Question. What would the world be like with no State of Israel? - by Jonathan S. Tobin

After 72 years, many take its existence for granted. But with so many still wishing it dead, it’s worth thinking about how dangerous life for Jews would be without it.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
27 April '20..

What scholars like to call counterfactual history is science fiction for those who prefer to ponder the implications of things turning out differently in the past rather than speculating on the future. Such “what if” scenarios are behind television shows like “The Man in the High Castle,” which imagined life after the Germans and Japanese won the Second World, or “The Plot Against America”—the dramatization of the Phillip Roth novel that imagined isolationists led by Charles Lindbergh keeping America out of the war and then instituting state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the United States.

But as Israel celebrates its 72nd birthday this week, it’s relevant to point out that a lot of people have spent the entire period of its history wishing that the outcome of the 1948-49 War of Independence had turned out differently. At the heart of the nakba or “disaster” narrative and core principle of Palestinian nationalism is a belief that the creation of Israel was a crime that should have been stopped and without which the world would have been much better off. The debate about the future of the West Bank often causes observers to lose sight of the fact that the basic demand of Israel-haters is not a Palestinian state alongside a smaller Israel, but no Israel at all.

What would a world without Israel look like?

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.  

Yom Ha'Atzmaut -The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about this one day - by Jonathan S. Tobin

Like any human creation, Israel is imperfect and faces problems. But what its people have done in the last 71 years is something few rational people would have imagined possible. In our own time and with our own eyes, we have seen 71 years of miracles as the Jewish state survived, thrived and enriched the lives of all Jews, even if they resided elsewhere. That should give us confidence that problems that seem impossible to surmount will be overcome, as they have been throughout the last seven decades. Though the very fact of its existence continues to spur the enemies of the Jewish people to go on fighting, it is no reason to despair or to succumb to the lies of those who slander it. To the contrary, Israel’s strength and survival in the face of continued opposition is even more reason to celebrate.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
08 May '19..

Much of the discussion about Israel and the Palestinians revolves around one question: Why does the conflict continue? Most of those who offer answers, especially veteran Middle East “experts” who have been advocating for and helping to promote the peace process for decades, spin a complicated tale in which Israel’s unwillingness to make concessions is put forward as just as much, if not more, responsible for the lack of peace than Palestinian intransigence and terrorism.

But though the region’s history during the course of the last century is complex, the answer to the question is actually quite simple. The conflict continues because the Jewish state exists.

That’s a daunting thought as Israelis spend Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) watching fireworks, and enjoying barbecues and other holiday activities. It would be much easier to think that the conflict, which Israelis can’t evade because they spend the day right beforehand marking the solemn observance of Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day), when those who fell in defense of their nation and victims of terror are remembered. The two days are not something that can be neatly cordoned off.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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A prominent D.C. Synagogue will mourn Palestinians, ignore Israeli Independence Day - by Stephen M. Flatow

I do not question the right of Sixth and I to do this. I question the wisdom and morality of their decision to publicly proclaim that Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are morally equivalent. They are not.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
01 May '19..

A prominent synagogue in Washington, D.C., will mark Israel’s 71st birthday by mourning “Palestinian losses” alongside Israeli terror victims, and refrain from holding any kind of Israeli independence celebration.

It’s the latest example of an appalling “both sides” mentality that blurs right and wrong, good and evil, and Israel and its would-be destroyers.

On Tuesday evening, May 7, Israelis—and Jews around the world—will hold solemn Yom Hazikaron ceremonies to remember the approximately 25,000 Israeli Jews murdered by invading Arab armies and Palestinian Arab terrorists since 1948.

But at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in the nation’s capital, a different kind of ceremony will be held. Called the “Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony,” participants will gather together for what they describe as “a memorial based on the values of hope, solidarity and non-violence. Hear from Israelis and Palestinians as they share their families’ stories of loss.”

Yes, Palestinian Arabs have been killed in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But that doesn’t make them all “victims.” And that doesn’t mean they should all be “mourned.” That doesn’t place them all on the same moral level.

In the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, Israel is the victim and the Palestinian Arabs are the aggressors. Nobody is saying Israel is perfect. No country is perfect. No army is perfect. But we still should be able to make the basic distinction between right and wrong. We still should have enough sense to distinguish between cops and robbers.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Israel will not commit national suicide to endorse a false narrative of what happened 70 years ago - by Aviv Ezra

...After the war, the Arabs demanded that the partition borders be restored, and all the refugees be allowed to return. This was a novel demand. If you start a war meaning to annihilate the enemy and you lose, you don’t get a do over. There are no do overs in history.

Aviv Ezra..
American Thinker..
06 May 18..
Link: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/05/israel_at_70_time_to_retire_the_false_palestinian_narrative.html

In November 1947 the United Nations voted to approve a partition plan that would have created a Jewish-majority state and an Arab-majority state in historic Palestine, and shared Jerusalem between the two parties. The Jews accepted the partition plan, and the results of the UN vote, though it provided insecure borders in a fragmented new state. Reaching a compromise is always a process in which neither side gets everything they want, but it is better than war, with all the destruction and upheaval which war brings.

The Arab nations voted against the partition resolution in the GeneralAssembly, and never accepted the results of the UN vote. The Arabs had never accepted the idea of a Jewish-majority state in any part of historic Palestine, and began a campaign of violence against the Zionists the very night the resolution was passed. During World War 2, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, holed up in Berlin, encouraged Adolf Hitler to turn his death machine against the Jews in Palestine while the Nazis were working to murder all the Jews in Europe. During the British mandate period, the Arabs had rejected earlier partition plans more favorable to them, such as the 1938 Peel Plan, because it allowed a tiny Jewish state to be created. In essence, the Arabs had fought Zionism for half a century, and were determined to deal t he Jewish state a knockout blow as soon the British left in May 1948.

Five Arab nations attacked Israel the day it became a new nation, assisting the Arabs in Palestine in their effort to destroy Israel. Despite enormous advantages in armed men, planes, tanks, and other weaponry, the Arabs were unsuccessful. Israel survived the onslaught, and defeated the Arab armies , creating new borders for the Jewish state, as well as for Jordan and Egypt. At the end of the war, Jordan held Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) and the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the old city, and expelled Jews who had lived there for thousands of years. Egypt captured Gaza in the war. At no point did Egypt and Jordan attempt to create a new Arab state of Palestine with the territories they had picked up in the war. Instead Jordan annexed the West Bank, a seizure recognized by only two nations, and Egypt held Gaza as a territory.

During the war, there were many people displaced on both sides. More than half a million Arabs became refugees. Most of them had left their towns as instructed by invading Arab armies to get out of the way of the coming planned slaughter of the Jews. Tens of thousands had left even before the UN partition resolution. Some fled a war zone, where there was very close fighting, a sensible thing to do. In some cases, the Israeli forces consolidated territorial corridors, particularly to Jerusalem. The Arabs also spread stories of civilian killings, which frightened many Arab residents to leave their towns, even though the stories were false or greatly exaggerated.

After the war, the Arabs demanded that the partition borders be restored, and all the refugees be allowed to return. This was a novel demand. If you start a war meaning to annihilate the enemy and you lose, you don’t get a do over. There are no do overs in history. The smart thing would have been for the Arabs to have accepted the partition plan and not started a war. There are consequences to starting a war and losing.

They followed their hearts, feeling that it was up to their dreams to shape reality - by Nadav Shragai

...The reality at the time was harsh, almost unbearable: disease, swamps, scarce livelihood and dwindling security. But the hands of the few who believed created miracles. They followed their hearts, feeling that it was up to their dreams to shape reality, and not, God forbid, to withdraw from it. It was up to them to let their faith lead while acting wisely, to move forward with feeling and not to listen to the experts. As the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, said: "There are no experts on the future, only experts on the past."

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
First posted 20 April '15..

I never thanked my grandfather for packing up his meager belongings and coming to Israel in 1924, not to find a place safe from persecution, but simply because he knew that the Jewish people belonged in Israel.

It was not the obvious choice then, and it is not the obvious choice now. He and his ilk were part of the minority of the last few generations who came to the historic homeland not because of persecution and pogroms, but simply because they felt committed to their Jewish genes, to the historical, religious and national baggage that ties them to this place.

Their courage was perhaps different from that of the warriors on the battlefields, but it was no less magnificent. They deserve this belated thanks. Not, God forbid, as a way to diminish those who did come here out of distress and fear. We owe them thanks for our continued existence, for my parents' generation, my own generation and that of my children, as it is doubtful that we would have survived the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe had they stayed.

They deserve our gratitude for the understanding that they instilled in us that, even before this land became a safe haven for the refugees of the pogroms and the Holocaust, it was our destination; that while we might be here today thanks to our strength, we were here before thanks to the strength of our right; that security, which is today the central subject of discussion when it comes to Israel, is meant to allow us to realize our right to live here (in security, of course).

Many years ago, a member of the British House of Lords asked then-President Chaim Weizmann why the Jews were so insistent upon Israel when there were so many other places for them to settle. Weizmann responded: "That is like my asking you why you drove 20 miles to visit your mother last Sunday when there are so many old ladies living on your street."

And indeed, the land we came to, the land in which we re-established Jewish sovereignty, is above all our motherland. Unfortunately, all we speak about nowadays is security, while the conversation about our rights remains marginalized. Security is not everything. You cannot base domestic or international legitimacy on Jerusalem, Hebron or Beersheba, while ignoring the Bible, the patriarchs and the matriarchs, the Temple Mount, the City of David and the millennia-long story of a people yearning to return to their homeland. After all, we could have had security this past century in Brooklyn, London, or maybe even Uganda.

The students of the Vilna Gaon, who moved to Israel at the beginning of the 19th century, and the Jews of Yemen who came to the transit camps at the end of that century, did not come here because it was safe. They came despite the fact that it was less safe.

The State of Israel was not established because of the Holocaust, but in spite of the Holocaust that tried to destroy us.

On Israel’s first day (15 May 1948) by Sarah Honig

Because its ragtag army stood its ground, despite the worst of odds, Israel is today accused of the crime of surviving and is portrayed as a menacing ogre for having dared to come into the world rather than surrender.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
First posted 27 April '12..

‘It is with great joy that I hereby close the Mandatory Police record book,” wrote an anonymous duty officer at Tel Aviv’s central precinct precisely as David Ben-Gurion recited the renascent Jewish state’s Declaration of Independence.

Just below that spontaneous hand-inscribed historic annotation, appears the first criminal entry ever in sovereign Israel’s annals. It documents the capture of a thief. He stole a book, perchance pointing to preferences peculiar to the People of the Book.

Several hours later, the first ship docked in the new state. It began its journey furtively five days earlier in Marseilles when Israel was still under British rule. Its 300 young passengers were outfitted with fake IDs, forged at the Hagana “laboratory” in France.

But the Teti would claim special distinction – it became simultaneously the last “illegal” aliya boat and the first legal one. The counterfeit visas proved superfluous. The vessel proudly hoisted the Israeli flag as the new day dawned. Because it was the Sabbath, the newcomers were issued their new country’s entry permits only at sundown.

With such seemingly ordinary bureaucratic yet emotionally charged tasks, the Jewish state adeptly began the business of self-determination. In time that would be presented to world opinion as inherently sinful. By its very brazen determination to be born, it would be asserted, Israel had displaced the Palestinians, condemning them to miserable refugee subsistence.

According to the Arab narrative, Jewish independence, in and of itself, constitutes aggressive belligerence. Incredibly, this perception sank sinister roots. It takes stronger hold abroad now than it did 64 years ago. We may speculate why. We may point to two millennia of merciless anti-Jewish hate-mongering on religious and other mundanely lucrative grounds. But whatever the motive, our legitimacy, alone among the nations, is undermined assiduously.

Expediently forgotten is the fact that never, not for a single solitary day, were Israelis allowed to savor the elation of their newfound freedom. Behind the aforementioned two matter-of-fact exemplars of sovereignty, a frightening reality festered malevolently.

Israel’s birth was legally ordained via the UN Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947. Two states – Jewish and Arab – were to be established between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Jews cheered the patchy territorial crazy-quilt they were accorded, existentially untenable though it was, and proceeded to meet all UN prerequisites for independence. The Arabs vehemently rejected the offer of a Palestinian state and, in vituperative defiance of the UN, set out to destroy the embryonic Jewish state rather than construct one of their own.

On Israel’s first day, Arab League secretary-general Abdul-Rahman Azzam Pasha, articulated Arab priorities. Sending forth seven Arab armies to slay the newborn “Zionist entity,” he declared: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.” The Arab agenda and intentions were unmistakable. New Israel’s citizens harbored no misconceptions.

(video) Flourishing against All Odds: Israel at 70 - by Amb. Dore Gold

Israel is celebrating 70 years of national independence, and there’s a huge irony in that number. For it was in the year 70 that the last Jewish Commonwealth was destroyed by the Roman Empire, and the Temple, the center of gravity of the Jewish people, was destroyed. The rebirth of Israel is nothing short of a miracle.

Amb. Dore Gold..
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Institute for Contemporary Affairs..
Founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation..
17 April '18..
Link: http://jcpa.org/video/israel-at-70-flourishing-against-all-odds/


It involved dedication, commitment of a national movement that began with the establishment of Zionism, which is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. That movement, through brilliant diplomacy of our forefathers, like Theodore Herzl and Chaim Weizmann, brought the energies of a people back together and allowed for the Declaration of Independence by David Ben-Gurion in 1948.



At its birth, Israel was attacked by multiple Arab armies around it, and if you look at the data, at just the very statistics of Israel’s situation, we were a country not even today with 8 million people. But our neighbors, who have been at war with us all these years, they have about 300 million. If you look at our territory, territorially Israel is a country with little or no strategic depth. For example, it takes only four minutes for a Soviet Sukhoi 24 jet fighter to cross from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, giving Israel very little early warning time. Ten thousand square miles. You could drop Israel into the Great Lakes, and you wouldn’t even hear the splash. But our Arab neighbors have 650 times the amount of territory. That gives them a distinct strategic advantage. It creates a basic asymmetry between Israel and the countries around it. Yet Israel, over the last 70 years, has managed to persevere.

To be a free Nation, in our land, the Land of Zion and Jerusalem - by Forest Rain

...Zaïd was survived by his wife and four children and the legacy that waited for the survivors of the death marches and concentration camps to pick up and continue where he left off – creating new Jews, more powerful and alive. Jews whose hearts no longer yearned but now beat as one with the land that gave them their history, where they could create a promise of an independent future for Jewish generations to come – free in our own land, Land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
14 April '18..

Standing on the top of the hill, I looked out at the beautiful land stretched before me.

Suddenly I felt my body vibrating. Looking up, I saw the guardians of Israel thundering across the sky. IAF fighter jets. It was Holocaust Memorial Day and they were practicing for the Independence Day aerial show.

How suitable. How awe-inspiring.

Could those Jews, those downtrodden, dehumanized, beaten, starving and tortured Jews imagine their grandchildren cutting through the heavens, with enough might at their fingertips to make any enemy shake in their boots and grovel for mercy?

And then I remembered a story I once heard from a Holocaust survivor. He had been a small boy when his family was forced on a death march. As a grandfather, living in Israel, on every Holocaust Memorial Day he walks through the streets of Jerusalem and, at the end of his march he eats two portions of steaming hot, golden falafel. Because, he explained, on that March, his mother, desperate to distract her hungry child, told him that in Zion food grows on trees, hot, crispy golden dumplings that anyone can take, whenever they want.

Cold and starving, marching towards death, they were dreaming of Zion…

It is in her honor that this man marches, as he pleases, free in the land of Zion and eats, not one but TWO portions of golden falafel.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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These are some of the things I learned living in Israel - by Forest Rain

...I learned that miracles are real. They aren’t a thing of the past. Not burning bushes but miracles nonetheless, things that should have happened but didn’t. Things that defy all laws of nature and statistics – like Israel itself. There is no other explanation for this country. Most of all I learned that other countries might be easier or more comfortable but there is no place like home.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
01 May '17..

Israel is something you have to experience in order to truly understand. This land is both less and much more than people tend to assume.

These are some of the things I learned living in Israel:

In Israel, I learned that “no” means “maybe.”

Rules are for the boring.

There always is a better way, there has to be a better way. It’s just a matter of finding it.

Stubborn isn’t a bad quality (necessarily). Neither is pushy. They are just ways to get things done.

In Israel, I learned that just because people complain doesn’t mean they aren’t happy. Loud doesn’t mean that people are angry. In Israel, loud means that people are passionate, that they care (it may not be what you care about but there is always passion about something).

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The sacred platter on which our country was given to us is more radiant than ever - by Dr. Haim Shine

On the 69th Independence Day of a country that rose from dust and ashes and the storms of war, it is possible obtain some kind of historical perspective that permits an extraordinary sense of pride for our country's achievements.

Dr. Haim Shine..
Israel Hayom..
01 May '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=18947

The sharp transition from Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism to the fireworks and dancing of Independence day festivities is at times overwhelming. The tears of grief have yet to dry and already an entire nation is out celebrating in multitudes.

In Nathan Alterman's poem "Images of Faces," which concludes his work "Songs of the City of the Dove," he wrote, "Not in peace, but in steel you were forged / not in sword, but in shovel you endlessly sought to rise. / But life and death are an inseparable pair." Indeed, Israel's Memorial Day and Independence Day are inextricably intertwined.

On the 69th Independence Day of a country that rose from dust and ashes and the storms of war, it is possible obtain some kind of historical perspective that permits an extraordinary sense of pride for our country's achievements. There is no other country in the world whose citizens succeeded in less than 70 years to transform it into a global power in every sphere of life -- in science, economy, culture, technology and military.

One needs many tomes to cover Israel's long list of accomplishments. Older countries, whose population is dozens and hundreds of times larger than our own, have been dumbfounded by the achievements of our tiny country on the fringes of the Middle East -- a country whose people were forced to hold a sword in one hand, and realize a vision and redeem a nation in the other.

Feeling a little bit guilty about not having agreed to lie down and die? - by Sheri Oz

There are plenty of other days of the year to dedicate to the hard work of seeing if we can resolve our problems with our neighbours.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
28 April '17..

Or: How did nationalism get such a bad rap? And: What’s a proud Israeli to do?

People on the left side of the political spectrum talk about nationalism as if it is a dirty word, something to be discarded for global(homogen)ization.

During the election campaign in the USA, many Americans expressed the sense that they care more for the greater common good of humanity than they do to “Make America Great Again”. Europeans fear a Le Pen win, in part because she may try to take France out of the European Union and revert to putting national interests above those of the European continent as a whole.

Israelis who support the two-state solution (TSS) argue that possession of rocks and buildings, central as they may be to Jewish history and our identity formation as a people, do not over-ride concern for the well-being of another group of people who claim ownership over this same land and these same buildings. TSS’ers say that Israeli national interests cannot be ethical if they are achieved and maintained at the expense of the national interests of the Arabs who now call themselves Palestinians.

Some TSS’ers may even deplore celebrations of our national pride, such as Jerusalem Day, arguing that marching through the Old City of Jerusalem holding flags and singing — “as if” we own the place — is insulting and humiliating to the Arabs who feel oppressed by us. Out of compassion, we are supposed to accept Naqba demonstrations at our universities as legitimate protests facing off against our own Israel Independence Day celebrations, and perhaps even to feel a little bit guilty about having won wars waged against us and not having agreed to lie down and die.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Okay. Israel is Not Perfect. So What? - by Jonathan Tobin

...On its 68th birthday, Israelis and their friends have much to celebrate. Just as important, its foes and critics should realize that focusing on its imperfections will never be enough to destroy it. Whether or not their state is perfect, the return of the Jews to their land will not be reversed by hate or by the betrayal of those who have forgotten what is at stake in the struggle to defend Zionism.

Israelis watch an air show during
Independence Day in Tel Aviv.
(AP Photo/Dan Balilty)

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
12 May '16..

Last week the deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces stirred up a hornet’s nest while speaking at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony. General Yair Golan was quoted as saying that the “revolting processes” present in Europe and Germany prior to the Holocaust were “here among us in 2016.” The implication of his comments was that negative Israeli attitudes toward Palestinians were somehow analogous to the rise of murderous anti-Semitism that led to the murder of six million Jews. He then went on to say that Yom HaShoah, the day the Jewish world sets aside to contemplate that terrible crime should also be used for a day of atonement on which Israelis should deal with “unsettling issues” present in the Jewish state such as the misuse of weapons and how Jews “treat the stranger.”

For this, he was cheered to the echo by Israel’s left-wing press and excoriated from the right by writers such as Israel Hayom’s Ruthie Blum, who correctly pointed out that the general was not merely making a “vile comparison” but providing material for Israel’s most malevolent critics. Prime Minister Netanyahu also rebuked Golan but since then has tried to put the controversy in the past. But it came up again when his Cabinet colleague/rival Naftali Bennett alluded to it today on Israel’s Independence Day. The Education Minister said it was time for his countrymen to stop “the festival of self-flagellation” in which so many seem to want to seize on any possible infraction by the IDF or individual citizens as proof of the moral corruption of Israeli society that is rooted in the conflict with the Palestinians.

What are Israel’s overseas friends to make of this controversy? For those on the left who regard the continuing standoff with the Palestinians and the presence of Jews in the West Bank as proof that Netanyahu — and the majority of Israelis who keep re-electing him — have strayed from Jewish values, the general’s comments seem to validate their stance. As I noted earlier this month, the growth of groups that are not only critical of Israel’s government but use the conflict as an excuse to justify their neutrality about both Zionism and the BDS movement that wages economic warfare on the Jewish state is alarming.

Israel’s open enemies that traffic in anti-Semitism while masquerading as human rights activists use any disturbing story that comes out of the country – like the recent firestorm over a soldier who is accused of killing a wounded terrorist after he had been subdued and presented no further danger — as a pretext for their hate. But for many Jews, the problem is much more subtle. Raised on an interpretation of Jewish identity that primarily emphasizes universal values while de-emphasizing more parochial ones, they tend to view Jewish nationalism as inherently suspect. Yet they also react to proof that Israel is an imperfect place filled with imperfect people as evidence that the Jewish state no longer merits their support.

Where were we in 1984 and where are we today?

...Ever since the Israelites made their way out of Egypt, the Jews have tended to complain, and we always will -- but let us take a look at the numbers • Where were we in 1984 and where are we today? Guess what, we have a lot to be proud of.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
01 April '15..
H/T Martin Sherman..

1.

In honor of Israel's 67th birthday, here are a few remarkable facts about the economic wonder that is the State of Israel. Our sages taught us that it is important to give thanks for what we have. On Independence Day, my Facebook friend, the gifted writer Galit Distal Atbaryan, mentioned Louis C.K., who spoke about the way people complain about flying. People "soar through the clouds, impossibly; partake in the miracle of human flight. Sitting in a chair in the sky like a Greek god" and complain about the chair not reclining far enough. That is exactly our attitude toward the state in which we live. "Israel is nothing short of a miracle, like a plane that slices through the sky," she wrote.

Indeed, the complaining and desperation over the "situation" began with Israel's birth, when the Israelites were led out of Egypt. Masses of slaves who were just recently freed yelled at Moses: "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?" (Exodus 14:11).

They didn't stop at that. They continued to accuse him of destroying their relationship with the Egyptian empire and the pharaohs. "Is not this the word that we spoke unto thee in Egypt, saying: Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.'" (Exodus 14:12). After that came the crossing of the Red Sea, but even the miracle that Moses performed -- splitting the sea and ushering the Israelites through it on dry land -- was not enough to stop the complaints. Since then and to this day we enjoy complaining.

So for us complainers, here are a few reasons for optimism. Of course there is plenty to improve on, but it would serve us well to take a look at where we were 30 years ago and where we are today. The following data was compiled by Dr. Adam Reuter and his company Financial Immunities Ltd.

2.

Well, in 1984, the population of Israel was 4.1 million. Thirty years later, the population doubled to stand at 8.2 million. The average number of rooms per person increased by 37% during that time. In 1984, the number of vehicles per 1,000 people was 157. Last year there were 364 vehicles per 1,000 people. Today, the gross national product is $307 billion, but 30 years ago it was a mere $30 billion. That is an increase of more than 900%! In 1984, the GNP per capita was $7,000, and in 2014 it climbed to $36,000 -- an increase of more than 400%.

In 1984, Israel's foreign currency reserves amounted to $3 billion. Thirty years later, our reserves skyrocketed to $90 billion -- an indication of financial stability. The national debt was 280% of the GNP in 1984, but by 2014 it had dropped to 66% of the GNP.

Security expenditure comprised 20% of the GNP then, and only 5% today, and it stands to be even less in the future. The tax burden was 45% and has gone down to 32%. American aid was 10% of the GNP and is now only 1%!

In 1984 Israel's exports were valued at $10 billion, and 30 years later they are valued at $96 billion -- that's an 860% increase. In 1984 high-tech exports were valued at $1 billion, and at $37 billion in 2014 -- a 3,600% increase. Not bad. The national deficit made up 17% of the GNP in 1984 and today only 3% -- an 82% decrease.

In 1984, the public sector employed 75% of the working public, while today that figure is only 43%. Employment of women was 34% and by 2014 it had risen to 54%.

Government regulation of capital markets declined from 85% then to 27% today. Annual interest was 770% and inflation was 450% in 1984, but in 2014 the annual interest rate settled at 5% and annual inflation at a mere 1%. Incidentally, national expenditure on research and development has risen by more than 220% over the last 30 years.

In 1984 we did not have independent sources of energy, but today, 38% of our energy comes from our own sources, and we are on our way to complete energy independence. We did not have desalinated water in 1984 and today more than 40% of our water consumption comes from the desalination plants that we built.

The Jewish State, Independence and Self-Defense

...No, we aren’t a protectorate. Not yet. But to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, the founders of the State of Israel gave us independence — if we can keep it.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
24 April '15..
http://abuyehuda.com/2015/04/independence-and-self-defense/

Today (Thursday)  is יום העצמאות, Independence Day, and I’m reading lots of articles about the significance of an independent Jewish state. “The meaning of independence in my view is, first of all, the ability to defend yourself,” said PM Netanyahu. On the other hand, left-wing journalist Nehemia Shtrasler doesn’t think that Israel is independent at all. “We are no more than an American protectorate,” he argues, because the US could stop selling us weapons and take steps to wreck our economy.

Shtrasler is wrong, because the fact that the US could destroy any country in the world if it cared to doesn’t mean that there are no independent countries. But he is correct that we are far too dependent on the US, something which is being made clear today as we face an unfriendly — arguably, even antisemitic — administration in Washington.

Netanyahu is right that independence requires the capability of self-defense, but of course that is only a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. It is also necessary to have the will to use your capabilities, which in turn depends on the conviction that you are morally justified in doing what is necessary to defend yourself.

This is precisely what is being attacked when Israel is delegitimized and demonized by anti-Zionist groups, NGOs and media. They say that Israel stole its land from the rightful “Palestinian” owners, and that it has neither the legal or moral right to possess it. We are told that Israel’s birth was facilitated by the commission of crimes against humanity, that Israel has continued to commit war crimes in its wars, which are portrayed as offensive and genocidal instead of defensive. Recently, even the pretense that it is only Israel’s presence in the territories that is illegitimate is being abandoned. Every inch of our country is contested.

The so-called “Palestinian narrative” is an example of the Big Lie technique, in which facts and history are inverted and the inversions repeated so often that they become conventional wisdom. ‘Inversion’ is a good word, because it really does turn the truth upside down. In fact, it was Arabs who perpetrated ethnic cleansing and massacres during Israel’s war of Independence, and it is the Jewish people who are truly indigenous to the land of Israel. It is the “Palestinians” who wish to establish an apartheid state, and it is they who target noncombatants and particularly children.

Unfortunately these big lies are effective, even — especially — in Israel, where one would expect that the truth would be more likely to prevail. The myths have become deeply ingrained, even in some of our politicians, even if they don’t realize that they are touched by them.

Self-defense sometimes means deterrence, but sometimes it means war. A political leader or officer in time of war must be able to justify extraordinary actions, actions that he knows will kill people. Some of them will be innocent noncombatants, no matter how careful an army is and how restrictive the rules of engagement — and Israel is very, very careful. Some of them will be our own children, husbands or fathers. Can someone who doesn’t truly believe that his cause is just take such actions?

Confidence in one’s moral and legal position is also required in less lethal pursuits, like diplomacy. Consider the negotiations with the PLO. As I think I’ve written before, the idea of land swaps for settlement blocs implies that the land across the Green Line ‘belongs’ to the Arabs. But anyone who knows the history knows that the Palestine Mandate was intended to provide a national home for the Jewish people, and that the Green Line was agreed by both sides to be nothing more than an armistice line with no political significance. So how did we get the idea that it separates Israel from “Arab land?”

One of the things that distinguishes a protectorate or satellite from an independent nation is that an independent nation has an independent foreign policy and doesn’t simply parrot the party line of its patron. I think this is a good starting point for improving relations with the US: we should try to educate the administration, to the extent that it is possible, about the true legal and historical facts about the State of Israel.

In effect, we need to make a ‘diplomatic declaration of independence’ from the US. Such a declaration would be an important step in reducing our overall dependence on it — and also in improving our ability to defend ourselves. Of course, in order to do this we will need to educate ourselves first, to extirpate the crippling guilt complex that our enemies have succeeded in creating.

One concrete step would be to officially adopt the Levy Commission Report of 2012. The commission, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, examined the legal status of the Israeli presence in the territories and concluded that according to international law, Israel is not an occupying power, and the 4th Geneva Convention — the usual basis for the argument that “settlements are illegal” — does not apply. The government took no action on the report. It should.

PM Netanyahu’s statement that there would be no two-state solution in the near future was a breath of fresh air, despite the fact that Obama seized upon it as an excuse to distance the US from Israel. The interminable pointless negotiations with the PLO/PA only served to provide leverage to extract concessions from Israel without any promise of reaching an agreement. As for Obama’s reaction, if Netanyahu hadn’t said it, he would have found another excuse to do what he was determined to do.

On Israel’s first day (15 May '48) by Sarah Honig

Because its ragtag army stood its ground, despite the worst of odds, Israel is today accused of the crime of surviving and is portrayed as a menacing ogre for having dared to come into the world rather than surrender.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
First posted 27 April '12..

‘It is with great joy that I hereby close the Mandatory Police record book,” wrote an anonymous duty officer at Tel Aviv’s central precinct precisely as David Ben-Gurion recited the renascent Jewish state’s Declaration of Independence.

Just below that spontaneous hand-inscribed historic annotation, appears the first criminal entry ever in sovereign Israel’s annals. It documents the capture of a thief. He stole a book, perchance pointing to preferences peculiar to the People of the Book.

Several hours later, the first ship docked in the new state. It began its journey furtively five days earlier in Marseilles when Israel was still under British rule. Its 300 young passengers were outfitted with fake IDs, forged at the Hagana “laboratory” in France.

But the Teti would claim special distinction – it became simultaneously the last “illegal” aliya boat and the first legal one. The counterfeit visas proved superfluous. The vessel proudly hoisted the Israeli flag as the new day dawned. Because it was the Sabbath, the newcomers were issued their new country’s entry permits only at sundown.

With such seemingly ordinary bureaucratic yet emotionally charged tasks, the Jewish state adeptly began the business of self-determination. In time that would be presented to world opinion as inherently sinful. By its very brazen determination to be born, it would be asserted, Israel had displaced the Palestinians, condemning them to miserable refugee subsistence.

According to the Arab narrative, Jewish independence, in and of itself, constitutes aggressive belligerence. Incredibly, this perception sank sinister roots. It takes stronger hold abroad now than it did 64 years ago. We may speculate why. We may point to two millennia of merciless anti-Jewish hate-mongering on religious and other mundanely lucrative grounds. But whatever the motive, our legitimacy, alone among the nations, is undermined assiduously.

Expediently forgotten is the fact that never, not for a single solitary day, were Israelis allowed to savor the elation of their newfound freedom. Behind the aforementioned two matter-of-fact exemplars of sovereignty, a frightening reality festered malevolently.

Israel’s birth was legally ordained via the UN Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947. Two states – Jewish and Arab – were to be established between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Jews cheered the patchy territorial crazy-quilt they were accorded, existentially untenable though it was, and proceeded to meet all UN prerequisites for independence. The Arabs vehemently rejected the offer of a Palestinian state and, in vituperative defiance of the UN, set out to destroy the embryonic Jewish state rather than construct one of their own.

On Israel’s first day, Arab League secretary-general Abdul-Rahman Azzam Pasha, articulated Arab priorities. Sending forth seven Arab armies to slay the newborn “Zionist entity,” he declared: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.” The Arab agenda and intentions were unmistakable. New Israel’s citizens harbored no misconceptions.

The miracle that is the modern state of Israel

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/Jewish Press..
First Published 17 April '13..

The state of Israel this week turned 67 (65), defying history and the odds to celebrate its continued existence in a very dangerous part of the world.

Countless flags fluttered from cars and homes throughout the country, and numerous families took advantage of the weather to barbeque meat and enjoy a well-earned day of celebration.

Frankly, there is plenty to rejoice about. The Jewish population of Israel has reached 6 million+, and the country has become a leading force in fields such as computer science and medical technologies. The Land of Israel is steadily being built, and Israel's economy has proven remarkably resilient.

And yet, despite all this, one cannot help but feel a gnawing sense of concern about the future. Indeed, all around us it seems that the country is facing a mounting series of perilous threats.

To the north, the terrorist Hizbullah movement in Lebanon has been rebuilding its arsenal, with tens of thousands of rockets aimed at the Jewish state. And then there is Syria, where many of the opposition fighters trying to topple the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad have themselves sworn allegiance to Al Qaeda. To the south is Gaza, whose Hamas leadership remains intent on Israel's demise, while to our east is Iran, whose president speaks openly of finishing off what Hitler began.

So which is it, then, on Israel's 67th Independence Day? Doom or delight, glee or gloom? Or perhaps some mixture of the two? The very question, I think, is remarkable, if only because it betrays an utter lack of appreciation for historical context and perspective.

After all, in the life of an individual, a span of sixty-seven years may represent the bulk of his productive days on this earth. But for a nation, it is an infinitesimal period, a mere episode or interlude in the great sweep of history.

Nonetheless, look at what we the Jewish people have managed to achieve here since 1948.

From the ashes of the Etzion bloc a state arose

...Moshe ("Mush") Zilberschmidt, the commander of the Etzion bloc who was killed in a battle for the Russian Monastery, coined the phrase that would guide the Etzion fighters throughout their ordeals -- "Netzach Yerushalayim" (Eternal of Jerusalem). One of his subordinates, who was also killed in the fighting, wrote the following last words to his loved ones: "I don't know if we will prevail, regardless our dear children will be free citizens in a free homeland, and for this we are prepared to fight ... this is Jerusalem's forward position. We are defending its walls."

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
First published 04 May '14..

"Queen has fallen," was the radio transmission from Aliza Feuchtwanger from the burning bunker at Kfar Etzion on May 13, 1948. "Queen" was the code name for the Etzion bloc. For about half a year, its defenders sacrificed their lives to hold their positions against larger and better-armed Arab forces, and on the verge of the war's end and the country's independence they could hold out no longer. "A desperate Masada-like battle is taking place in the village," Feuchtwanger told headquarters in Jerusalem in her final transmission. "The Arabs are everywhere. There are thousands of them." A few minutes later, she climbed onto the roof of the bunker and placed a white, blood-drenched sheet on the bunker's antenna to signal surrender.

The dozens of fighters who were still alive gathered in an empty lot adjacent to the school and old German monastery in order to surrender themselves and their weapons to the enemy, but their captors instead chose to slaughter them. Most were killed in a hail of bullets. A few managed to escape and survive. On that day, 127 fighters, men and women, some of them survivors of the Nazi death camps and ghettos, gave their lives. Only four, among them Feuchtwanger, lived to tell the story.

In total, 240 residents and fighters died in the battles for the Etzion bloc, of which Kfar Etzion was one of four communities at the time. Many of the fighters were taken captive by the Jordanians. The Knesset would subsequently make the fall of the Etzion bloc the date for Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers. Few remember this fact today. The State of Israel rose amid the flames of the burning Etzion bloc. "Queen" fell, and a state rose.

Even fewer people remember that during the siege on the Etzion bloc, its defenders were not only busy protecting the communities, but also disrupting enemy movements toward Jerusalem. The Etzion fighters attacked enemy forces along the Jerusalem-Hebron road, the main artery connecting the Arab Legion and the armed gangs in Hebron to Jerusalem. Yohanan Ben-Yaakov, a researcher of the Etzion bloc's history, notes that at the beginning of May 1948, an Arab Legion officer fighting in the area said the Arab Legion had concluded that reaching and conquering Jerusalem would be impossible as long as the Etzion bloc remained in the way. The Etzion bloc, therefore, became the de facto forward position for the defense of Jerusalem, and essentially sacrificed itself so that Jerusalem could remain in Jewish hands.

David Ben-Gurion recognized this and would later write: "I can think of no battle in the annals of the Israel Defense Forces which was more magnificent, more tragic or more heroic than the struggle for [the Etzion bloc] …If there exists a Jewish Jerusalem, our foremost thanks go to the defenders of [the Etzion bloc]."

They followed their hearts, feeling that it was up to their dreams to shape reality

...The reality at the time was harsh, almost unbearable: disease, swamps, scarce livelihood and dwindling security. But the hands of the few who believed created miracles. They followed their hearts, feeling that it was up to their dreams to shape reality, and not, God forbid, to withdraw from it. It was up to them to let their faith lead while acting wisely, to move forward with feeling and not to listen to the experts. As the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, said: "There are no experts on the future, only experts on the past."

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
20 April '15..

I never thanked my grandfather for packing up his meager belongings and coming to Israel in 1924, not to find a place safe from persecution, but simply because he knew that the Jewish people belonged in Israel.

It was not the obvious choice then, and it is not the obvious choice now. He and his ilk were part of the minority of the last few generations who came to the historic homeland not because of persecution and pogroms, but simply because they felt committed to their Jewish genes, to the historical, religious and national baggage that ties them to this place.

Their courage was perhaps different from that of the warriors on the battlefields, but it was no less magnificent. They deserve this belated thanks. Not, God forbid, as a way to diminish those who did come here out of distress and fear. We owe them thanks for our continued existence, for my parents' generation, my own generation and that of my children, as it is doubtful that we would have survived the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe had they stayed.

They deserve our gratitude for the understanding that they instilled in us that, even before this land became a safe haven for the refugees of the pogroms and the Holocaust, it was our destination; that while we might be here today thanks to our strength, we were here before thanks to the strength of our right; that security, which is today the central subject of discussion when it comes to Israel, is meant to allow us to realize our right to live here (in security, of course).

Many years ago, a member of the British House of Lords asked then-President Chaim Weizmann why the Jews were so insistent upon Israel when there were so many other places for them to settle. Weizmann responded: "That is like my asking you why you drove 20 miles to visit your mother last Sunday when there are so many old ladies living on your street."

And indeed, the land we came to, the land in which we re-established Jewish sovereignty, is above all our motherland. Unfortunately, all we speak about nowadays is security, while the conversation about our rights remains marginalized. Security is not everything. You cannot base domestic or international legitimacy on Jerusalem, Hebron or Beersheba, while ignoring the Bible, the patriarchs and the matriarchs, the Temple Mount, the City of David and the millennia-long story of a people yearning to return to their homeland. After all, we could have had security this past century in Brooklyn, London, or maybe even Uganda.

The students of the Vilna Gaon, who moved to Israel at the beginning of the 19th century, and the Jews of Yemen who came to the transit camps at the end of that century, did not come here because it was safe. They came despite the fact that it was less safe.

The State of Israel was not established because of the Holocaust, but in spite of the Holocaust that tried to destroy us.

Those who witness a miracle often do not recognize it, nevertheless...

...Those who witness a miracle often do not recognize it, the sages taught us. We have become accustomed to a natural reality of being a free people in our own land. The sacred time period in which we mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism and Independence Day is meant to remind us that our current reality did not come about easily and that we must be grateful for the miracle of our resurrection from the ashes.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
16 April '15..

The State of Israel was not founded due to the Holocaust and its right to exist does not depend on the horrors the Jewish people suffered two generations ago. President Reuven Rivlin was right to emphasize this in his speech at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem on Wednesday night.

The connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel was never severed. There was always a Jewish presence here and several centuries ago the great return of the Jewish people to their homeland began. Israel embodies a promise -- both to past and future generations of Jews. I once asked grandmother Leah whether, during her time in the valley of death at Auschwitz, there was ever a moment when she believed there would be a good ending -- that within five years there would be an independent Jewish state where she could establish a family with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She did not answer me. Rather, she wiped away a tear and went to the kitchen. There, she took from a drawer a package in which there were a large spoon and fork. "These belonged to grandfather Moshe," she said. These were what grandfather ate his meager meals at Mauthausen with. "Pass them on," she commanded us.

Those who witness a miracle often do not recognize it, the sages taught us. We have become accustomed to a natural reality of being a free people in our own land. The sacred time period in which we mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism and Independence Day is meant to remind us that our current reality did not come about easily and that we must be grateful for the miracle of our resurrection from the ashes.

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children" (Deuteronomy 6:7). There are two main lessons from the Holocaust. The first, which is frequently cited, is, "Never again!" This lesson covers the horror and terror of the Holocaust and its evil executioners, as well as the heroism of the Jewish fighters and the sanctity of the victims.

The second lesson is no less important. The Holocaust marked the Jewish people's divorce from exile. We were called on to return home from endless wandering in foreign lands among peoples who did not want us there.

The most extraordinary collective achievement of the Jewish people vs. J Street by Caroline Glick

...Israel is something that every Jew should celebrate and be thankful not only on Yom Ha’atzma’ut, but every day of the year. Israelis know this and that is why we are so content and optimistic. It is J Street’s purpose to hide this truth from the American Jewish community. So it is the task of the American Jews to build on the decision of the Conference of Presidents and ensure through education, travel to Israel and aliya that J Street goes down in time as the great failure it deserves to be. Doing so will ensure that next year, instead of being reduced to the sad spectacle of “a bunch of kids eating cake,” Yom Ha’atzma’ut celebrations worldwide will be the unbridled expressions of joy that they are in Israel.

Caroline Glick..
carolineglick.com..
09 May '14..

Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israeli Independence Day, is a joyous holiday. In Israel, every year, from Eilat to Metulla, from Tel Aviv to the Jordan Valley, everyone across every spectrum – secular, religious; rich, poor; left, Right, Ashkenazi, Sephardi – is out celebrating.

The reconstitution of the Jewish state, and its growth within three generations from a third world economic and military basket case into a prosperous and powerful country, is among the most astounding success stories in human history. Certainly it is the greatest story of Jewish success since Joshua led a nation of former slaves in conquering and settling the land of Israel some 3,500 years ago.

And today, three generations after the enslavement and genocide of European Jewry and the expulsion of the Jews from Islamic lands, the Jewish people in the Land of Israel have built arguably the most dynamic society in the world.

For the Jews of the Diaspora, Israel’s success should be a source of enduring pride and joy. Independence Day should be celebrated by Jews throughout the world. But in recent years, associations of Israel with joy have become increasingly rare.

As one Jewish student activist put it, the celebration on his campus was nothing more than “a bunch of kids eating cake.”

And at the same time, he explained, many students were posting statuses on their Facebook pages talking about how the day was “bittersweet because of the Nakba.”

The situation was all too similar in campuses throughout North America. Yom Ha’atzma’ut, the celebration of the greatest act of Jewish will in modern times, was marked with a shrug, and small clumps of students eating felafel and humous, and cake.

No doubt, part of the problem is the distance.

It may be that you have to live in Israel to understand how amazing it is. But then again, thanks to programs like Birthright, far more young American Jews have visited Israel in recent years than had visited in previous generations. And previous generations of American Jews felt far greater joy in Israel’s accomplishments than young American Jews feel today.

Part of the problem is ignorance. With steadily decreasing levels of Jewish education and religious affiliation among non-Orthodox Jews in the US, young American Jews don’t know almost anything about their Jewish identity.

They are unfamiliar with their history. Their religious education – if they had any – generally came to a grinding halt immediately after their bar mitzvas. And their Zionist education, such as it may have been, was filtered through the media and then, once they arrived in college, through the rants of their anti-Israel professors.

And part of it is that they are intimidated.