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At 75, Israel Has Plenty to Celebrate

(New York Times) Bret Stephens - For all its challenges, Israel is doing remarkably well. It started its national life dirt-poor. Its peer group of countries includes Syria, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and North and South Korea. These states came into being with many of the same core problems: hostile neighbors, unsettled borders, deep poverty, restive ethnic and religious minorities and other unresolved dilemmas from their independence struggles. As with Israel, many of those problems still dog most of those states. Those who think the Palestinian issue is unique should consider the situation of Kashmiris in India, Tamils in Sri Lanka, or Kurds in Syria. If Israelis haven't settled the conflict with the Palestinians, neither have they allowed themselves to be consumed by it. Israel is not a country that defines itself in terms of what it's against, what it's not, or who has done what to it. There is also an affirmative vision of Israeli identity, centered on the ideal of a renovated and renewed Jewish civilization within which its citizens can find prosperity, a sense of purpose and relative security.
2023-05-18 00:00:00
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