Against all odds: Israel’s secret weapon

Israel is known world wide for its astonishing ability to secretly infiltrate the highest levels of enemy governments through its unequalled foreign intelligence organization known as Mossad. Recountings of the heroics of Mossad agents like Eli Cohen who posed as a wealthy Arab businessman in Syria in the days of the Six Day War, and others like him, are legendary. Cohen’s secret exploits contributed to rapid military success and the claiming of the strategic Golan Heights. And, this is just among the many operations that have been leaked or have become known over the course of Israeli modern history. This is not to mention the thousands of similar operations that still lay shrouded in secret and will, most likely, never be known.

Perhaps the most amazing and sophisticated of all their intelligence secrets was the September 17, 2024 pager attack on Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon. Hezbollah, concerned that their smartphones were subject to Israeli electronic surveillance, distributed thousands of pagers to their combatants in order to maintain secure communication. Israel had spent years creating “front companies,” infiltrating pager supply chains, along with using third party agents convincing Hezbollah to trust the devices. Small amounts of explosives were hidden within each of the pagers along with high tech detonators as well. While some Hezbollah terrorists were communicating on the devices, others holding them in their hands, and still others securing them in their front pants pockets or on their belts, at the given time the signal was sent to each pager. At that moment simultaneously all across Lebanon the pagers exploded leaving several dead and hundreds permanently wounded and scarred for life.

On a recent trip to Israel to film interviews for prime time television specials with President Isaac Herzog and Ambassador Mike Huckabee I am convinced  I inadvertently uncovered Israel’s real secret weapon. In separate interviews with these two leaders I asked them the same rapid fire question that was to be answered with just one word—“If you had to describe the Israeli people with just one word what would that word be?”  Without a moment’s hesitation the President blurted out…RESILIENCY! Two days later, in a completely different setting, while interviewing the Ambassador, I asked the same question. And, immediately the same word escaped his lips…RESILIENCY!

Resiliency is the ability to bounce back, to get right back up when you are knocked down, to recover, to quickly adapt when confronted with a sudden difficulty or when misfortune comes knocking on your door. It is mental toughness personified. This imbedded human characteristic in their DNA is Israel’s real secret weapon. Our Israeli friends have a long history of resilience. Their grit and sheer tenacity are a major reason for their miraculous survival across these eight decades of their modern existence. 

Time after time the modern state of Israel has bounced back without the luxury of a long period of time in which to do so. Against all odds, on the heals of the Holocaust when one third of the Jewish population of the entire world was annihilated in Hitler’s death camps, within just three short years, they had bounced back to establish their own sovereign state, the Jewish State in the Land of Israel. After declaring their statehood on May 14, 1948, the very next day they were simultaneously attacked by Syria, Lebanon and Iraq from the north, Jordan from the east, and the mighty armies of Egypt from the South. Yet, against all odds their resilience enabled them to get up and with newly formed troops in makeshift uniforms, against all odds, win their War of Independence.

Time nor space in this brief article are adequate to recount the numerous times this ability to be resilient in the face of possible extinction rushed to the forefront. Israel does not have the luxury of losing a single war.  In 1967, again, against all odds, their resilient preemptive strike on Egypt who had positioned her massive troops into the Sinai for a surprise attack, ended the famous Six Day War in just that….six days. Then came the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when they appeared down for the count, got back up and won this war as well. A series of wars followed, all with the same victorious results. 

October 7, 2023 saw the calm of a Shabbat morning shattered when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack from Gaza killing 1,200 young Israeli young adults, women and children and taking 250 hostages.  Israel responded quickly and their resilience ultimately resulted in the return of all the hostages, although tragically some of them in body bags. Most recently, Israelis have spent many nights in their bomb shelters as thousands of Iranian ballistic missiles and rockets have rained down on their cities and villages. Yet, against all odds once again, with the partnership of their U.S. allies, destroyed the Iranian air-force, its navy, set back their nuclear program, and demolished most of their infrastructure.  All the while, the Israelis have been launching new businesses, planting their fields, advancing their scientific contributions to the world, composing their music, displaying their art, celebrating their weddings and have been bringing new life into the same world where Islamic terror groups once again tried unsuccessfully to erase their very existence.  

Apart from their resilience displayed in repeated wars and terrorists attacks, Israelis have shown their resilience through integration, innovation, imagination, and inspiration. No nation has been as resilient in absorbing and assimilating into their society the millions of immigrants that have come to Israel from all over the world. From a tiny struggling nation they have become the global center for business start ups, cybersecurity, medical research, not to mention their advances in artificial intelligence. Their repeated resiliency has well earned the title of “Start Up Nation.” Their resilience is seen in their ability to adapt and innovate despite their limited natural resources. With little fresh water and a largely desert climate they have become the global leader in water conservation and desalination of water supplies. The manifestations of their resilience could go on and on and fill the pages of large volumes of books.

The secret of Israel’s resilience is found in their ability to combine two very important traits at the same time—memory and hope.  Israeli’s have long memories.  Their very existence is found in their unique ability to remember. Their ability to preserve their identity, resurrect their dead Hebrew language, and return to their home land after two thousand years of exile is the epitome of resilience.  For all those centuries, spread out around the world, exiled to scores of countries, living with continued persecution and pogroms, they kept their Passover celebration each year.  Wherever they were they paused at their annual Seder meal to “remember” how God had delivered them in the past and, at the same time holding to the “hope” that they would spend their next Passover observance…“next year in Jerusalem.” This secret weapon of their resilience stands strongly upon these two legs—memory and hope. And, that is a lesson we all do well to learn.

It is no wonder that President Isaac Herzog, without a moments pause, described the Israeli people with one word—Resiliency! And, after observing them on the ground for two years as our U.S. Ambassador to Israel, it is no wonder that Mike Huckabee said the same. Our Israeli friends never forget their past. And, at the same time, they always keep hope alive for the future. In the midst of their sophisticated intelligence networks it is their unparalleled resiliency, against all odds, that remains….Israel’s secret weapon.