The Eternal Fight
Yesterday, May 14, was Independence Day in the state of Israel, marking the date 76 years ago when with United Nations support, the official declaration was made.
Today, May 15, was the date 76 years ago when the first Arab nations—including Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, and Lebanon—declared war on Israel.
In other words, the new nation was declared one day…and war was declared on it the next. And sadly, for more than three quarters of a century now, that has been case.
One essayist some two decades ago called it “one of the most remarkable and inspiring achievements in human history: a people which had been exiled from its homeland two thousand years before, which had endured countless…persecutions, but which had refused to relinquish its identity—which had, on the contrary, substantially strengthened that identity; a people which only a few years before had been the victim of mankind’s largest single act of mass murder, killing a third of the world’s Jews, that people was returning home as sovereign citizens in their own independent state.”
The United States and the Soviet Union were the first two nations to recognize the new Israeli state. And for the first 75 years of its history, the United States was a steadfast ally of Israel.
Not now, of course. After demanding action to provide aid to Israel following the brutal terror attack of last October 7, this Administration then wanted to micromanage the war by delaying sending that aid and armaments because of how Israel was responding to the terror attack. It was only the threat of precedential Congressional action requiring sending aid once approved that the Administration backed down a bit…that and the wind changing direction regarding the 2024 election.
I’m sure yesterday’s celebrations of Independence Day in Israel were subdued, given incursions from not only the west but also the north. And given that the friend they had forged the closest association with over time could no longer be trusted to support them…which obviously says more about us than them.
