Happy 63^rd birthday, Israel

David Harris notes that for most nations, 63 years "would elicit a shrug of the shoulders. Not in Israel's case … How can it be that this tiny nation, the size of New Jersey or Wales, could defend itself … against determined, well-funded, and numerous adversaries? How can it be that this small sliver of land…bereft of any natural resources until recent offshore discoveries of natural gas, could catapult itself into the top tier of advanced nations? …

The age-old cry of the Jewish people, Next year in Jerusalem, is now this year…

A language of old has been restored.

A dry, barren soil has become lush with the fruits of the earth.

A people decimated by the Nazi Final Solution experienced sovereign regeneration only three years after the Holocaust.

A nation confronted by a war of extinction on its very first day …has never given up or given in…

Israeli society has developed rapidly, enriched by waves of new immigrants. In recent years, for example, thousands of African Christians and Muslims, risked life and limb, crossing inhospitable lands such as Egypt, to seek a new start in Israel.

…Again, the work is unfinished and the challenges are many. But in 63 short years, Israelis have proved the late PM David Ben-Gurion right when he said: In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."

("Happy Birthday, Israel!" D. Harris, JP Blogs, 9 May 2011)

…and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.

Amos 9:15b

Chuck & Karen Cohen