For this festive issue of our Mission’s newsletter celebrating Israel’s Independence Day, I was asked to write about “What is Israel to me”. In the past two years, twenty-three European officials have written for our newsletter about Israel through their eyes, presenting interesting perspectives of Israel’s perception in Europe. This would be the first time an Israeli, someone who has devoted the last 45 years of his life to Israel, would have to answer this question.
For me, Israel represents an ocean of ideas, politics, emotions and dreams, but if I had to give a more concise description I could summarize it with three titles- Miracle, Safe haven and Home.
Seeing Israel as a miracle, an amazingly successful social and economic project, is a common perspective. If fact, most of the 23 European officials that have written on Israel for the newsletter have referred to its abnormal, almost miraculous, success. Indeed, Israel has bloomed in the desert against all odds.
The country which, for its first ten years, had all its citizens use food stamps as there was not enough food is now a proud member of the OECD. The country with no natural resources in the oil rich Middle East, now accedes all its neighboring countries in education, healthcare, life expectancy and social rights. Israel, that was once in dire need for help is now providing countries in four continents advance technologies for agriculture, transport and communication, exporting fruits and vegetable to Europe and in the future possibly also exporting energy to Europe.
A thriving democratic country that was built with and by people who were mostly born in countries with no democratic roots.
Israel is the only fully developed country included in the European Neighborhood Policy and both in terms of economy and values could have fitted comfortably into the EU itself.
As a civil servant for 37 years, taking part in the building of this state is my biggest achievement and seeing my adult children find their place within the high-tech industry, immersed so naturally in the Israeli culture of innovation, seeing then adopt the Israel way of looking at problems as stepping stones for improvement rather than obstacles, makes me very proud.
As a son and grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland who have lost the majority of their families in the Nazi death camps, the importance of Israel as Jewish safe haven is clear. As years go by and we see the re-rise of antisemitism in the world, the intolerance, the hate for minorities, it is becoming even clearer.
Even without going to the extreme of physical danger, it has become more and more popular in the past few years to ban aspects for Jewish religious lifestyle and values. From the ban of kosher slaughter to the discussions on prohibiting circumcision, from the fact that most Jewish people avoid walking in public with tradition head cover (Kippa) to the refusal of some regions in Europe to teach the Holocaust because it disturbs their Muslim students. The increasing waves of Jewish immigration to Israel, in recent years, are a testimony that it still has a role as the Jewish safe haven.
As we all know, this safe haven, Israel, is not a quiet island in the pacific. Throughout its history Israel has seen too many wars and is constantly under attack. It is the only country in the world that so many countries, people and ideologists, deny its mere right to exist and wish for its inhalation. In that ongoing war, Israel counts on the support of its friends, its allies.
Indeed, no western country, especially Europe, can remain neutral when Israel's security is at stake. Even though Israel is 70 years old, millions of children throughout the world are taught geography using a world map in which Israel does not exist. The safety, the security, the existence of Israel is constantly being challenged and yet, it is our safe haven simply because it is the Jewish homeland and the only homeland the Jewish people have ever had.
This brings me to my third title, Home. As a professional diplomat I have spent almost as many years of my adult life outside Israel, as I did in it, and still there is no doubt where home is. Israel is the Hebrew language, the jokes, the hand gestures that only Israelis understand, the food, the music, that song that comes up on the radio and brings tears to your eyes. Israeli is the colorful mosaic of ethnicities coming together so naturally, Israel is the fact that everyone is in everyone else’s business, that the neighbor next door wants to know when will your son have children and what is taking him so long but at the same time Israel is getting a helping hand from complete strangers and the same neighbors showing up with food because they heard you were sick. Israeli is the sun and light, which I especially miss in Brussels, it is the beaches, the folk dancing on Tel Aviv beach every Friday. Israel is the cobble stone streets of Jerusalem, the clear air from the top of Mount Scopus
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Home is where the heart is. And my heart is in Israel.
Happy 70th birthday, Israel.