Israel's Miraculous 75th Birthday | Opinion

Israel's first prime minister David Ben-Gurion once famously said "In Israel, in order to be realist, you must believe in miracles."

This week, as the State of Israel celebrates 75 years of independence, sovereignty, and liberation, we ought to indeed marvel at the miracle that is the modern Jewish state, a nation still forced to fight for her existence.

Only last week, Israel observed Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Memorial Day, in honor of the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. This was all the more meaningful because it serves as a searing reminder that had the State of Israel been born only a few years earlier, the Jewish people could have avoided this singular catastrophe, and that the state's existence today is an unequivocal guarantee that another such catastrophe shall never befall us again.

Today, the Jewish people are no longer stateless, no longer voiceless, and no longer without a national home.

Today, we have regained our independence, sovereignty, our army, and control of our destiny.

Although the modern State of Israel is a mere 75 years young, the Jewish people have maintained an unbroken and inextricable connection to the Land of Israel for more than 3,000 years.

In the fog of war and battle for narratives, we often forget that we too have a story, a deeply compelling, just, and captivating one.

Ours is an inspiring story of hope, courage, liberation, and resilience.

It is the story of a people exiled from their homes and scattered across all the corners of the earth.

For 3,000 years, Jews had been subject to persecution, pogroms and, ultimately, the Holocaust, but we never gave up hope. We refused to succumb to hatred and despair.

Through the darkest of days, we remained unwavering in our yearning to return home and rebuild a nation-state in our ancestral homeland.

Fueled by faith, determination, and our time-hallowed traditions, we re-established a thriving state based on the ideals of liberty, democracy, the rule of law and Jewish values.

Even among the protests gripping the country today, I see that as an immense expression of a vibrant democracy and an engaged debate about the future trajectory of the country. When else, in the depths of history, did we have such opportunity?

The country today has become a homeland for the Jewish people, yet all its citizens—even those who are not Jewish—are treated equally and afforded full civil rights. It has a unified capital again in the Holy city of Jerusalem; and a strong army, capable to thwarting any foe near or far. Israel's innovation, technology, and a dynamic creativity has become the envy of the world. The ancient language of Hebrew has been revived and is spoken by its people again.

And in Israel—unlike Europe or even parts of the United States—we do not have to fear walking the streets looking "too Jewish" or celebrating Jewish festivals.

Today, Israel has become a source of inspiration to the champions of hope and dignity, serving as a role model for all those fighting for their right to self-determination.

And all this has been achieved against insurmountable odds, against implacable enemies who still today refuse to accept the Jewish state's very existence.

In 1878, 70 years before the State of Israel was born, a young Jewish poet from Europe, Naphtali Herz Imber, penned the lyrics to the poem "Tikvateinu," meaning 'Our Hope' in Hebrew. In it he says, "Our hope is not yet lost, the ancient hope, to return to the land of our fathers."

In 1948, when modern Israel was established, the hope our people had carried for millennia became a reality and "Tikvateinu" became its national anthem.

Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights lawyer and CEO of The International Legal Forum. You can also follow him on Twitter: @Ostrov_A.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.