“If you will follow My decrees and keep My commandments, and you shall perform them. And I will give your rains in their time, and the land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give its fruit. … and you shall eat your bread to satiety, and you shall dwell securely in your land. And I will give peace in the land, and you will lie down, and there will be no one to frighten [you].
Yesterday, thank God, I arrived in Israel. I recognize that with each visit, my emuná, my faith in HaShem, grows and strengthens. Not only because here I feel that Tefilot (prayers) reach directly to heaven but because I see our beloved Israel renewed, increasingly prosperous, and more beautiful. Exactly as anticipated by the Torah and our prophets. Of course, to appreciate the miracles of this country, they must be put into context.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Israel is located in the world’s most unstable and complex geopolitical context. Surrounded by countries with which it is at war, such as Lebanon and Syria, or with those with whom it maintains a tense relationship of diplomatic peace but cultural (and religious) hostility, such as Egypt and Jordan. In addition, it faces constant explicit threats from Iran, the contemporary version of Amalek, the enemy who hates Israel without any territorial conflicts in the middle (Israel and Iran do not share any border). Iran threatens to attack Israel and “wipe it off the map,” for which it is developing a special nuclear program. Israel is the only country in the world under this explicit threat.
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
But that’s not all: within its borders, Israel faces a Palestinian population that is largely hostile and refuses to renounce terrorism. A population that, with the consent of the entire world, has not been educated to seek and negotiate peace but to hate Israel. They have absorbed the ideal of jihadist martyrdom in their homes and schools: “Sacrifice your life to kill a Jew: man, woman, child, or baby!”. Now, under these circumstances – with so many military threats, hostilities, and terrorism – any other country in the world would be in a state of permanent panic and completely paralyzed. Its economy would be in ruins. Its government would be focused on surviving. And the population would be afraid to go out on the street. This would be the norm, the expected, the statistical, in a country with these problems. But the Jewish people have always known how to be the exception to statistics. Israel, inexplicably in non-supernatural terms, defies all expectations.
Let’s look at some examples:
GROSS PRODUCT
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita indicates a country’s economic prosperity. Israel has shown steady growth since 2018. From $42,407 per year in 2018, it has increased to $52,171 in 2021, and the International Monetary Fund’s projection predicts that by 2023 the GDP per capita of Israel will reach $58,270. This would place Israel as the 13th most prosperous country in the world, far above Japan, Italy, Spain, and Germany.
ISRAEL’S ENERGY
In recent years, Israel’s progress is reflected in its energy industry. For decades, Israel was considered a country without natural resources. I remember a joke from many years ago that said that Moses had gotten the destination wrong, and that he should have gone to an oil-rich country like Saudi Arabia. However, in recent years, Israel is becoming a major country with gigantic offshore natural gas reserves. As Israel Katz, Israel’s Minister of Energy, said in June 2023, “Natural gas reserves have already changed the face of the local energy economy and turned the Israeli state into a global power in this field.” See also this: https://www.jns.org/israel-news/natural-gas/23/6/4/292488/
OPEC AND THE JEWS
Do you remember OPEC and the pressures from oil-exporting countries on the US and Europe to boycott Israel? Well, listen to this news that you probably don’t know yet: apart from having found gigantic reserves of natural gas, Israel has discovered oil deposits on its Mediterranean coast. In February 2023, the company “Energean” recently produced the first crude oil extraction from Israel, a historical milestone for the country. The extraction of crude oil from the Karish offshore field represents the first time in Israeli oil production that Israel now exports to international markets, as Energean revealed on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, that Israel has joined the club of oil exporters. Who would have thought? See this article https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/021423-israel-makes-first-ever-crude-oil-exports-as-karish-gas-giant-ramps-up
ISRAEL LEARNED TO DEFEND ITSELF
Israel’s military might is equally notable. As a result of so many wars and threats, and after experiencing international arms embargoes when it needed them most, Israel produces its own weapons, which are among the most sophisticated in the world. Israel specializes in everything that is missile defense, in air, land, and sea. Recently, Israel announced the final experimental stage of a new anti-missile defense system based on laser technology. This places Israel in a forefront position on how to face new supersonic missiles. Israel exports weapons to India and Azerbaijan, among others. And that’s not all. This is what journalist Herb Keinon wrote on June 16, 2023: “Israel sells its missile defense system to Germany…last week, Berlin preliminarily approved the purchase of the Arrow-3 missile defense system from Jerusalem for $4.3 billion. Such news would have been completely inconceivable 80 years ago…not long ago, the only thing Israel had to offer the world was Jaffa oranges, a revolutionary hair removal device called Epilady, and the Uzi machine gun. But today it provides missiles that shoot down other missiles in the stratosphere and software that drives industries, and exports natural gas and oil to European countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Russian oil.” See this: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-746500
DEMOGRAPHIC GROWTH
Israel’s Jewish demography is becoming increasingly robust. In 2023, Israel is the Western democracy with the highest birth rate. With 3.13 births per woman, the Jewish birth rate in Israel surpasses the rate of 2.85 of the Arab population. Soon, very soon, the majority of the Jewish people will be here in Israel. This demographic dynamism fuels the economy, strengthens national security, and promotes a less timid foreign policy.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
There is something else. A statistical data point that, unlike the aforementioned, can be seen on the street and perhaps represents the most miraculous statistic of all. Let me tell you. In 2012, the UN created a new international index that measures countries according to the degree of “happiness” of their population. With all the external and internal conflicts — Iran, Palestinian terrorism, Hamas, etc.— and due to the constant tension that this would normally produce, the average Israeli citizen should be the most worried, depressed, terrified, and unhappy person on the planet. However, Israel is among the happiest countries in the world! Israel competes in the same zone as the most “boring” countries: stable and with a total absence of war, like Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. In fact, in 2023, Israel is ranked incredibly as the fourth country with the happiest population in the world. Above Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Can anyone explain this anomaly in rational or statistical terms? I don’t think so.
God promised our patriarchs that in the future, their descendants would inherit the land of Israel and enjoy all His blessings: fertility, prosperity, and peace. There is a Tefilá (prayer) that we say every night, “UFROS ALENU SUKAT SHELOMEKHA,” we ask the Boré Olam (Creator of the Universe) to extend over us his “protective cover” of peace, which I would like to interpret as mental tranquility, which is exactly the opposite of the fear that terrorism naturally causes. This “psychological peace” is a Divine blessing.
For all this, if anyone needed proof of the existence of God — the God who protected and blessed with prosperity and fertility Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — let him or her come to this land and open his eyes to the miraculous Biblical reality that is lived here: Israel, in the midst of adversity, not only survives but also grows and thrives.
PS: I almost forgot… Israel also stands out in the “most important arena of international sports”: soccer :), achieving the honorable third place in the Under-20 World Cup of 2023!
