Personal Reflections on By Dr. Michael Bliss
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War of Independence How Israel survived the attack by 5 Arab armies in 1948, determined to wipe the fledging state off the face of the earth, was miraculous. The government sent representatives around the world desperately seeking arms. Holocaust survivors detained by the British in Cyprus came to Israel after the British left and immediately went to the front line. Israel survived by the skin of its teeth, but lost 6,000 soldiers in the process. This was equivalent to America losing 2,500,000, or Britain 500,000. An enormous loss! Israel was to be involved in 5 more wars during its short existence, plus intifadas involving bus and restaurant bombings, suicide bombing, rockets, attack tunnels, amphibious attacks etc. The resilience of its people has been amazing. But over the 72 years of its existence, Israel has transformed itself into the start-up nation, with its innovative products and services demanded all over the world. Its military has become the strongest in the Middle East, its intelligence and security services the envy of the world. It has made peace with Jordan and Egypt (albeit a cold one) and agreed diplomatic relations with major countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. What has been even more remarkable 42 |Pesach 2020
Years of Medinat Israel
is that at no time has democracy been under threat, despite the fact that most immigrants came from non-democratic countries! There is no doubt that if Israel had existed in the 1930s millions would have been saved from the Holocaust. International Pressure on Israel The EU has been particularly supportive of the Palestinian claims to its own state on the 1967 borders ('The Auschwitz borders’ as Abba Eban put it) in Judea/Samaria and East Jerusalem and Gaza. The logic of this demand was dealt a strong blow when Israel uprooted all the settlements in Gaza and left in 2005, only to see a terrorist organization (Hamas) take over Gaza and subject the South of Israel to numerous rocket attacks. Similarly, in Lebanon, Hezbollah (supported by Iran) continued to attack Israel after it had pulled out entirely from the country. Pressure was always on Israel by the international community to give ‘land for peace’, culminating in the ‘Oslo Accords’ in 1993 set up by Foreign Minister Peres and Prime minister Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995. Under the 1993 Accords Israel had been divided into 3 areas, A, B and C. The Palestinians were in full control of Area A, Israel of Area C, with Area B under the Palestinian Authority, with Israel having security responsibility. Terrorist
