well documented history and achievements, there is still a legitimacy crisis. After seventy-seven years, there are key people and nations who question Israel’s right to exist.

• • Public Relations:
    Israel, despite its superior military, is losing the PR war; the war that began on 8 October 2023, is a case in point. Good PR can help a militarily weak combatant lose the battle but win the war.

• • The Palestinian Issue:
    This is an ever-present challenge.

• • Growing antisemitism:
    This irrational ancient hatred has resurfaced in Europe, and made gains in the United States and Australia. Israel was created as a ‘city of refuge’ for persecuted Jews but its continued existence and success is spawning more antisemitism. Yet antisemitism prods reluctant Diaspora Jews to consider (aliyah) immigration to Israel.

Will these challenges prevent Israel from celebrating another 77 years? Or is the rebirth and redemption permanent? See Amos 9:14-15 and remember the words of Israel’s founder, David Ben Gurion: “A Jew who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.”