Destiny, God’s will or chutzpah? First 50 years productive, anxious for state of Israel By Martin Fletcher NBC News Correspondent TEL AVIV, Israel - In 1948, 850,000 Jews declared themselves an independent country. Within hours, six Arab armies invaded. CALL IT DESTINY, call it God’s will, call it chutzpah, it’s still an amazing thought. This tiny nation, today with a population of 6 million, has fought successfully in six wars, made a nuclear bomb, won Nobel prizes, become a world leader in high technology, created one of the world’s most dynamic societies despite being at war with its neighbors for most of its short history. Israel even won the 1997 European basketball championship. If you ask those early Holocaust survivors who built a nation how they did it, how they could build so much while always being on the edge of annihilation, they will answer: We didn’t have a choice. NATION FOUNDED ON SUFFERING No nation carries the baggage of Israel. I remember once drinking coffee with an old man and I asked him what he did during the World War II. He was a pleasant, funny man and he hesitated before answering. He said he had been lucky. His family was killed by the Germans, but he had a stroke of good luck. A family found him hiding in a forest and they dug a hole for him under their kitchen table. The man stayed in the hole for two years, until the end of the war. It was dark and cold and damp and he was sick all the time. There were rats and he was starving. Yes, he said with a smile, he was very lucky. Israel was the Holocaust survivors’ lucky break and they took it. They had no choice. When David Ben Gurion had to make the historic decision in 1948 whether to declare a state or wait, most of his advisers told him to wait. They said they didn’t have enough guns. They said they needed more money, more international support, more people. Ben Gurion said they were right, and declared a state anyway. He said they had no choice. The window of opportunity was open and they had to jump through. The Jews jumped and Israel is their prize. WHAT WILL ISRAEL BECOME? Today’s dilemma is no longer whether Israel will survive. It is what kind of Israel will this be? Big or small? Should it give up more land or not? How religious will Israel be? How can it spread the new wealth among a larger proportion of the people. Israel’s gross national product is larger than the total of its Arab neighbors. Not bad for 6 million people. But there is still suspicion and hostility between Jews of European origin and Jews of Arabic origin; between recent immigrants and what veteran Israelis; and, of course, between Jews and Palestinians. Israel at 50 is a success but it is a nation with a midlife crisis. Lots of questions, a sense of always being at a crossroads, always a new direction to be taken that could determine the nation’s future. Everything here seems so important. You want to shout: Loosen up! But Israel has achieved so much so quickly that there is hardly time to stand still and take stock. With due apologies to Israeli women, consider how hard it is for an Israeli man. At age 18, he spends three compulsory years in the army. After that, for about two months a year, he has reserve duty till his mid-40s. He pays taxes that can eat up to half his income. Yet because of high import and luxury taxes buying a car costs more than twice as much as in the United States or Europe. The same holds true with refrigerators and other kitchen appliances. Property in Tel Aviv is more expensive than it is in Manhattan. More books are read per capita in Israel than any other country in the world, yet books cost almost twice as much as in America. JEWS CAN GO HOME AGAIN It’s a hard life, yet most Israelis who live for awhile outside the country eventually return home. Why? Their usual response is: because this is the Jewish homeland and I’m Jewish. It makes sense to live in Israel. That’s why several senior executives from Microsoft decided to resign from the Redmond, Wash., company and go home to Israel. I was told this story by a jealous competitor. (Microsoft is a partner in the joint venture that operates MSNBC.) The Israelis said it was time to go home. Bill Gates was said to be amazed at the pull Israel had on its citizens. But to keep the homesick Israelis in the fold, he built a research-and-development facility in the Israeli town of Haifa. It’s the only research establishment Microsoft has anywhere in the world outside its headquarters in Redmond. Doesn’t that say it all?