“For without victory, there is no survival.” -Winston Churchill, House of Commons (May 13, 1940)

I was born less than two years after Israel. We weren’t classmates, but we grew up together.

Israeli songs were the soundtrack of my life. I sang them in school and in camp. In Shul, we applied their melodies to our prayers. At home, I hummed them to myself.

Israel and I were both born in rough neighborhoods and consequently had to fight to survive.

Every baby’s first battle of survival is their birth. When the state of Israel was first conceived in 1897, 43% of babies died before they turned five.

Both the United States and Israel had to fight for their lives at birth.

Had the United States lost that battle, the Declaration of Independence would today be as forgotten as The Olive Branch, a contemporaneous petition seeking to avoid war, with the same signatories including John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin (rejected by King George III.)

Had Israel lost, the Jews of diaspora would today be paraphrasing the Camelot lyric:

“Ask every person if he’s heard the story. And tell it strong and clear without fail. That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory, called Israel.”

Because they triumphed, the Jews of Israel instead sang The Song of Friendship recalling those who sacrificed their lives for a Jewish state.

Eight years later, 1956, Israel and I both........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)