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Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2034202,00.html
A Nation Built on Sand
(Sunday Times-UK) Max Hastings - Long before Hitler was even heard of, Jews who suffered persecution at the hands of oppressors, above all, the victims of Russian and Polish pogroms, dreamt of finding a place where they might live freely. The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. That night, the armies of Israel's Arab neighbors launched an assault by land and air, designed to crush the Jewish state at birth. Their attempt failed, after months of savage fighting. Israel was left holding barely defensible frontiers under Arab guns, having secured only a portion of Jerusalem, and with its foes irreconcilably committed to its destruction. Whatever view one takes of modern Israel, it remains extraordinary what was built there, upon rock and sand.