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A few years ago, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot – then head of the Northern Command – was asked to give a lecture on counterterrorism, a topic he knows a thing or two about. In 2002, Eisenkot was the IDF commander in the West Bank and oversaw Operation Defensive Shield, which was the turning point in Israel’s campaign to stop the second intifada.The main point he wanted to make in his lecture was that there is no real decisive victory against terrorism. It will come and go in waves and while the military can do a lot to reduce attacks and undermine the enemy’s capabilities, Israel has been fighting since its inception in 1948 and will likely need to continue to fight for many more years to come.When he did some research, though, he was surprised to discover that the first terrorist victim that Israel counts wasn’t from 1948, the year the state was established. Rather, Israel’s first victim of terrorism was Avraham Zoref, and he was murdered way back in 1851.Born in 1785 in Kedainiai, one of the oldest cities in Lithuania, Zoref made aliya at the age of 25 with his wife and three children and settled in Jerusalem where the Jewish community was slowly growing.The problem was that the community did not have a synagogue to pray in. About 100 years earlier, Rabbi Yehuda Hahasid had built a synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, but since the community lacked money, it needed to take high-interest loans from local Arabs. When the community members couldn’t pay back the loans, the land was confiscated and the synagogue fell apart, becoming known as the “Hurva,” Hebrew for ruin.So Zoref decided to get involved. He traveled to Cairo and convinced authorities there to erase the 100-yearold loan, to transfer control over the synagogue back to the Jews and to allow them to rebuild the deteriorating building. Zoref then traveled to Europe and met with a number of wealthy Jews to raise funds for the synagogue.Despite all his hard work, Zoref never got to see the Hurva rebuilt. Instead, he became the target of local Arabs who were upset at his success in restoring Jewish control over the plot of land. In June 1851, as he made his way to morning prayers, Zoref was hit on the head by a sword. He clung to life until he died of his wounds three months later.I tell this story since on Sunday night, Israel will bow its head to mourn the more than 23,400 men, women and children who have died while serving in the IDF and defending the State of Israel, as well as in the terrorist attacks that have plagued it since the time of Avraham Zoref.After 69 years of statehood, Israel still faces threats, some along its borders and some looming frighteningly on the horizon. As Syria unravels, Hezbollah acquires more advanced weapons and Iran continues to dream of nuclear weapons, knife attacks like the one that killed Avraham Zoref 166 years ago, too, continue throughout the country.Nevertheless, Israel today is in the heyday of its existence as a state. While the threats loom, the country is today the strongest it has ever been – economically, socially and militarily. Does that mean we should just come to terms with the terrorism that plagues our streets or should give up because the threats won’t go away? Of course not.Israel is a work in progress but one that already gives its citizens and Jews around the world more than enough to be proud of. On this Independence Day, let us not forget that.Yom Ha’atzma’ut Sameach!