Israel is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.
The British magazine “The Economist” devotes a remarkable dossier of objectivity to him, in which justified criticism and concerns for the future outweigh admiration for his fabulous achievements.
Driven
It is difficult to find a country more unlikely to succeed.
David Ben-Gurion announced the birth of Israel on May 14, 1948, just as British trusteeship decreed by the League of Nations, the forerunner of today’s United Nations, was ending.
He and his relatives accepted the partition plan for Palestine approved by the United Nations the previous year, even though they inherited tiny territory and were far from what they would have liked.
The Palestinians refused.
With the declaration of independence, Ben-Gurion knew that he would provoke an attack on his fledgling country by seven Arab countries. He didn’t give in.
The Israeli victory allowed for an increase in the original territory.
On this desert land of sand and rock devoid of natural resources, a society was built which had developed into an economic, political, military, cultural and scientific power which, despite justified criticism, was incomparably more democratic and progressive than any other Middle Eastern country.
The Economist reports staggering numbers.
In 1980 Israel’s GDP per capita was half that of Germany. It’s now 12% more.
Israel is 11 times richer than Egypt and has more Nobel Prize winners than China.
A dynamic, competitive, creative, individualistic society has been built there, but which knows how to unite at decisive moments.
The Palestinian issue, Israel’s perennial Achilles’ heel, an ever-open sore, should not obscure the fact that, by comparison, all the surrounding Arab countries are poor, unequal, autocratic, run by corrupt oligarchies, and underdeveloped in education, science, and health.
In the past, the threat to Israel came from its neighbors. No longer. They understood.
The danger now has three faces.
The first is the growing demographic and political weight of ultra-Orthodox clerics, indispensable partners in any governing coalition.
If you want an example of how extremists can blackmail a coalition government, I can’t think of a better one.
The second is the radicalization of Palestinian youth who feel their horizons are blocked, who feel dispossessed of the land they grew up on, who no longer expect anything from the corrupt old Palestinian leaders and know that there is nothing to hope for from them the false solidarity of neighboring Arab regimes who think only of their own survival.
The third reason is the loss of influence in the region and in the world by the United States, which has been a staunch ally of Israel since its inception.
Example
Nations do not escape their history.
Since 1948 Israel has rushed from victory to victory. Since 1760, Quebec has seen one defeat after another.
This inevitably leads to different national characters.
I’m not comparing, but I happen to think that if we were more inspired by his example instead of telling ourselves stories and making up excuses, we wouldn’t be looking for ourselves yet.
