European Jews had faced anti-Semitism-fuelled persecution for centuries before Adolf Hitler’s plan to exterminate every Jew saw more than 6 million lose their lives in the most horribly unimaginable ways. What isn’t as well-known, especially among today’s younger generations, is that anti-Semitism was common in Europe well before the Holocaust. So it is little wonder that once the Second World War ended, many surviving Jews recoiled at the thought of returning to the European countries of which they had been loyal and proud citizens. Instead, it was only logical – as well as satisfying a deep, eternal longing in the Jewish heart – to move to the region where the Israeli people had originated 24 centuries ago and where many still lived.
Since 1917, the British had administered what had latterly been named Palestine. There had long been an active movement – Zionism – that sought to repatriate Jews to their ancient homeland and, it was hoped, form an independent Jewish state for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. In late 1947, the newly created United Nations resolved that the British Mandate territory was to be split into a zone for Arabs called Palestine and a zone for Jews called Israel. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence and the British Army departed.
The very next day, the infant state of Israel came under attack by the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq as well as local Arab militias. The Israelis were given zero chance of winning. A tiny country of 800,000 people with only untested militias and a motley collection of hand-me-down weaponry going up against well-equipped, formally trained armies made victory inconceivable. Miraculously, not only did Israel win, it captured large additional territories geographically vital to the country’s future defence. (For those interested in that improbable outcome but not inclined to plough through history books, I can recommend the movies Exodus with Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint, and Cast a Giant Shadow with Kirk Douglas and Senta Berger.)
How could this be possible? I got an answer to that question one evening in Tel Aviv. I was privileged to be part of a private tour of Israel hosted by the government with security provided by the Israel Defense Forces. We met with a remarkable 35-year-old female unit commander tasked with protecting the Lebanon-facing Golan Heights border area from attacks by Hezbollah terrorists. Her answer to my question was both brief and profound: Heart. Half an hour later, her pager buzzed. Hezbollah was attacking the Golan Heights just above our meeting place. She ran to her waiting helicopter.
How did the aftermath of World War 2 lead to the establishment of the State Israel in 1948?
The Second World War’s aftermath became a pivotal phase in the history of Israel, as it enabled the country’s founding. European Jews had faced centuries of anti-Semitism, which culminated in the Holocaust and the murder of more than 6 million people. After the war ended, many surviving Jews recoiled at the thought of returning to the European countries of which they had been citizens. Instead, it was a logical step for them to move to their ancestral homeland, a goal that fulfilled the aspirations of Zionism, a long-active movement that sought to form an independent Jewish state. This movement culminated on May 14, 1948, when Israel, in keeping with a United Nations resolution the previous year, declared its independence as a Jewish state.
That Israeli army commander’s single word put so much in perspective. The Oxford English Dictionary defines courage as bravery or strength in the face of pain or grief. The Latin root word for courage is “heart”. The postwar Jews who streamed to their ancestral homeland in decrepit steamships knew that Israel was their last chance. There was nowhere else to go. The enemy soldiers’ massive advantage in numbers and weaponry made them confident the conflict would be over in hours. They never expected to face adversaries fully prepared to die. Terrified by that fearless ferocity, as the 14-month War of Independence went on, more and more they turned and ran.
Israelis have built one of the world’s most tolerant and technically advanced democracies. Our tour group noted no discrimination against minority groups. The country’s currently 2 million Sunni Muslim citizens are considered equals to its nearly 8 million Jews. An Israeli Arab, Khaled Kabub, is a Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court.
Since that incredible victory in 1949, driven by constant threats from surrounding Islamist enemies, Israel went on to build one of the world’s most technologically advanced, tactically innovative and well-trained defence forces. Here is a very quick look at the two other make-or-break confrontations Israel faced. First came the so-called Six-Day War of 1967. When Israel’s famed Mossad intelligence agency learned of an imminent attack by Egypt, Jordan and Syria, Israel attacked pre-emptively, all-but wiping out Egypt’s much superior air force while its fighter jets were still parked on the ground, then launching a lightning ground campaign that seized the Sinai Peninsula, West Bank of the Jordan River and Golan Heights.
Six years later, on the holy day of Yom Kippur – October 6 – Egypt and Syria launched a massive surprise attack that caught Israel completely off-guard. Egypt envisioned quickly recapturing the Sinai while Syria drove across the Golan Heights; Israel’s annihilation was intended to follow. After some very tense days and fearsome losses of soldiers and aircraft, Israel turned the tables, recaptured the lost ground and very likely could have driven all the way to Damascus and Cairo.
Amidst these and other tumultuous events, the history of Israel has included building one of the world’s most tolerant and technically advanced democracies. Our tour group noted no discrimination against minority groups. The country’s currently 2 million Sunni Muslim citizens are considered equals to its nearly 8 million Jews. An Israeli Arab, Khaled Kabub, is a Justice on Israel’s Supreme Court.
Israel is also home to a small population of Druze, an Abrahamic faith descended but now very different from Shia Islam. Arrangements had been made for us to have lunch at the home of a Druze family. It was a memorable experience. The eldest of the three children helped her mom prepare the meal, while her brother prepared the table. And the bubbly little girl entertained us. While the Druze largely inhabit their own enclave, they are otherwise integrated into Israeli society, fiercely loyal to the State of Isarel, and serve proudly in the military. The Israelis considers the Druze brethren, protecting them from persecution throughout the Middle East, including in Lebanon and Syria. The IDF’s recent airstrikes in western Syria near the Golan Heights were partly aimed at protecting Syria’s Druze population when it came under attack from Sunni Muslim extremists linked to Syria’s new regime.
During our 2019 visit, our group was also taken to an amazing technology centre and toured a factory producing advanced products for sectors from aerospace to defence. Having been a professional engineer throughout my career, I found this fascinating. Much of our digital world runs on Israeli technology. NVIDIA, Apple and Intel’s chips are designed in Israel’s development centres. Michael Kagan, Global Chief Technology Officer of NVIDIA, the world’s top computer-chip design firm by market capitalization, lives in Tel Aviv, the country’s commercial capital. Israel’s extraordinary Iron Dome and Arrow air-defence systems that shoot down terrorist missiles fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza and Iran’s mullahs have been crucial to saving the country from devastation.
But now the long-suffering Israelis have been attacked by people whose tactics can’t be stopped by technology like Iron Dome and whose driving objective, as was Hitler’s, is to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Hamas, an acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement”, is committed to “armed resistance to Israel and creation of a Palestinian State.” Israel’s invasion of Gaza in late 2023 in response to the October 7 incursion by the vicious Hamas throat-slitters and kidnappers has engendered intense criticism and worsened longstanding anti-Semitism. It may be hard for many to watch the death and destruction occurring in Gaza without experiencing those emotions. But we need to put ourselves in the Israelis’ shoes, and we need to ask ourselves an important question. What would we do?
Imagine we Canadians are living on the other side of a security fence from a territory populated by Islamic terrorists whose sole avowed objective is to annihilate every one of us. Imagine also that they continually fire lethal rockets into civilian areas, necessitating every home to have a bomb-proof “safe space”. Then one night, as a large group of happy young people dance to music at a festival, the terrorists burst through the security fence using construction equipment while hundreds of others swoop in from above on powered paragliders.
They fall upon that group of happy young Canadians, who are then viciously tortured and raped, followed by genital mutilation and murder, all proudly recorded on GoPro cameras or smartphones. One of the terrorists even uses a murdered young woman’s phone to call his family. “Hi Dad, open my WhatsApp and see how many I killed with my own hands. I killed ten! Put mom on…Mom, your son is a hero, Kill Kill Kill!” “Oh my son, God bless you,” the ecstatic mother replies. (Note: These quotes are not made up but are from a transcript of phone recordings recovered by Israeli authorities.)
How has Israel managed to survive military conflicts with its neighbours?
The day after its declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, Israel was attacked by the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Despite having only untested militias against well-equipped armies, 14 months later the Israelis triumphed in what became known as the War of Independence. Some attribute this victory against seemingly impossible odds to the “heart” and fearless ferocity of the infant state’s citizens, who were fighting for their last chance at a homeland and were fully prepared to die. Since that time, Israel has built one of the world’s most technologically advanced defence forces. In the Six-Day War of 1967, it launched a successful pre-emptive attack, and in 1973, it recovered from a surprise attack starting the Yom Kippur War to drive back invading forces. Israel’s current defences include advanced domestically-developed systems like the Iron Dome and Arrow, which protect it from missile attacks.
Then, those still living are loaded onto trucks heading back to the perpetrators’ territory, there to be held as hostages in a huge multi-million-dollar underground tunnel network funded in part, ironically, by donations from UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA employees are later found to have not only supported but directly participated in the terrorist acts.
Israel’s fight for a just result – victory over Hamas, recovery of all hostages and official recognition by every Arab state of Israel’s right to live in peace as a Jewish state – goes on.
In response to this unspeakable atrocity, democratic and peace-seeking Canada retaliates strongly, sending tens of thousands of soldiers to recover the kidnapped hostages – many of whom have been repeatedly raped, tortured, starved or forced to perform humiliating labour for the terrorists and their families – while attempting to minimize casualties among the enemy’s civilian population. But, knowing that ongoing civilian deaths will trigger international condemnation – the more, the greater – the terrorists use their own population as human shields, forcing them to live in the above-ground battle zone while they themselves hunker down in reinforced tunnels. (In the Second World War, by contrast, not only the British but even the Nazi Germans put their civilians in shelters while remaining above ground to fight.)
But rather than recognizing that our country’s survival left us with no other choice, a huge upwelling of support for the terrorists sweeps through countries and infects governments that we thought were our friends, allies and supporters. Virtually limitless Muslim immigration to those countries has resulted in a hugely belligerent and electorally significant population segment. Our own prime minister then admits that our country has become more economically and politically isolated – but, rather than caving to international pressure, will have to become more self-reliant. Shifting back to the current literal reality of Israel, the good news is that no other country in the world is more able to do just that. And so two years after the October 7, 2023 atrocity, Israel’s fight for a just result – victory over Hamas, recovery of all hostages and official recognition by every Arab state of Israel’s right to live in peace as a Jewish state – goes on.
Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who was a director of five global corporations.
Source of main image: Omri Eliyahu/Shutterstock.
