Happy 67th Birthday Israel – Yom Ha’atzmaut – Independence Day 2015

The Third Jewish Commonwealth was born on May 15, 1948 with its Declaration of Independence read by founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion   in the midst of a raging war with five invading Arab Armies – see below.  67 years later after several wars, numerous terrorist attacks, Israel has defended itself, as perhaps the most powerful armed force in the Middle East.  The first nation to recognize  administratively  was the new  State of Israel was  the  United States  within 12 minutes  of the announcement  by President  Harry S. Truman . Ironically the next nation was Iran that had voted against the partition plan.  The Soviet Union became the first nation to recognize Israel dejure on May 17, 1948. The US followed on January 31, 1949 following Israel’s first election of its Knesset.  Israel was accepted as a member of the UN by a voted of the Security Council on March 4, 1949.   

Israel flourishes despite relations with the rest of the world that are currently problematic at the EU, UN and its bodies. Israel is surrounded by threats both near and far from Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State on its borders. Yet, It is one of the happiest nation s ranked 8th in the latest Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project.  It has more than 8.3 million in population including minority Muslims, Druze, Circassians and Christians. Its Jewish population currently over 6 million now exceeds that of the American Jewish Community.   Americans in poll after poll   consistently and overwhelmingly support Israel. This notwithstanding the thinly disguised attempts by the current Administration to isolate it because of disagreement over Iran’s nuclear program poised to achieve nuclear breakout in the P5+1 process.  Its economy, although fraught with problems is among the fastest growing members of the OECD, fueled in part by high technology ventures in what is referred to as “silicon wadi”, making Israel one of the premier start up nation attracting capital from around the world.

Watch this Happy Birthday Israel 2015 video produced by Nefesh b’ Nefesh.  Kol Hakavod, Yom Huledet, Yisrael