COMMENTARY: On Its 58th Birthday, Israel Can Consider Itself `Grown Up’

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) “Behave like a grown-up!” Parents frequently utter those words to their children even though the youngsters are usually years, even decades away from being chronologically “grown up.” But the parental message is clear: Being grown up means acting in a mature, thoughtful and purposeful way. It is excellent advice […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “Behave like a grown-up!”

Parents frequently utter those words to their children even though the youngsters are usually years, even decades away from being chronologically “grown up.” But the parental message is clear: Being grown up means acting in a mature, thoughtful and purposeful way. It is excellent advice for individuals, and is equally valid for nations.


On May 14, the state of Israel will be 58 years old, surely a grown-up age for any country. After nearly 60 years of political independence, Israel is no longer a “newly emerging” nation. Instead, it is a vigorous, adult member of the family of democratic nations even though it is situated in the Middle East, perhaps the most dangerous and hate-filled region in the entire world.

While the hard-won peace treaties with neighboring Egypt and Jordan have provided some welcome stability, Israel’s self-declared enemies, including Syria and Iran and the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, have never permitted Israelis to enjoy a single day of peace since the Jewish state’s birth in 1948.

Despite this grim fact, Israel has not only survived, but in many ways it has thrived. And it has done so despite bloody wars, Saddam Hussein’s 1991 SCUD missile attacks, continuing public calls by Islamic leaders for its physical destruction, ghastly suicide bombings, costly economic boycotts, anti-Semitic behavior by Western intellectuals thinly disguised as “anti-Zionism” and a relentless Arab/Muslim campaign of hostility at the United Nations.

In 1948 there were approximately 600,000 Jews living in the new state; today the number is well over 5 million, and Israel will soon surpass the Jewish population of the United States. Israel’s standard of living and gross national product are constantly rising, and its world-class achievements in medicine, technology and the arts are extraordinary.

However, Israel has problems involving housing, education, poverty, health care and unemployment. But then, name any nation, including the United States, that has solved such problems.

During the past year Israel has behaved as a grown-up nation in three difficult areas.

Last August, it unilaterally withdrew from Gaza and turned the land over to Palestinian control. It was something Egypt never did when it occupied Gaza between 1948 and 1967. Israel’s disengagement involved the painful but peaceful uprooting of thousands of Israeli citizens who had made Gaza their home for decades. Today, they have begun new lives inside Israel.

Sadly, since August the Palestinians in Gaza have seemed more intent on firing rockets into nearby Israeli civilian communities or fighting among themselves rather than participating in constructive nation-building.


Israel also behaved in a grown-up manner when Ariel Sharon, its democratically elected prime minister, suffered a debilitating stroke in early January. In many countries such a political vacuum often leads to armed coups, rioting in the streets and violent assassinations. But none of those dire events occurred in Israel.

Instead, Sharon’s deputy, Ehud Olmert, became acting prime minister. The national elections took place as planned in late March with Olmert narrowly emerging as the new Israeli leader. After 100 days of being comatose, Sharon was legally relieved of his duties as prime minister.

Finally, in January following Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian election, Israel began a carefully calibrated grown-up policy. Hamas remains publicly committed to the destruction of Israel; it will not renounce violence against Israel, nor will the terrorist group accept any previously negotiated agreements in the long and tortured peace process.

In the face of such enmity, Israel has cut off all relations _ diplomatic, political and economic _ with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have followed suit. No nation is required to negotiate with a government that seeks its physical annihilation, nor is a nation required to aid and abet a terrorist regime.

At the same time, Israel is working to ensure that the Palestinian people’s humanitarian needs are not neglected because of the Hamas victory. It is a delicate adult balancing act that takes skill, patience and wisdom.

But then, our parents never promised that acting as a mature adult would be easy or even successful. The alternative to being grown up is much worse for both individuals and nations.


MO/PH RNS END

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

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