Modern Israel celebrates its 73rd birthday this week. Let me put my cards on the table. I’m not dispassionate when it comes to the country. It is an unparalleled tale of tenacity and determination, of courage and renewal.
By ruling that those who undergo Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel should be considered Jews under the Law of Return, the High Court of Justice both took a stand for Jewish peoplehood and upheld Israel’s national commitment to equality and religious freedom. The decision does honor to the country’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state.
Four days after the catastrophe, the first Israeli search-and-rescue team arrived in the Tōhoku region and began to provide much-needed humanitarian relief. Israel was the first nation to establish a field hospital, and by the following week, IsraAID had initial operations up and running in Miyagi Prefecture, where the effects of the tsunami were especially destructive
Whether Palestinian elections can help or hinder the resumption of talks will depend on the outcome – if the voting actually takes place – and ultimately on Abbas’s posture, or that of his successor.
Palestinian responsibility for and success in acquiring Covid-19 vaccines continues to be ignored. Israel has supplied thousands of vaccines from its supply, while facilitating delivery of the large number of vaccines ordered by the Palestinian Authority.