Commemorating a historic day for the Jewish people | Opinion
Seventy-six years ago, on Nov. 29, 1947, the Jewish people held out our hands for the hope and prayer of peace with our Arab neighbors when we accepted the United Nations Partition Resolution (Resolution 181).
Each year, the we celebrate Nov. 29 because it represents the anniversary of the world’s recognition of our right to self-determination. We gained sovereignty in our historic homeland just a few years after the Holocaust. The nation was resurrected from the ashes of Auschwitz and the blood-stained soil of Europe into the modern state of Israel. We also cherish the day in hopes for peace with all our neighbors. This hope is shared by over 700,000 Jews who call Florida home, of which over 230,000 reside in Broward County.
Sadly, the rejectionism that led the Arab world to raise the spears of war instead of embracing our outstretched hands for peace remains alive, more than three quarters of a century later.
While the world endorsed our right to independence on Nov. 29, as a result of Arab rejectionism at the time, our freedom was won not by decree, but by the painful sacrifices of our people. The price was paid on battlefields with tens of thousands of Israeli lives. Their blessed memories live on in the determination and resilience of the generations that follow. The courage of nearly 100,000 disabled Israeli war veterans is a daily reminder of the awful consequences of that rejectionism. Through that pain, our prayers for peace have never ceased.
Throughout our modern nation’s young history, we have never stopped striving for peace. Israel withdrew from the entire Sinai Peninsula in return for the Camp David peace treaty with Egypt. As a result of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel turned over most of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the entire Gaza Strip to the administration of the Palestinian Authority with hopes of a peaceful future with our Palestinian neighbors. In 1994, Israel and Jordan made peace. The historic 2020 Abraham Accords extended Israel’s circle of peace to include Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
In just 75 years, Israel has become an economic, technological and social miracle. Today, much of the Arab and Muslim world recognize that the future of their nations and people is stronger as a result of peace with Israel, offering real hope that the circle of peace will continue to expand.
The greatest threat to peace is Islamic terrorism funded and sponsored throughout the Middle East by Iran through Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and other Iranian proxies. The entire world saw the barbarity of terrorism on Oct. 7, when Hamas sent a Nazi-like death squad of thousands of terrorists into Israel to raid villages, burn, torture, murder, rape, behead and kidnap Israeli civilians. Iran has made it clear that their ambitions only begin with Israel.
Israel is at war to obliterate Hamas once and for all. No country in the world should be terrorized and attacked on a daily basis. We have the right and the duty to eliminate this menace.
Israel is also fighting to bring back home those held hostage in Gaza by Hamas. These hostages, most of them civilians, were kidnapped on Oct. 7 and are held in inhumane conditions by terrorists who disregard human values. We know peace will never be possible unless Hamas’ ability to terrorize Israelis and Palestinians alike is destroyed.
Tragically, the United Nations of 2023 is a far cry from the distinguished body that came together to represent humanity’s hopes for a safer, saner world after the horrors of World War II. A United Nations with the moral fortitude of 1947 would have led the clarion call to extinguish the scourge of Islamic terrorism that threatens Israel and the world.
Instead of advancing the causes of freedom and decency, the United Nations has become a tool of the Iranian axis of evil that seeks the destruction of Israel and the entire free world.
Following the horrific events of Oct. 7, the U.N.’s moral bankruptcy became unequivocally apparent. Rather than clearly denouncing barbaric acts of violence and advancing the principle of “Never Again,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres and senior U.N. leadership have sought to justify and legitimize wanton acts of terror. In doing so, the U.N. fails both Palestinians and Israelis and betrays the causes of peace, security and human rights for which it exists.
Israel will continue our quest for peace with all our Arab neighbors while knowing the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces are the most important safeguard to our freedom and security.
On Nov. 29 each year, we will always pause to commemorate the world’s historic recognition of the Jewish people’s right to sovereignty in Israel.
May God continue to watch over the people of Israel and our great friends, the people of the United States of America.
Israel Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky resides in Miami and oversees Israeli relations in Florida, Missouri, Kansas and Puerto Rico. He promotes business, political, cultural, interfaith and minority ties, while combatting antisemitism and racism.
