Where I Stand -- Mike O'Callaghan: Israel, happy 50th birthday and may you have many more

DURING RECENT WEEKS, THE MEDIA have been full of stories about Israel celebrating its 50th birthday. Those of us who know that little country like we know our neighbors find it difficult to think of Israel in the terms of a half-century. For many of us, Israel goes back several thousand years and is the basis of our own religion and much of our civilization. Yet the people of today's Israel are a new people, coming from over the world to create a modern society from the blood-caked dust left behind by generations of invaders and empire-seekers.

Following the Nazi Holocaust, which was the brutal conclusion of centuries of international persecution, the Jews returned home to Israel. If Israel, as a free nation, had been in existence earlier, there wouldn't have been a Holocaust. The European Jews going to Israel following World War II vowed there would never be another one. Among these people came skilled workers, scientists and artists to work the land. They built a nation and defended it with their hands and minds.

Later, large numbers of Jews from Arab countries joined in the making of a strong nation. It's from among these younger people that come many of the friends I've worked with in the Israel Defense Forces. They and their parents have been forced from homes and businesses in Morocco, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria and several other nearby countries. In my mind, they have become the backbone of a strong nation, willing to fight and win when attacked from without or within.

In more recent years, Israel has opened its arms to Ethiopians and Russians fleeing persecution. This has brought new blood to Israel and new problems. The results have been invigorating, and this new nation, being built upon generations of suffering, has continued to prosper and meet all challenges. It has become so successful that time has been found for serious internal religious and political arguments and bickering between Jews. The terrorism, promoted by Palestinian extremists and fired up by Jewish extremists, has added to the excitement during recent years.

As modern Israel starts its 51st year, it continues to seek peace with its neighbors, without sacrificing its own security. Internally, it's also seeking an answer to meeting the demands of Palestinians wanting their own land. Here again, the search is for a settlement that won't jeopardize the welfare and safety of Israel's own citizens, both Jews and Arabs. Israel is finding no cooperation from neighboring Syria and little cooperation from Palestinian terrorist groups. Nevertheless, the search for both internal and external peace continues in the only democratic society of the Middle East.

The enemies of Israel must realize by now that this nation isn't going to disappear, nor are its people going to be driven into the sea. Free nations don't always elect leaders that other nations love. Certainly, Americans don't go to polls to vote a person into the White House who will please Germany, Great Britain, France or Mexico. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her State Department don't like Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, by now, he probably doesn't care much for them. This is but one result of different nations seeking different goals. Albright wants peace at any price, and Netanyahu needs some assurance of security, other than more bus bombings in Jerusalem and rocket attacks from Lebanon, before giving up too many strategic positions. For Albright, the issue is but one segment of a major international role our nation must play. For Netanyahu, these decisions can result in the survival or eventual destruction of his entire nation and a people who deserved, and have earned, a kinder fate.

I've had the privilege of feeling the 127-degree summer heat of Jericho and the cold winter snow and wind of Metulla. The flood waters of the Jordan and the dusty winds of Arad have been braved by men and women who have turned the desert into a land of milk and honey. I've enjoyed the fruits of their labor and the hot bread baked by Sgt. Maj. Shimon Sisso's mother, who came to Israel from Morocco. The opportunity to hug their children in sealed rooms during Scud attacks from Iraq and discussing politics with Jewish scholars on a bus going to Ashkelon have helped me see an Israel Madeleine Albright and other powerful diplomats haven't experienced.

Every time I go to Israel, there is a new experience which makes me believe that it's the magic potion giving the country strength. For example, more than six years have passed since I wrote from Metulla about the 150 Katyusha rockets crashing into Israel from Lebanon, the death of a child, and other children playing in the snow:

"Right now, it's time to play in the snow and see just how far a snowball can be thrown. Maybe one can be thrown all the way over to where the teacher is standing!

"Yes, I found the spirit of Israel on a hillside near the Lebanon perimeter fence. It's no wonder the people of Israel are so proud of their greatest strength and resource -- their children."

Today, many of those same youngsters are in the army, studying or tilling the land. If they will produce another generation of Israelis like their parents raised, there will be an even bigger birthday party 50 years from now.

Happy birthday, Israel.

archive