Pride and prejudice: Israel at 70
It has not been easy and will continue not to be, but as we reflect on our future, we must never forget the words of David Ben-Gurion "In Israel, in order to be a realist you have to believe in miracles."
THROUGHOUT the entire 70 years since its establishment, the State of Israel has not known one single day of peace, tranquillity or calm.
Chaos characterises much of our neighbourhood and as we look around us at the extremism of Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and most dangerously, Iran, it is certainly not easy to see when we will be able to extricate ourselves from the dangers that abound.
Moreover, until very recently, Israel had almost no natural resources to rely on for economic growth and could count only on its human capacity.
Given all this, the fact that modern-day Israel is at the forefront of the world in innovation, technology and economic development is therefore nothing short of a minor miracle.
Indeed, when Plato coined the adage that “necessity is the mother of invention” he was surely projecting himself 2500 years ahead and thinking of us.
Dire circumstances and the marriage of human capital with stubborn determination in the face of adversity has allowed Israel to achieve what many advanced economies could only dream of achieving.
Looking at the technological powerhouse that Israel is today, it is well-nigh impossible to recall that just a few decades ago, the economy of the country was buoyed solely by basic agriculture.
Recognising that we were – and to a great extent still are – unable to rely on fruitful trade relations with our neighbours, we set out to use our minds to build success through innovation.
In just 70 short years, Israel has shot to the global forefront in such crucial fields as agricultural innovation, information technology, cyber security, water technologies, medical research and much, much more.
It is actively researching, innovating and developing new technologies to provide solutions to global problems, and it shares its inventions with the rest of the world.
Over 150 countries are utilising Israeli water technologies, billions of people are using Israeli-developed mobile phone technology and countless others are reaping the benefits of Israeli medical research.
We can ask ourselves with pride, where would the world be today without SMS messaging, drip irrigation, voicemail, the disk-on-key, the upgraded Pentium chip, mobile phone technology, the endoscopy capsule, state-of-the-art cyber security technologies and the list goes on and on and on.
And as all of this carries on, and as the start-up nation continues to start up, we view the hypocrisy around us and we wonder.
We wonder when Syria becomes the chair of a UN Forum on the Disarmament of Chemical Weapons just a few days after launching a chemical weapons attack on its own people.
We wonder when Iran criticises the West for its military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, even as its very own forces continue to massacre literally thousands of innocent civilians in Yemen and Syria.
We wonder when the Yemeni Foreign Minister calls Israel the source of instability in the Middle East, even as his country is torn asunder by famine and a proxy war that in 2017 alone saw the tragic deaths of over 50,000 children.
We wonder when the Palestinian leadership excoriates Israel for warding off rioting violent demonstrators on its border and at the same time ignores the massacre of 3700 of its own people by pro-Assad forces just a few hundred kilometres away.
We wonder when the Venezuelan Foreign Minister likens Israel to Nazi Germany even as his brutish security forces are indiscriminately mowing down innocent bystanders clamouring for food.
And yet, we take great heart in the friendship of so very many throughout the civilised world. Close to home, we can cite the words of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull – “Whether it was the elaborate water system of Herod’s fortress on Masada or the desalination plant at Ashkelon, whether it was the ancient streets of old Jerusalem or the boardrooms of Tel Aviv … throughout its history the greatest natural resource of Israel has been the brilliance and the enterprise of its people.”
We can also quote Opposition Leader Bill Shorten who mused that “Israel is more than an old dream made real, more than an ancient hope fulfilled. It is a leader in the new world, the digital world … where science and entrepreneurship drive a thriving venture capital industry, and which teaches the world that failure is not the end of the road, it is a milestone on the way to success.”
We truly have found warmth and friendship in the nation of Australia. And way, way beyond.
Seventy years on from independence, the State of Israel continues to face the scourge of terror and the hatred of dictators. Yet it continues on its chosen path, a path dedicated to the pursuit of peace and a path dedicated to tikkun olam, to making the world into a better place.
Seventy years on, and despite all the trials and tribulations, we can allow ourselves to look back with a great sense of pride.
It has not been easy and will continue not to be, but as we reflect on our future, we must never forget the words of David Ben-Gurion “In Israel, in order to be a realist you have to believe in miracles.”
MARK SOFER is Israel’s ambassador to Australia.
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