Never bet against Israel - The Jewish Standard

People often ask me if I’m worried about Israel’s future.

I tell them that over the last 3,000 years the Jewish people have outlived Pharaoh, Haman, Antiochus, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition, the Soviet Union, and perhaps most impressively, disco. At this point, I’m not betting against us.

Recently, I was asked to speak on the topic “Israel Will Survive.” The title reminded me of David Letterman’s old Top Ten lists, so I began jotting down reasons why Israel will survive. Some are rooted in hard facts. Some are rooted in faith. A few are rooted in the peculiar habits of Israelis themselves.

Taken together, they tell an important story.

For starters, everyone who has predicted Israel’s demise has been wrong. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, Crusaders, Ottomans, Nazis, Soviets, the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, and countless others all believed the Jewish story was nearing its end. Yet the Jewish people remain. The empires and movements that sought our destruction largely survive only in history books.

Mark Twain famously marveled at this phenomenon more than a century ago. The question today is not whether Israel will survive. The question is why so many intelligent people continue making the same failed prediction.

Another reason is that Israelis argue about everything. Politics. Religion. Military strategy. Traffic regulations. The proper way to stand in line.

Especially that last one. I once stood in line in Israel and within minutes several people had informed me I was in the wrong place, suggested a better line, and offered to introduce me to a cousin who knew the manager.

In many countries, endless disagreement would be considered a weakness. In Israel, it is practically a national pastime. The old joke about two Jews creating three synagogues still applies. Yet there is something healthy about a society where people care enough to argue. Freedom produces debate. Debate produces resilience.

Israel also survives because Jews have survived worse.

The horrors of October 7 remain fresh in our minds. Before that came the Yom Kippur War, the War of Independence, and countless terrorist attacks. Before all of them came the Holocaust. And yet after every tragedy, Jews somehow do the same remarkable thing. They bury their dead, mourn their losses, return to work, build schools, plant trees, start businesses, marry, and raise children.

Jewish history is not the story of a people who avoided suffering. It is the story of a people who refused to surrender to it. Much of that resilience comes from something deeper than military power. People often speak about Iron Dome. I think about Iron Mothers and Iron Fathers. I think about reservists who leave families and businesses at a moment’s notice. I think about teachers who return to classrooms after funerals. I think about farmers who replant fields after rocket attacks.

Weapons matter. Character matters more. Israel possesses both.

Then there is Torah.

The Romans had legions. The Jews had a scroll. The Greeks had philosophy. The Jews had a scroll. The Soviet Union had nuclear weapons. The Jews still had a scroll. Every Shabbat, Jews in Jerusalem, New York, Melbourne, Johannesburg, and London read the same Torah portion. The same words. The same covenant. The same story. Empires rise and fall. Torah endures.

Israel also survives because Israelis understand something many outsiders do not. This is home. There is no backup homeland. No alternate destination. No Plan B. When people know they are defending their home and their future, they discover reserves of courage and determination that cannot be measured by military analysts or polling data.

Another reason is that the prophets have a surprisingly strong forecasting record. For centuries, experts explained why a Jewish return to Zion was impossible. Then it happened. Experts said Hebrew could never become a living language again. Then it happened. Experts predicted Israel would not survive 1948. Then it happened. At some point, you begin to pay more attention to Isaiah and Ezekiel and a little less attention to television pundits.

Israel also possesses a unique ability to transform problems into opportunities. A shortage of water produced world-leading desalination technology. A shortage of land produced agricultural innovation. Constant security threats helped create one of the world’s most dynamic technology sectors.

Israel’s unofficial national motto often seems to be: “That won’t work.” Followed immediately by: “Watch us.”

Perhaps the strongest evidence of all comes from Jewish parents. Despite wars, terrorism, political uncertainty, and tuition bills that can make even successful families nervous, Jewish parents continue investing in the future. They continue sending children to schools, yeshivot, seminaries, universities and programs in Israel. That is more than optimism. It is faith.

Ultimately, however, Israel’s survival cannot be explained solely by military strength, technology, economics, or diplomacy. Those things matter. But they are not enough.

The Jewish people are the only nation in history to be exiled from their homeland for nearly two millennia, scattered across the globe, and then restored to sovereignty in their ancestral land. The prophets said it would happen. Against all odds, it did.

As a Religious Zionist, I believe God works through people: soldiers, teachers, scientists, farmers, parents, and countless ordinary men and women who accomplish extraordinary things.

The existence of Israel is not simply a political story. It is a chapter in an ongoing covenant.

Thirty-one years ago, terrorists murdered my daughter Alisa. Like all terrorists, they believed they could destroy something larger than a single life. They believed they could break the Jewish spirit. Instead, I look today at my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I look at a thriving State of Israel. I look at a Jewish people that continues to build, create, argue, pray, laugh, and dream.

The terrorists succeeded only in taking one precious life. They failed in their larger goal. The Jewish people endured. Israel endured. And by the grace of God, both will endure long after the names of their enemies have been forgotten.

If Jewish history teaches us anything, it is this: Never bet against the Jewish people. And never bet against the God of Israel.

Stephen M. Flatow of Long Branch, formerly of West Orange, is an attorney and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is author of A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror (now available in an expanded paperback edition on Amazon) and is the president of the Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi.

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