Shimon Arbel, Director General of the Schechter Institute, examines the state of Israel's democracy at this time of war...and finds it strong and flourishing.

The other day, I had the occasion to meet a rare and endangered species … an American visitor to Israel, here to participate in a high-technology fair in Tel Aviv. After speaking with him for some while, and relating that I moved to Israel from Canada in 1973, just before the Yom Kippur War, the gentleman curiously asked, “Did you move here because Israel is better than Canada, and considering the dangers in the region, why do you stay?”

I returned home later that day to find that the current edition of Newsweek magazine had arrived with a special cover story entitled, “How Will Israel Survive?”

When I was a teenager, my late father advised that when making an important life decision, it is worthwhile to make two columns on a piece of paper and list the advantages and disadvantages of the choice. There are only three areas in life that I never applied my father’s principle: in living with my best friend and wife Josie; in having and raising our three children; and in choosing to live in Israel.

I was never a student of psychology so that I cannot provide a scholarly or scientific analysis on how we Israelis have coped with our ongoing war against terrorism and the murderous attack upon our civilian population from the Palestinian Authority. No doubt, in the future, graduate students and scholars will write studies and advance theses on how we Israelis have managed with the daily, non-stop tension and stress associated with this war ...and political scientists will organize and speak at conferences analyzing how a democracy maintained its institutions and values in the midst of the violence.

Too many take our democracy for granted. I recall when the British limited civil rights in Northern Ireland in the face of ongoing IRA terrorism, and how Canadian liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced the “War Measures Act” in October 1970 suspending all civil rights and moving in the national guard when the Vice-Premier of Quebec and a British diplomat were kidnapped by FLQ separatists in downtown Montreal. I recall the means used by the Germans to confront the Bader Meinhoff brigades; how the Spanish chased Basque separatists; and how the Japanese fought Red Army terrorists. Even our greatest ally, and the beacon of democracy in the world, the United States, rounded up and continues to hold without charge several hundred young Muslim men since September 11th, is sufficient witness to the very real dangers terrorism poses to democratic nations.

Israel, the size of New Jersey; surrounded by over 200 million Moslems in twenty-two non-democratic states; now living nineteen months under an at-times daily onslaught of deadly terrorism; with a population that includes one million Arabs, and half of whose Jewish citizens are immigrants or children of immigrants from non-democratic lands; has not suspended even one civil liberty since the start of the September 2000 Palestinian uprising. No legislation has been passed to limit civil rights and no restrictions have been placed on any freedoms. One wonders how many other democracies could sustain this level of freedom under the same intensity of attack.

As we mark Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) today, and usher in Yom Ha’azmaut (Independence Day) this evening, the following thoughts come to mind:

So all is well this Yom Haazmaut eve? Of course not. Terrorist attacks upon our civilian population remain a threat; the Hizbollah is flexing its muscle on our northern border (encouraged by Syria and Iran); Saddam Hussein is reported to have stored chemical and biological weapons in moveable Scud missiles stationed aimed at Tel Aviv; the Iranians threaten us with a nuclear holocaust; and the Egyptians continue to improve their military capability... to be used against whom I wonder? I however know that Israel has never been stronger in her history, and that our will to persevere and defend our very right to exist is as powerful as ever. And despite our pressing domestic issues ... relations with our non-Jewish minorities; relations between religious and non-religious Jews; fighting unemployment; closing social gaps ... I am fully confident that we have the ability to find answers to these challenges as well.

One final note. This Yom Haazmaut evening, our oldest daughter Rena will be on duty at her army base, and I have been asked to pick up a semi-automatic weapon at our local Civil Guard police station to help guard at our neighborhood Yom Haazmaut celebrations. So allow me to end with an immodest message: yes, we are a brave people, and yes, as Solomon Schechter noted nearly a century ago, the future of Jewish life everywhere and Judaism itself greatly rests on the success of Zionism. Just as we sing in our national anthem Hatikva,
"עוד לא אבדה תקוותנו להיות עם חופשי בארצנו, ארץ ציון וירושלים",
we have not yet lost our hope to be a free people in our land, the land of Zion, and in the city of Jerusalem".

To the visiting American businessman who asked me why I am here … it continues to be a privilege to live in Israel and be part of the ongoing rebuilding of Zion. “Chag Yom Haazmaut sameach” --- as the dream is alive and well in Jerusalem!