Today, 26th Iyar by the Hebrew date, Israel marks 44 years since the start of the 6 Day War.

An amazing 44 years!

The country's population has doubled, technical achievements are world-class, Israel launches its own satellites that see by night as well as by day, and uncountable other achievements, not excluding the nuclear field.

The Land is being settled at an amazing pace; patches of land that were barren for 2,000 years are blooming, Judea and Samaria are returning to the life they knew 2,000 years ago.

Israel's Air Force, whose astounding 6 Day War destruction of the Egyptian Air Force (300 planes) in 3 hours was one of the greatest Kidushei HaShem since the destruction of the 2nd Temple - second only to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 - is one of the most advanced in the world, and due to reductions in the UK, will soon be larger than that of Britain's.

The point here, is that after 2,000 years, the Jews are defending themselves. And doing a bloody good job of it! Not yet perfect, but still bloody good!

It's not all been a bed of roses. Living in Israel for, say, 50 years, one expends the physical, emotional and mental energies that would require in England a life-span of some 250 years.

Deuteronomy, Chapter 7:
22 And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

Setting up a new country from scratch, one has to handle 200 different problems in parallel. Schools, hospitals, business, agriculture, the military, foreign relations, and - uniquely to Israel - huge waves of Aliyah, immigration to Israel by mostly peniless Jews - all these have to be dealt with at the same time.

So far, its been a fantastic experience, and lucky is the Jew who was born in this period and lives thru the final Renaissance of the People and Land of Israel.

The Holy Zohar, the innermost book of Israel's secrets, tells us that the Arabs were granted the right to live in the Land of Israel because they perform the mitzvah of circumcision. But because they do so in an 'empty' way, (i.e. not in accordance of the proper way in which it should be done), they were given the right to live in Israel while it is empty.

At some point in time, says the Zohar, their right will expire, the Jews will begin to return to the Land, and the Arabs (the Zohar term is Ismaelites) will begin to involve the Western world in the matter (the Zohar says 'Edom', which is regarded as the Western/Christian world), and will cause seven wars.

The penultimate war has a characteristic which I won't detail here, and the final war will be in and about Jerusalem. This is the War of Gog and Magog.

Pretty amazing for having been written 2,000 years ago, when today we don't know what that jerk in the White House will do next Sunday!

So a quiet, boring time in the near future, is NOT in the cards.

To end with a quote from Friedrich Nietzche in "The Dawn":

"Then, when the Jews can point to such gems and golden vessels as their work, such as the European peoples with their shorter and less deep experience cannot produce and never could; when Israel will have transformed its eternal revenge into an eternal blessing for Europe; then that Seventh day shall come once again on which the
ancient Jewish G-d may rejoice in himself, his creation, and his chosen people – and all of us, all of us want to rejoice with him!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, Please Raise Your Glasses - To the State of Israel!