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The Jewish State

(Foreign Policy) Michael Oren - In spite of unspeakable pressures, Israeli society has managed to stay democratic, open, creative, self-correcting (frequently to a fault), self-defending, ultra-literate (in Hebrew), and Jewish. It is the only place on the planet in the last 2,000 years where Jews could take responsibility for themselves - for their governance, their protection - as Jews. Young people, even if they're not religious, get married and have children, giving us the fastest-growing population per capita in the industrialized world. There's universal health care, a citizens' army, and world-class universities charging less than $10,000 for a BA. Since 1989, we've successfully absorbed more than a million immigrants - the equivalent of about 50 million Americans. A two-state solution is unfortunately unlikely and not because of Israel. Our identity exists entirely independently of theirs; theirs cannot exist without denying ours. We're surrounded by a sea of supremely armed insanity. There is no solution for the regional madness other than to gird ourselves against it. Americans are tired after two wars in which the vast majority didn't fight. Try dealing with eight or so, one every few years, together with thousands of rockets raining on your cities, countless bombs blowing up buses and malls, and an absolutely relentless total threat. Nobody in Israel hasn't lost loved ones or hasn't been deeply scarred. We should be amazed that the country exists at all, and astonished that our young people still want to serve in the army. Israel is not about to leave a vacuum in the West Bank to be filled with Hamas or accept a nuclear-enabled Iran just to gain international favor. The writer was Israel's ambassador to the U.S. from 2009 to 2013.
2014-05-23 00:00:00
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