Keeping hope alive as the Israel-Hamas War stretches on - comment

As Israel turned 76 on May 14, 2024, the Central Bureau of Statistics issued a press release with the vital statistics of the Jewish state. These are the highlights:

• On the eve of Independence Day, the population of Israel was 9.9 million: 7.427 million Jews (73.2%); 2.089 million Arabs (21.1%); and 564,000 others (5.7%).
• Since Independence Day last year,the country’s population has grown by 189,000 (an increase of 1.9%). During this period, about 196,000 infants were born, 37,000 immigrants arrived, and 60,000 people died. 
• When the State of Israel was established, the population of Israel was 806,000. It has increased more than 12 fold since then.
• Since the state’s founding, more than 3.4 million immigrants have arrived in Israel, with about 1.6 million (47.1%) of them making aliyah since 1990. 
• According to the rate of growth, the population of Israel is expected to number more than 10 million persons by next year.
• In 2030, the population of Israel is expected to reach 11.1 million; in 2040 – 13.2 million; and on the 100th Independence Day of the State of Israel, in 2048, the population is set to reach 15.2 million. 
• About 45% of the world’s total Jewish population live in Israel, while about 80% of Jews in Israel are Sabras (born in Israel).
• The population of Israel is a young population: About 28% are aged 0-14, while some 12% are aged 65 or over.

Independence Day in the shadow of the Israel-Hamas War

ALTHOUGH IT was not a festive Independence Day this year because the country has been at war since the Hamas massacre on October 7, I was struck by the veracity of a blog written by Bar-Ilan professor Noah Efron quoting Golda Meir when she was prime minister 50 years ago – on Independence Day 1974 – just months after the Yom Kippur War: “Golda Meir’s last words in the official interview she gave in celebration of Independence Day were an admonishment of the citizens of Israel to remember that even ‘with all the sadness and all the pain, it is still Yom Ha’atzmaut,’ meaning, I suppose, that despite everything, there still was what to celebrate.”

It was nicely put. Many of us feel a bit like Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of Hamas captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who told The Media Line’s Felice Friedson about the pain she felt when asked “How are you?” She would think to herself, “Do you not see the knife that’s sticking out of my heart? Why would you ask that? I think all of our words can be more gently crafted.”

Like many Israelis, I was touched by President Isaac Herzog’s address at the annual ceremony recognizing 120 outstanding soldiers held at the President’s Residence on Independence Day. “This year, we mark a different Independence Day,” Herzog said. “We are proud of our independence, of the miracle that is the State of Israel, but our hearts are full of sorrow and pain.”

Still, Herzog expressed “with gusto, with pride, and with much hope that next year we will return to this point in joy. Because this very event is a declaration from all of us that we will not let the enemy defeat us. We are determined, together, to sound the historical, emotional, and binding melody of our nation, and of our beloved country, the State of Israel: a melody woven from generation to generation, a melody bound up in the eternal command: Am Yisrael chai!”

Israel’s longest war, the War of Independence, lasted almost 10 months – from May 15, 1948 to March 10, 1949. The current war’s main goals – destroying Hamas and returning all the hostages – have not been met after eight months. Despite the challenges, we cannot lose hope – and we cannot lose.