What has Israel accomplished in 78 years?

According to the Jewish calendar, today is Israel’s 78th birthday, the miraculous rebirth of a nation which had been in exile for 2,000 years but literally emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust, one last final attempt to wipe the Jewish people from the face of the earth.

When making a comparison to the nascent Jewish state, with countries that have existed for thousands of years, it’s almost impossible to take in the massive leaps which have been achieved by a relatively tiny amount of people, albeit those with a passionate vision.

For Jews, the hope of their own place of refuge is best described in Psalm 126, “When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream.” (verse 1)

Indeed, the realization of a Jewish homeland had merely been a dream, to which our people clung very tightly – a safe harbor from which they would no longer have to flee when the local population would turn against them, as they’d always done.

Losing no time, they immediately went to work, as they came from the death camps of Europe, squandering no moments for self-pity. Ending their victimhood, these Jews were not going to outsource their fate to anyone ever again, which is why they built the best military and intelligence that was possible.  

Using the skills that they’d acquired in other lands, Jews, finally free to excel at every profession imaginable, constructed the finest hospitals, housing, museums, impressive institutions of higher learning, advanced technologies in medicine, industry, agriculture and every sector imaginable. Their image makeover was far beyond what anyone could have ever predicted.

And while that that added up to the positive and admirable trait of pulling oneself up by the boot straps, the threat of such a remarkable resilience became a point of contention for many who were simply unable to digest a comeback of that magnitude.

In a few short years, Jews supernaturally transitioned from corpses to giants in every field under the sun. But this, too, was predicted in Psalm 126, “Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” (vs. 2)

And whether or not that is acknowledged by the nations and the Israeli people, themselves, there is no doubt that only the Almighty could have accomplished all that has occurred in His land over the last 78 years.

Because they are unparalleled anywhere else. No other country has literally risen from the ashes in such a striking way, able to build a formidable country while constantly fighting enemies all around them, whose goal was their utter destruction.

Articulately expressed by writer Adam Scott Bellos in his article, “Dead Jews are not the problem, the ones who survive are,” he rightly assesses that Jews only became despised once they were “no longer seen as victims or as a memory, both of which were acceptable.  It was the Jew who acts, fights and refuses to wait for permission that is problematic.”

This is probably true, because Jews, no longer seen as helpless or subservient, cannot be controlled. To the contrary, their freedom becomes the point of inspiration and ingenuity, allowing them to invent, create and develop advances for all mankind, reversing the roles, as a dependent world is beholden to them.

It puts a different light on everything. But rather than be appreciative and immensely grateful for the many benefits afforded to every person on the face of the earth, now able to enjoy restored health or modern advances, made possible by Jews, there is, instead, a loathing brought on by envy which quickly turns into hatred. 

Those two adjectives are paired in Ezekiel 35:11 as God declares how He will deal in judgment with those who felt that way towards Israel. 

It is the survival of the Jewish nation as well as their matchless gifts and abilities, bestowed upon them by their God, which has been the source of anger and resentment, culminating in another rise of antisemitism, not only threatening the Jewish homeland, but every kinsman who remains among the nations.

They are the vulnerable stragglers who are prey to victimhood as they find themselves more and more disenfranchised and viewed as the outsiders, no longer looked upon as fellow partakers of Western society but, rather, as unwanted strangers whose time has run out.

It is, yet, another reason that the exiles of Zion should seriously consider coming home to their people. Because as a cohesive bloc, with our own state, we are no longer a powerless entity, unable to defend ourselves.  

Now, after more than two years of battling the cruelest and most barbaric of foes, the world has seen what we’re made of. Israel will never be viewed as a state in need of a protectorate – despite what our American allies may believe. 

Grateful for their assistance and friendship, we, nonetheless, would have continued to exist without it. Because our destiny lies not in the hands of humans but, rather, in the God of Israel, who promised that we would always stand as a nation before Him, despite the attempts of many to do away with us.

That is because Israel is an eternal promise, built on an irrevocable covenant, unlike other nations. The people chosen by God are preserved by Him in order to fulfill their specific, divine calling. That means that no person, no nation and no weapon can come against that plan, without first taking on the Creator of the universe. 

Their greatest attempts will be futile at best, and until they figure that out, they will only end up frustrating themselves by failing to reach their goal of Jewish annihilation. 

So, what has Israel accomplished over these past 78 years? We are still standing, even if it is sometimes alone. We are fighting, not only for us, but for the freedom of all who are in a position to be overtaken by an enemy that won’t be content until world dominance is achieved by them.  

We offer friendship, help and know-how to anyone who wants it, and, most of all, we remain the instruments yet to be used to point mankind to their Maker. Those are only some of the “great things” spoken of in Psalm 126, which define us on our 78th birthday. 

Am Israel Chai! (the people of Israel live)