INDEPENDENCE

Sixty-one years ago, Jerusalem was under siege. Its citizens barely subsisted on rationed water, a few ounces of flour a week, and some vegetables grown in garden plots. Khubeiza, a green leaf made into bread and soup, was gathered in no man’s land while dodging bullets from the walls of the Old City. Jaffa lay in ruins: an Arab city destroyed by the Haganah. The new nation fought desperately with a couple of WWII planes, home made bombs, and weapons smuggled in during the British mandate (that is, those not confiscated) against neighbors committed to their immediate annihilation. The only democracy in the middle-east faced certain death.

In 1948, I had just started my first year in Tulane Medical School, financed by the GI Bill and a summer job at Maison Blanche.

Today, Independence Day in Israel, Ruby and I are at the Honey Beach Restaurant on the azure, blue and green Mediterranean Sea in Jaffa. How times have changed.

We people watch, eat, drink, and marvel at the show put on by the Israeli Air Force and the Navy. Right over our heads thunders the Israeli version of the Blue Angels, streaming smoke. Many of their pilots trained in Pensacola. An air parade of three supply planes (Fat Alberts), a tanker refueling three Mirage fighters, and four different El Al commercial jets representing the various platforms that ferry world wide visitors to and from Ben Gurion airport extends the performance to nearly an hour.

Meanwhile, Naval units - virtual destroyers, gunboats, assault ships, supply vessels, and helicopters - bear down on the sandy beach passing in review. They are followed by flotillas of civilian sailboats demanding their moment to celebrate this great event.

The Old City of Jaffa is being rebuilt. Adjacent Tel Aviv is a modern metropolis sporting a skyline which could be the envy of an Atlanta, Rome, or Tokyo. How times have changed.

Crowds of Israeli families pitch tents, grill, and play games in the parks and public spaces. The landscape is awash with baby strollers, dogs, happy sounds, and the sumptuous smell of barbeque smoke. The eating places are full and service is slow but who cares. We are having fun. All of us! They are proud of their country and not afraid to say so.

You don’t believe in miracles? Then read how this nation was founded; how it continues to exist, and how it continues to grow. Come and see the desert converted into green pastures, olives, leeks, potatoes, corn, flowers, and cities. Israel not only feeds its seven million people, it exports food to help feed the world. And as lagniappe, meet friendly people who live in a land where each rock turned over is history. Are we loving Israel all over again? You bet!