Happy Anniversary, America—from Israel

America’s celebration of its 250th anniversary has been a good opportunity to take stock of US-Israel relations, to look at what binds us together, what differentiates us, and what lies ahead for our two nations. 

First and foremost, the obvious sometimes bears reiterating: the United States and Israel share a fundamental set of values rooted in democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Of 167 United Nations member states, fewer than half (74) are democracies. It is a select club that needs defending, sometimes literally. And it needs alliances. 

Both countries were created by a small, brave, and still revered group of leaders who were seeking freedom, enshrined in a Declaration of Independence. Both countries fiercely protect individual rights while maintaining law and order. Both countries are melting pots in which immigrants have found a haven from persecution, and those same immigrants have come to help shape the culture over time. Both countries place a huge emphasis on Judeo-Christian values. Both countries embrace, yet also fear, the relationship between Church (shul) and state. Both countries suffered unprecedented, indiscriminate terrorist attacks in the 21st century that resulted in thousands of deaths and shook the countries to their core. 

We Israelis look up to America. When an Israeli wants to describe something as being excellent, we say “America.” That says it all. English is a compulsory second language in school, and in the 1990s you couldn’t find an Israeli who didn’t own a Michael Jordan T-shirt. 

In Israeli cities there are streets named after Washington and Lincoln, there are schools named after JFK and Roosevelt, and we even have a town named after Henry Morgenthau Jr.,  

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Israel proudly displays a Liberty Bell replica in its own park, and is the only country outside the U.S. with a monument honoring the Americans murdered on 9/11. 

And yet, we are in different places, with many dissimilarities. Think about the U.S. when your country was our age, 78 years old. The year was 1854—seven years before the Civil War—and America was still trying to define what it wanted to be when it grew up. This is where Israel is. The only country in the world under direct and constant threat of annihilation, we are nevertheless striving to be a “normal” country (or as “normal” as you can be in the Middle East).  

Is our multi-party parliamentary system perfect? Well, it’s not (and neither is your two-party system). But in the words of Winston Churchill, democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms. Our society is still in formation, and we have far to go as we try to define the balance of powers within our system.  

And while we fight, together, against forces of terrorism that do not differentiate between American and Israeli or between Christian and Jew, our alliance is stronger than ever. 

Our armed forces fought as one against Iran, and the intelligence gathered by Israel has saved countless American lives. Together, we develop defensive weapons to protect our civilians, while our common enemies spend their money, not on protecting their own, but on ensuring a maximal number of Israeli and American casualties, all while chanting “Death to America, death to Israel”; even they see us as inseparable allies. 

Together, we also strive to make the world a better place. Israeli ingenuity is at the leading edge of medical innovation and scientific invention, ranging from the latest in AI technology to groundbreaking cancer research. Together, we are helping humanity, while under attack merely for being strong, vibrant democracies with a desire to remain free. 

As America celebrates its 250th, we in Israel celebrate with you by striving, like you, to be the best democracy that we can be. Because we understand what democracy is about, and we understand that only a strong U.S.-Israel alliance can protect Israel, benefit America, and make the world a better place.  

Happy anniversary, America!