I recently stumbled upon Daniel Gordis‘ article on the purpose of the state of Israel.

It’s an excellent piece and I highly recommend that you read it. Dr. Gordis hits the nail smack on the head. He contrasts two different pictures of Jews. In one there is the little boy, hands held high in the air in surrender, completely vulnerable while a Nazi points a gun in his surrender. We know what his fate is — the fate of Jews for centuries past — death. In the second we have a different photo of a Jew. One where the Jew determines his own destiny, his own fate. A picture where the iconic image of the Jew as defenseless and a victim is transformed into an image where the Jew is now the soldier — strong, at home in Jerusalem not in Europe — able to defend himself and his loved ones.

Warsaw Ghetto - WWII

Warsaw Ghetto - WWII
Six Day War soldiers at the Temple Wall

Six Day War soldiers at the Temple Wall

These two pictures provide a dramatic contrast — in one the fate of the Jew lies in the hands of others while in the second the fate of the Jew lies in his own hands. As I read Dr. Gordis’ article I find myself agreeing with him that the world has changed seems to regret it’s decision of November 29th 1947 to partition the Palestine Mandate into a Jewish and Arab state. The world seems to regret having created the state of Israel and restoring the land to it’s rightful heirs — the Jews. Why?

Perhaps it’s because the rest of the world wishes to return all Jews to the ghetto where they can be periodically harassed and murdered without consequence. Or perhaps because the rest of the world needs a victim and a scapegoat on which it can blame all the ills of their society on — which in turn leads harassment and murder of Jews. Or perhaps it’s because the rest of the world knows that we are God’s chosen people and they hate us for that simple fact. No matter. We will not accommodate them. We wish for peace with our neighbors and with the rest of the world but we will not do so at the expense of our lives. As Dr. Gordis put it at the end of his article

[O]ne fact must remain clear: we [Israel] will not end the conflict at all costs. That is what the international community must demonstrate it understands. For on this Erev Yom Ha-Atzma’ut, as on all the others, we, at least, know well what is at stake. Given the choice between sending our children off to fight yet again, or of returning to the world of that first photograph in which someone else will decide if we live and for how long, almost all of us will choose the former.

(Gordis, Daniel, “Erev Yom Ha-Atzma’ut – A Brief Reminder About Purpose”, danielgordis.org, April 28, 2009)