Thursday is Yom Ha'atzmaut – Israel Independence Day. On this day 70 years ago, as authorized by the United Nations, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel and became the nation’s first prime minister.

Independence Day – which began at sundown Wednesday in accordance with the Jewish calendar – is an occasion for celebration in Israel. Fireworks, concerts and parties began Wednesday night across the nation.

Israel received congratulations from the nation’s friends around the world – including President Trump, who tweeted: “Best wishes to Prime Minister @Netanyahu and all of the people of Israel on the 70th Anniversary of your Great Independence. We have no better friends anywhere. Looking forward to moving our Embassy to Jerusalem next month!”

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted in response: “Thank you, President Trump! We have no better friend than America. We are greatly looking forward to your moving the embassy to Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital.”

The anniversary of Israel’s independence from Britain is also a day of denunciation from many countries opposed to Israel’s existence, since this day is known to Arabs as al-Nakba, or “the catastrophe” – and is the day the Arab nations surrounding Israel declared war against the newborn state in 1948, determined to wipe it off the map.

Israel’s existence inspires visceral responses from people, both positive and negative. People either see it as a bastion of stability and democracy, or a cause of instability and radicalization.

But whether they are for Israel or against it, everyone thinks they know it. That’s why I believe this 70th anniversary offers a perfect chance to meet the Israel you don’t know.

Over the past three years, film crews from CBN Documentaries have traveled to five remote locations around the globe to follow Israeli volunteers dedicating their time, talents and resources to international relief efforts and humanitarian aid.

Our documentary on their work is titled “To Life: How Israeli Volunteers are Changing the World” and is airing now on CBN and YouTube.

These Israelis are saving and changing lives wherever they go. Let me introduce you to just a few of the nonprofit organizations they work with:

Innovation: Africa is an Israeli organization on a mission to bring Israeli solar and water technology to remote African villages. So far, the organizations has helped improve the lives of nearly 1 million people across the continent. Because of Israeli innovation, crops now grow where people were once starving. Boys and girls study in classrooms with electric lights for the first time in their lives. Clean water brings life where contaminated water once brought disease and death.

Save a Child’s Heart is an Israeli-based international humanitarian project that provides lifesaving heart surgery and follow-up care for children from developing countries. The group gives these children free medical care regardless of their nationality, religion, color, gender or financial status.

Springs of Hope Foundation, another Israeli organization, provides food, supplies, medical care and comfort to the Yazidi refugees in Kurdistan. ISIS terrorists attacked the Yazidi people in Iraq in 2014, enslaving or killing thousands and creating a half-million refugees.

IsraAid is an Israeli group that provides lifesaving disaster relief wherever people are in crisis. Its professional medics, search-and-rescue squads and post-trauma experts have been on the frontlines of every major humanitarian crisis, from rescuing Syrian refugees in Greece to helping Texans in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

This is not the Israel you read about in the headlines.

But I’ve saved the most surprising organization helping people around the world for last.

The Israel Defense Forces provide humanitarian aid worldwide. IDF doctors and nurses have established field hospitals at major disaster sites around the world, including Turkey, Nepal, Haiti, Mexico, the Philippines and even the United States.

I know that many other countries and organizations do amazing things to help those in crisis or in need. But very few nations do it while facing a steady drumbeat of criticism and U.N. condemnation.

After 70 years, I think it’s time we see the whole picture of the modern state of Israel. Perhaps it is time to see Israel as a light to the nations, and an example for us all.

So happy anniversary to Israel and l’chaim as you celebrate life.</s>Israel marked its 70 year anniversary since inception on Wednesday. Crowds gathered to celebrate its unlikely economic success and military prowess whilst battling a range of political and security challenges. The celebration starts by midnight and marks the anniversary of the proclamation of the state of Israel by founding father David Ben-Gurion. According to the […]

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This post was syndicated from The Herald Nigeria Newspaper. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>Israel marked its 70 year anniversary since inception on Wednesday. Crowds gathered to celebrate its unlikely economic success and military prowess whilst battling a range of political and security challenges. The celebration starts by midnight and marks the anniversary of the proclamation of the state of Israel by founding father David Ben-Gurion. According to the […]

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This post was syndicated from The Herald Nigeria Newspaper. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>In honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary, Breaking Israel News is pleased to present a compilation of analysis from some of the Jewish world’s top advocates and experts. Looking towards the next 70 years, here is their exclusive breakdown on Israel’s top challenges and opportunities.

According to longtime Harvard University Law Professor, attorney and author Alan Dershowitz, Israel’s greatest external threat is the threat that Iran and Hezbollah pose to Israel’s existence. “The greatest threat is the Shia Crescent extending from Iran through Iraq, through parts of Syria, into Lebanon and Hezbollah, and the attempt by Iranian Mullahs to literally destroy Israel regardless of how much sacrifice they would have to make to do it,” Dershowitz told Breaking Israel News.

Further, he said, “When you couple that with the world’s apparent lack of concern for that threat, it brings up Elie Wiesel’s famous statement ‘always believe the threats of your enemies more than the promises of your friends,’ so ultimately Israel will have to deal with that threat alone without the help of the international community and perhaps without the help of the United States. It certainly cannot count on any other country to deal with the Iranian/Hezbollah threat, it will have to be prepared to deal with it by itself.”

Yael Eckstein, the Senior Vice President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, maintained that one of the biggest challenges in Israel, which she deals with on a daily basis, is galvanizing the next generation of Christian supporters for Israel. “One of the challenges I see for the future is continuing the Christian support for Israel,” she told Breaking Israel News.

“We have come to believe that being Christian is synonymous with being pro Israel, which is something that the Jewish world forgets took so much investment in so many different ways of the Fellowship, my father Rabbi Eckstein, myself, and many others. It’s not a given- it took a lot of work to get where we are, and unless we continue investing in the next generation of Christians, it’s not a given that they are going to be Israel’s closest friends and supporters and allies,” she said.

Loss of US Liberal Support for Israel

The third most important threat according to Dershowitz is the loss of support of Israel by many American Jews and many American liberals, who he believes “prefer their own comfort and convenience to supporting the nation state of the Jewish people.”

Dershowitz told Breaking Israel News, “We are seeing a diminishing support in the United States, particularly among young people, for Israel. It’s not so much opposition to Israel but lack of interest in Israel, easier to be disengaged today because you won’t be attacked by your colleagues and friends if you disengage. But if you are perceived as an active Zionist, it has a major negative impact on your life.”

According to Eckstein, “Israel is below Mexico in different UN reports regarding poverty. 60% of our GDP goes to security and military but we have a horrible track record when it comes to taking care of Israel’s needy.” She told Breaking Israel News, “I see one of the challenges being bridging that gap between the basic needs for the poor people of Israel and really integrating them into society while providing for them their basic needs, such as a national food program like they have in the United States.”

She concluded, “We have a lot to work towards in terms of taking care of our needy and the huge percentage of people in Israel who live below the poverty line.”

Another external threat, as suggested by Dershowitz, is the international community’s application of the double standard to Israel. “That manifests itself every day, in what’s going on in Gaza, in the way the international community responded to the problem of the influx of economic refugees into Israel,” he said.

“Israel is judged by a completely different and much, much higher standard than anyone other country in the world, and that causes the BDS movement and that causes the campaigns all over the world to delegitimize and demonize Israel,” Dershowitz told Breaking Israel News.

Dov Lipman, former MK and Director of Public Diplomacy in the WZO Vice-Chairman’s Office, maintained that the greatest challenge facing Israel relates to the unity of people in Israel. On one front, he explained, the Haredi population is growing “way beyond” the rest of the Israel, and “if they don’t join the work force and don’t participate in high numbers economically there’s no way Israel can sustain itself.” He told Breaking Israel News, “animosity will grow between religious populations and the rest of Israel if the Haredi community continues to remain isolated, not participating in Israeli society and the army.”

On another front, Lipman maintained that “if the Haredi community holds onto its political power, we will never be able to move forward on these issues because in the system we have, they will always stop any government from moving forward on trying to find balance on balance between a Jewish and democratic State.”

Zooming out to the Jewish world, Dershowitz claimed that the fourth greatest threat to the Jewish people is rising nationalism in Eastern Europe. He bemoaned increasing anti-Semitism both by the right and the left in Europe, “by the left as reflected in Jeremy Corbyn and the British labor party, and by the right as reflected by growth of extreme nationalist parties in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Greece, and other places.”

“I think we are going to be seeing a lot more Christian tourists to Israel,” said Eckstein. “China has 100 million Christians just in China alone, and then you have South America with over 40 million Christians. If we invest in that next generation and the Christian communities with Israel advocacy and education, we will see a huge rise of numbers of Christian tourists coming to Israel.”

Another great opportunity that Dershowitz sees is the opportunity of creating “coalitions of convenience” with Sunni Arab countries, particularly the Gulf Countries. While we have a great opportunity in the short term, cemented by common threat of Iran, Dershowitz argued that we must be cautious, as Sunni Arab countries, and the Saudis in particular are “opportunists who will join Israel when convenient and then abandon Israel when it’s not.”

Thus, while he argued Israel must use this opportunity, it must also be careful about becoming too close and too dependent on Saudi friendship.

According to Lipman, now that Israel has addressed its security issues, it has the opportunity to answer the questions of “who we are internally,” “why are we here,” and “why is sacrifice worth it for the Jewish State.” One way to do this, Lipman proposed, is to address the “number one challenge” of the State of Israel– integration of the Haredi community into Israeli society.

He told Breaking Israel News, “The more the Haredim become integrated into modern society, the more moderate they become, and if we succeed in this goal, their political power in terms of holding on to the way things were will diminish because they become more moderate and more sensitive to broader Israel and will not want to have representation in the Knesset who are fighting the old battles instead of trying to move forward.”

According to Dershowitz, Israel’s biggest opportunity lies in its strength in military, economic, and diplomatic standing under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership. “Israel has never been stronger,” Dershowitz told Breaking Israel News. “Under Netanyahu, its diplomatic status has improved throughout Africa, South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe, and Bibi has to be given an enormous amount of credit for increasing Israel’s diplomatic standing around the world,” he said.

According to Eckstein, “Every day brings new prophetic revelations to Israel that the world is connecting to and excited about as well.” She said, “Just now over Passover we had 100,000 cohanim (priests) at the Western Wall giving their priestly blessings. So that will continue to grow, with the amount of Jewish people coming home to Israel and connecting to the Torah and God’s word and tapping into their own spirituality, so I see spiritual growth looking good in the next 70 years.

According to Dershowitz, “If Israel is able to make peace with the Palestinians and can literally turn its swords into plowshares, the peace dividend for the world would be unimaginably great.” He told Breaking Israel News, “Israel would be able to contribute, as it already has, to the welfare of the world, and maybe even be commended for it, which right now it’s not.”

According to Lipman, Israel has a great opportunity to “fulfill its mission in becoming a light unto the nations.” He said, “Here we are, established, we are a flourishing country, we are here, and now we have the opportunity to show the world what a Jewish State looks like in terms of its values, its respect for each other, and its respect for other people. We should be the shining light to the world in terms of showing how all people are created in God’s image.

He continued, “On a certain level, Israel is doing that in terms of medical advances and technology, but as a society, in terms of corruption in politics, we still have a long way to go in really demonstrating those values and I certainly hope as we celebrate the 70th we can begin focusing on that dimension of what a Jewish State should be.”</s>Israelis who hit all the right notes

Youth from all over the world celebrating Israeli independence at the Western Wall. (photo credit: YOSSI ZELIGER)

President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday warmly welcomed some 6,000 youths from across the globe who took part in March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau last week and then flew to Israel.





“Our country, the State of Israel, is the ‘March of the Living’ for the Jewish people,” Rivlin told them, following their emotional trip to Poland to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. 



 





As part of Israel's 70th Independence Day celebrations, they gathered in Jerusalem’s Safra Square and marched to the Western Wall for a mass communal prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel. Later that evening, the educational program concluded with a large-scale celebration at the IDF Armored Corps Memorial and Museum in Latrun. 





March of the Living, noted that

to Israel, from all over the world, constitutes the closing of an exciting and important circle. The establishment of the State of Israel is a miracle

, and it is something that must be experienced to be believed and understood

their interactions with Israel’s people and culture

, we believe that

our March of the Living

will develop a stronger kinship with the land of Israel,</s>The past few weeks have been uncomfortable for British Jewry, although for many the anguish began long before antisemitism became a talking point in the national press. For leftwing Jewish people it has been particularly disheartening; it’s clear that a small but nonetheless present minority of self-described progressives have a blind spot to antisemitism. Since Jeremy Corbyn’s misjudged and offensive comment beneath an antisemitic mural on Facebook surfaced, signs of progress have at least been reassuring.

Labour’s new general secretary, Jennie Formby, has made it clear that booting out the cranks and bigots is now a number one priority for the party. The Labour leadership is meeting with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council. Momentum has released a statement and set out plans for a training and awareness programme on antisemitism for all staff and elected officials, aware that what is needed is action, not just words. This week’s debate in the House of Commons should mean all parties now focusing on eradicating antisemitism wherever it is found.

In this process of introspection, however, the Jewish community must also ask itself some difficult questions. This Yom Ha’atzmaut – the date in the Jewish calendar that marks Israel’s declaration of independence some 70 years ago – there’s never been more urgency to have one particular debate. Because, while Corbyn’s decision to attend the Jewdas seder dragged a conversation our community has long had in private into the spotlight, the divides it exposed in our community are nothing new. How do we navigate the relationship between Israel and Judaism in diaspora communities? A resolution is long overdue.

For many Jewish people, Yom Ha’atzmaut is a day of celebration – an annual opportunity to affirm their support to a Jewish homeland as it currently stands. For others, however, it feels exclusionary – a holiday now being enshrined in the Jewish calendar that takes religion into the arena of divisive politics, not faith. In many synagogues on Wednesday night and Thursday, guest speakers will have been invited to talk about Israel and its significance, and Israeli flags will have been pinned to the walls as a night of dancing, food and merriment ensued. The prayer for the state of Israel will be read, as it is on a weekly basis. It’s a Jewish celebration held in the same regard as Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), but one that really only creates space for a certain type of Jew.

It’s all well and good to say you can be critical of the state of Israel without being antisemitic – and for those on all sides of the political spectrum it’s a mantra that should be repeated. But if we ourselves can’t distinguish between our religion and what is, even if widely supported, a political ideology, I can’t help but wonder how others will be able to. A nationalistic celebration of a modern state leaves little room for nuance.

Let’s not forget that Judaism has a long and proud history of dissent and disagreement, from how we observe our centuries-old rituals to the good-humoured Latke–Hamantash debate. When it comes to Israel, there has also long been division, from the Bundists of eastern Europe who rejected a Jewish state in the 1930s to the Zionist Federation today. Some Jews today are staunch supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, while others are deeply opposed to the occupation. There are those who want to see a one-state solution, while of course there are those who prefer two. None of those people are any less a Jew. After years in the intellectual wilderness, it’s possible that a new progressive Jewish movement in Britain will once again start forming in response.

In its current formation, Yom Ha’atzmaut does not make space for these differences, or for people like me, who don’t know the answers and want to question, listen and learn.

Of course, this can’t be overcome by focussing solely on a single celebration. It means thinking carefully and critically about our religious services. It means having an honest and open discussion about our leadership. It means looking at our youth movements, which, from my own experience, often leave little space for exploration and balance.

The chief rabbi of the UK, Ephraim Mirvis, wrote a piece in the Telegraph in 2016, stating in no uncertain terms his discomfort with non-Zionist, anti-Zionist or undecided Jews (and gentiles). “Zionism is a belief in the right to Jewish self-determination in a land that has been at the centre of the Jewish world for more than 3,000 years,” he wrote. “One can no more separate it from Judaism than separate the City of London from Great Britain.”

The religious celebration of Yom Ha’atzmut implies there is a right and wrong way to be Jewish, even if unintended. This is the narrative that allowed Jonathan Arkush, the chair of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, to label Jewdas antisemitic on national television – despite it being both Jewish and a staunch campaigner against racism in all its forms.

Frankly, when there are unarmed protesters being gunned down in Gaza, it doesn’t feel appropriate to be waving Israeli flags and singing the national anthem, even if many involved are critical of the action taking place. But if people want to celebrate the formation of the state of Israel, they have every right to hold a street party, throw a dinner, wear white and blue as they dance the night away. But let’s make that a political choice (even if it has, to some, a religious aspect), not a fundamental part of the Jewish faith.

This is a process already in action – parts of the Jewish reform movement, for example, see Israeli independence day as an opportunity for debate. The rest of the community can do it too.
• Michael Segalov is the news editor of Huck magazine</s>Israelis marked the 70th anniversary of their independence Thursday, with celebrations taking place across the nation of nine million.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the country's annual Bible Quiz in Jerusalem, in which young Jewish scholars from around the world compete.

In an Independence Day message, he praised the "men and women from every walk of life, young and old, Jew, Christian, Muslim, religious and secular" who have worked hard to build the nation.

"Israel's success didn't happen overnight," he said.

He praised Israel's technology and ingenuity, which, he said, has helped improve lives around the world.

"Here's the best part: we're just getting started," Netanyahu said. "Seventy years is the blink of an eye in historical terms. I have no doubt that 70 years from now, Israel will be even stronger and even more prosperous than it is today."

Happy Independence Day, Israel! <a href="https://t.co/6PZxBbhbcr">pic.twitter.com/6PZxBbhbcr</a> —@IsraeliPM

Independence Day festivities, which included barbecues, beach parties and air force flybys, began Wednesday night, when in sharp contrast, Israel abruptly crossed over from its melancholy Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and terrorism victims.

The grouping of the two days is intentional, to show the link between the costly wars Israel has fought and the establishment and survival of the Jewish state.

Independence Day celebrations began late Wednesday. Here, Israeli youths embrace at the Mahane Yehuda market in the centre of Jerusalem to celebrate what is also known as Yom Ha'atzmaut. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel has much to celebrate — a standard of living that rivals Western Europe and scientific achievements and military and technological clout beyond its modest size — but it's also a country that is weary from decades of conflict with the Palestinians, for which it has received criticism.

Israel's relations with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank are poor; its relations with Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, who seized the territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, are hostile.

Strange juxtaposition of revellers and demonstrators

As many Israelis celebrated, thousands of members of the country's Arab minority turned out for a rally to commemorate what Palestinians call their catastrophe, or Nakba — an allusion to the war they lost 70 years ago that resulted in the birth of the modern Jewish state.

In a field near Atlit, an Arab village south of Haifa that was depopulated and abandoned in 1948, children read the lyrics of nationalist anthems from their iPhones while their elders sat beneath awnings, listening to dignitaries and musicians.

The rally organizers said 170 people were driven out of the small coastal village in 1948 and fled to other towns or into neighbouring countries. Lebanon has around 450,000 Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations refugee agency, many living in the country's 12 refugee camps.

"I never miss any event related to the Nakba," said Sami Salman, 83, a carpenter originally from Nazareth who attended the rally. "Many people left for Lebanon back then, but fortunately for us we did not have enough money to go. I am very glad about that now."

Israeli Arabs demonstrating in Atlit south of Haifa hope to see refugees who fled their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War repatriated. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

There was a strange juxtaposition on the crowded holiday streets around Haifa on Thursday morning. Coaches from Jerusalem, Nazareth and other towns filled with Arabs headed to the Nakba rally, past long lines of cars bearing blue and white Israeli flags heading in the opposite direction to the coast, for the traditional picnics and beach parties at which Israelis celebrate Independence Day.

Israelis traditionally celebrate Independence Day with picnics, beach parties and air shows. (Ariel Schalit/Associated Press)

Similarly, as demonstrators at the Nakba rally waved Palestinian flags and wore T-shirts proclaiming Jerusalem to be "the eternal capital of Palestine," Netanyahu announced in Jerusalem that "at least half a dozen" countries were considering moving their embassies to Jerusalem following the U.S. decision to do so.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in December that the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, infuriating even Washington's Arab allies and dismaying Palestinians who want the eastern part of the city as their capital.

The U.S. Embassy is due to relocate to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv on May 14, the date on which Israel's independence is marked on the Gregorian calendar (vs. the Hebrew calendar).

Hoping to return

Over at Atlit, the Arabs at the rally were mostly the descendants of Palestinians who did not go into exile. One of the main issues promoted by the organizers is the longstanding demand for the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Palestinians — and some Israeli scholars — view the the refugee problem as the result of a systematic program of ethnic cleansing ordered by Zionist leaders to clear the way for the Jewish state.

Israel rejects this, saying that the refugee problem resulted from a war launched by Palestinians opposed to a UN partition plan adopted in 1947, and by Arab states which invaded as soon as the British Mandate expired in 1948.

Israelis and Palestinians disagree on who is ultimately responsible for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees dispersed across Lebanon and other neighbouring countries, Here, a demonstrator takes part in the rally near Atlit. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

Before fighting began in late 1947, about a million Arabs and 600,000 Jews lived in what was to become Israel. Israel emerged with 78 per cent of Mandate Palestine. The UN plan, rejected by the Arabs, would have given it 56 per cent.

Successive Israeli governments have ruled out any right of return, fearing that the country would lose its Jewish majority.

But the refugees in Lebanon have not given up hope, even amid the stench of the sewers at the Shatila refugee camp in southern Beirut.

"I won't live to see it, but my children might," said Abdel Majid Al Shura, 42. "Seventy years is nothing in the history of the world."</s>On Wednesday night, mourning turned to celebration in Israel as Memorial Day for the country’s fallen soldiers ended and the country’s 70th anniversary celebrations got under way.

The main ceremony took place at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, named after the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, attended by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, president Reuven Rivlin and other leading officials.

Mr Rivlin, in his Independence Day message, said Israel represented a ingathering of the exiles. “From Yemen and Morocco, the Netherlands and Greece, Algeria and Russia, Poland and Ethiopia we have gathered here. Through pogroms, expulsions and from the demonic inferno we have gotten back on our feet and created a national home,” he said.

He noted that this year the United States recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “I am certain additional countries will soon follow suit,” he added.

Mr Netanyahu spoke about Israel’s unique spirit. “Many countries in the world consider us a beacon of strength and progress. We will continue realising the hope in the land of our fathers-the state of Israel-which we love so much and of which we are so proud.”

Founded in 1948, three years after the second World War in which two thirds of European Jewry perished in the Holocaust, the new state in its early years had to absorb survivors from the Nazi death camps together with large numbers of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

Despite having few natural resources and being surrounded by hostile neighbouring states, Israel developed over the years into a prosperous and thriving democracy, a hi-tech start-up nation and the pre-eminent regional military power.

In 1948 there were just 806,000 people in Israel, less than a tenth of the current population.

But the country is not without its problems. Far from emerging as a safe haven for persecuted Jews, Israel has failed to achieve peace with most of the Arab world, has no permanent borders and is now involved in a dangerous struggle with Iran on a number of fronts.

The occupation of the West Bank is in its 50th year and there is no end in sight to the struggle with the Palestinians over control of the Biblical land. Tension with Gaza continues and threatens to erupt into another war.

Social gaps are getting wider and poverty persists, particularly amongst the Arab minority and the ultra-Orthodox sector, which together make up a third of Israel’s population.

Corruption is also a problem. Former prime minister Ehud Olmert served a 16-month jail term for fraud and bribery and police have recommended that Mr Netanyahu also be charged with bribery.

Despite the problems, a poll commissioned to coincide with Independence Day found a majority of the population are proud to be Israelis and believe Israel is a good country to live in and are optimistic about the future, while at the same time expressing concern about a possible war.</s>WASHINGTON – In January, one of the nation’s premier research centers published a poll that caused something of a tizzy. It had found, according to its press release, a wider gap between Democrats and Republicans on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict “than at any point since 1978.”



The Pew Research Center – which polls Americans on this question every year – discovered more Republicans sympathetic toward Israel in the context of the conflict than at any other moment in modern times. Democrats, on the other hand, were found increasingly divided, now equally likely to support the Palestinian cause, ostensibly at Israel’s expense.





Overall, Pew concluded that 79% of Republicans sympathize with Israel in its historic struggle with the Palestinians, compared with only 27% of Democrats. Americans more favorably inclined toward Israel are less likely to believe a two-state solution is possible than those inclined toward the Palestinians.And belief in the possibility of peace is correlated with age: the younger you are, the more hopeful you are likely to be that an agreement can be reached.The poll seemed to confirm long-held fears over increased politicization of Israel in the United States – a core national security concern for the Israeli government, which relies on bipartisan support in Congress for foreign assistance, defense aid and diplomatic support. The basis of the poll was called into question by Democrats who consider themselves fervent supporters of the Jewish state and also advocates of Palestinian statehood, including former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro and the Brookings Institution’s Tamara Cofman Wittes.“The poll question is faulty because sympathy for Palestinians should not imply hostility to Israel, nor should sympathy for Israel require disregard for the fate of Palestinians. A solution to their conflict enshrining two states for two peoples is the outcome most preferred by Americans regardless of party,” the pair wrote in The Atlantic monthly shortly after Pew published its findings.“The strong push in the poll question’s construction is toward dichotomy: Which side are you on?” they continued.“Thus the responses, by design, suggest greater polarization than perhaps exists in reality.”Still, senior members of the Israeli government and Israel advocacy organizations took the survey findings seriously. Top Israeli officials scavenged historical polling data looking for cause for comfort. And they found one trend in which they took heart: an ebb and flow in support for the Jewish state over time seemingly correlated not with particular governments in power, either in Israel or America, but on watershed events that have shaped the Middle East.Two major inflection points in data were the 1991 Gulf War and the September 11 attacks, both of which aggravated partisan feelings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the fact that these spikes in partisanship over Israel ultimately subsided offers reason to believe that this moment, too, shall pass, several officials expressed in conversations with The Jerusalem Post. The Republican-Democrat gap also appeared to them driven less by a drop in support among Democrats (calculated at an 11% decline since 2001) than by a dramatic increase in support from Republicans (by 29%).Yet what might be the historical event that has led to this recent divide – one that has sustained itself, broader than ever, over eight long years? Officials struggled to say. But they noted no statistically significant change in the annual data between the year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his dramatic speech to Congress on Iran, confronting Democratic president Barack Obama’s top foreign policy achievement, and the year prior.More significantly, Israel advocates on both sides of the aisle believe they have identified a change at the fringes of both parties in attitudes toward Israel and the cause of Zionism – changes of concern for a host of reasons.On the Left, polling and grassroots campaigns agree there has been an increase in hostility toward Israel within the progressive movement, which identifies the cause of Zionism not with core liberal values but with the oppression of a minority group – the Palestinians.The American Israel Public Affairs Committee touched on this in its appeal to liberal Democrats at the start of its annual conference in Washington.“To my friends in the progressive community, I want you to know we are partners in this project,” AIPAC’s president, Mort Fridman, told the conference, attended by over 18,000 Israel activists. “The progressive narrative for Israel is just as compelling and critical as the conservative one.”“There are very real forces trying to pull you out of this hall and out of this movement, and we cannot let that happen,” he continued. “We will not let that happen!” Last fall, a Democratic Jewish organization calling itself the Jewish Democratic Council of America launched with a mission to reengage Democrats on the positive politics of Israel. Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the US, addressed its launch event, where he characterized bipartisan support for the state as a national security asset.“Everyone should understand bipartisan support is a strategic value,” Dermer said.“You cannot fly a plane with one wing, and you cannot have a strong alliance between the US and Israel without strong support in both parties.”And yet on the other hand, within the far Right, the Anti-Defamation League tracked an increased convergence of fervent antisemitic rhetoric from neo-Nazi, white supremacist and white nationalist hate groups with claims of support for the Zionist cause – a belief that Israel is an example of the sort of a ethno-nationalist state they seek to replicate in the US homeland.Richard Spencer, a leader of the alt-Right racial extremist movement, said as much in an interview following a rally of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, last summer.“The reality is the Zionist concept has been the target of Jew haters from both the Right and the Left for years,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, in response to Spencer at the time. “The infamous ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution of the UN General Assembly in 1975 was an initiative of the Soviet Union. Today we see groups and individuals on the Left – recently the Chicago Dyke March and Linda Sarsour – defaming and delegitimizing Zionism. On the far Right, there is a long history of ZOG – the accusation that the US has been captured by the ‘Zionist Occupied Government.’” The sharp opposition voiced from those on the far Left may appear more brazenly hostile to Israel; but equally threatening, if not more so, is a form of Zionism expressed by the likes of Spencer and his ilk on the far Right.And the value of their form of “support” for Israel’s existence is not likely captured by pollsters.“In this heightened political time,” Greenblatt continued, “we must have zero tolerance for those who seek to divide and vilify the principles which we hold dear, which include living proudly and securely as Jews in America and defending the legitimacy of the Jewish State of Israel. There will always be those on both extremes who seek to attack or undermine those core principles.”</s>Israel benefits from a strong military and even stronger allies, but analysts warn the state faces major challenges

It appears Israelis have every reason to be in festive mood this week as they celebrate the 70th anniversary of their state’s founding.

This “Independence Day”, which Israel marks according to the Hebrew calendar, on April 19, the regional, security and diplomatic environment looks to be the most favourable Israel has faced in its short history.

The Palestinians have been crushed, and Israel faces no international pressure to concede a two-state solution. The Arab states are in disarray, with growing signs that Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states may be ready to normalise relations.

The Trump administration is little more than a cheerleader for Israel, and has pre-empted Palestinian ambitions for statehood by moving its embassy to Jerusalem next month.

And Israel has one of the few economies that is thriving despite the global recession sparked by the financial meltdown a decade ago.

Nonetheless, analysts warn, the picture over the coming decades may prove to be far less rosey than it appears now. The relatively free hand Israel currently enjoys comes with new costs and dangers, they argue.

“This is more like a pyrrhic victory,” Amal Jamal, a politics professor at Tel Aviv University, told Al Jazeera.

“Israel has won this round of the battle, but at a price it probably can’t afford in the coming rounds.”

That sentiment is shared in unlikely places. Last month Israel’s popular Yedioth Aharonoth daily published the assessments of six former heads of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, headlined: “The country is in grave condition.”

One, Dani Yatom, went so far as to predict “the end of the Jewish state”. Another, Nahum Admoni, warned that the rift within the Israeli Jewish public was “greater than at any other time” in Israel’s history.

Michal Warschawski, an Israeli analyst and founder of the Alternative Information Centre, argued that Israel was suffering from “classic hubris”.

“Israel is strong, rich and has powerful allies. That explains its extreme arrogance at the moment,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We are now in a strange situation in which the security apparatus has more insight into Israel’s problems than the politicians.”

An indication of Israel’s troubles ahead are the popular, unarmed protests that have exploded on to the Palestinian political scene along Gaza’s perimeter fence.

For decades Israel’s internal security has been carefully built on an intricate system of containing, isolating and repressing Palestinians with walls, checkpoints and blockades.

But the Gaza protests suggest to some observers that Israel’s complex fortifications could quickly turn into a house of cards if unarmed resistance by Palestinians grows or spreads.

Israeli military commanders have repeatedly warned that they have no strategy for countering a mass popular revolt. The use of snipers to terrify away protesters was a sign of Israel’s desperation, say analysts.

Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery observed in a column at the weekend: “Like the British in India and the white racists in the US, the Israeli government does not know how to deal with unarmed protest.”

Assad Ghanem, a political scientist at Haifa University, told Al Jazeera: “What happens to Israel will depend in part on what Palestinians choose to do, and Palestinians aren’t going to accept third or fourth-class status forever.”

He noted that historically Palestinians had looked to the wider Arab world for support, including military assistance.

“For the first time, the Palestinians are on their own. They have slowly internalised the fact that Israel cannot be defeated with arms, and they must move towards a non-armed struggle.”

Israel would be in “serious difficulty” if the protests in Gaza spread, unifying Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel and the refugee camps of Lebanon and Syria. “Israel cannot repress all these fronts at the same time,” he said.

Jamal, of Tel Aviv University, observed that the Palestinian struggle would be influenced by changing international circumstances.

“The Israeli right is behaving as if the shift to the right in the west will last forever. It won’t – there will be a backlash,” he argued.

But if Israel has reason to worry about where increasing hopelessness may drive the Palestinians, it has additional dark clouds looming on the horizon.

International support for Israel has no depth, according to Jeff Halper, an Israeli analyst.

“Israel may have the support of western governments, but it has lost the fight for international public opinion. Its defenders sound increasingly shrill and isolated,” he told Al Jazeera.

Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian, noted that Israel’s position was severely weakened by its explicit abandonment of any peace process.

“While the two-state framework was formally on the table, it was much easier for people to accept the current reality,” he told Al Jazeera. “But without it, Israel is naked, it is exposed as an apartheid state.”

That, said Jamal, would make it much harder for Israel to maintain alliances with progressives movements in the US and Europe.

He pointed to Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour party, as an example of the new breed of politician prepared to be outspoken in support of the Palestinians. Polls have also revealed for the first time widespread antipathy towards Israel from within the ranks of the Democratic Party in the US.

“Palestinian strategies of resistance can accelerate this trend,” Jamal added.

Shift to the right

The dramatic shift in Israel towards the far right in recent years, with a series of ever more ultra-nationalist governments under Benjamin Netanyahu, has provoked growing polarisation among Israeli Jews and mounting alienation from liberal Jews overseas.

Traditionally, the latter have been vocal advocates for Israel abroad, especially in the United States.

In the run-up to the 70th anniversary celebrations, there has been an outpouring of fears from liberal commentators about the future.

Bradley Burston observed that Israel was now led by “a government of the racist, by the racist, for the racist”, while Chemi Shalev warned that it was time for liberal Jews in Israel and the US to “circle their wagons” against the Israeli leadership.

Emilie Moatti argued that the “thuggery” of the current government would soon seem moderate in comparison to the “nightmarish circus up the road”.

Meanwhile, analyst Yossi Klein argued: “A clerical fascist state will rise here much faster than you think.” He added that Israel was rapidly becoming a country that “you have to get out of, and fast”.

Such fears have been exacerbated by a raft of discriminatory and racist legislation and relentless efforts to delegitimise the Israeli supreme court and human rights groups.

“It is not just the illusion of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that is crumbling, Israel is actively abandoning any pretence of being democratic. It is more interested in its Jewishness,” Warschawski said.

Jamal said Israel was becoming “a theocratic, nationalist state” dominated by religious extremists and the settlers. “That is not a direction those Israelis who want peace can go in. The secular population will have to fight for what’s left of Israel’s democracy,” he said.

Pappe said growing economic gaps between a rich elite and the country’s middle classes were also straining traditional internal solidarity.

In 2015 the finance ministry warned that over the coming years Israel was on track for a Greek-style fiscal meltdown.

“Israel has the largest gap between rich and poor in the OECD [an organisation promoting economic cooperation between the world’s 35 most developed countries],” said Pappe.

“The middle classes can hardly survive, and mostly are living off overdrafts. They are on the verge of protests.”

All agreed that Israel risked a brain drain – and a loss of legitimacy – as younger liberal Israelis looked for options to leave.

Jamal said: “Israel has traded on the claim that the occupation is temporary. But clearly that is no longer tenable. So Israelis will have to choose. There can one sovereign state for everyone living here, or there can be apartheid.”

Halper struck a similar note. “What has saved Israel has been the fact that there is no countervailing push for a resolution of the conflict,” he said. “Israel has won the argument by default.

“One state is in the air, and it could quickly build a dynamic of its own, both locally and outside. The churches, trade unions, solidarity groups, civil society organisations are all looking for someone to articulate a new way ahead.”

And Israel could soon find itself deprived of its traditional supporters abroad to help it counter the intensified international solidarity with Palestinians, such as the boycott (BDS) movement.

Warschawski said: “In a generation the unconditional support Israel has enjoyed from Jewish organisations overseas will become a thing of the past. Young Jews either don’t care about Israel or are openly critical of it.”

A survey in February found only 40 per cent of American Jews under the age of 35 in the San Francisco area were “comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state”, compared to nearly three-quarters of those over 65.

In a sign of the Israeli right’s growing fears, settler leader Naftali Bennett, the Jewish diaspora minister, announced last month plans for Israel to forge ties with tens of millions of people it has classified as “potential Jews” or those with an “affinity” to the Jewish people.

Anshel Pfeffer, an analyst with the Haaretz daily, argued that Israel realised it could no longer rely on overseas Jews, in an article headlined: “Disappointed with the Diaspora, Israel is now looking to replace it”.

Pappe said in practice, as liberal Jews abandoned Israel, it would have to climb into bed with US Christian Zionists, religious fundamentalists who backed Trump in large numbers in the last presidential election.

“Jews have needed to believe that Israel embodies moral and universal values. Christian Zionists don’t care. They will support it whatever it does,” he said.

Rising global powers could also make a difference to Israel’s fortunes long term, acting as a counterweight to current US dominance.

Jamal noted that, in preparation, Israel was already trying to develop closer economic and military ties to India and China.

Halper said: “Israel has depended on the US being the main player in the Middle East. But Russia is already getting more involved, and there are signs that China will eventually do so too.

“That will require Israel to navigate a more difficult military and diplomatic environment.”
Israel celebrates the 70th anniversary of its existence as a Jewish state.