Israel's Supreme Court, in Jerusalem. Photo: WikiCommons.

War is hell. Israel has not always been at war, but it has never been at peace. Its neighboring independent state, Gaza, is ruled by the Hamas Party, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel. A state that does not share a border with Israel, Iran, has brought sanctions upon itself in its attempt to develop atomic weapons. Former Iranian President Rafsanjani explained in the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) sermon given on December 14, 2001, that if one day the world of Islam comes to possess nuclear weapons, Israel could be destroyed. Rafsanjani said that the use of a nuclear bomb against Israel would leave nothing standing, but that retaliation, no matter how severe, would merely do damage to the world of Islam .

Countries at war routinely mistreat minorities related to their enemies. During World War II, the United States relocated its citizens of Japanese descent to internment camps for the duration of the war. In Israel, on the other hand, citizens who are openly disloyal may have government positions. Haneen Zoabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset, has kept her seat even though she rode on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship headed for Gaza that was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

Israel and Egypt maintained a blockade of Gaza for security reasons. Haneen Zoabi chose to ride on a ship to break Israel’s right of self-defense. Despite this act of open disloyalty, she retained her membership in the Knesset. No country but Israel would allow that.

Salim Joubran is a judge on Israel’s Supreme Court. He has refused to sing Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem. No other country would allow a person in that position to keep his seat.

War is hell and Syria is certainly going through that hell. Relief supplies to besieged areas are being blocked by both the government and by rebels.”Ž Israel, on the other hand, goes out of its way to provide aid to even those communities that launch attacks against it.

Palestinians in Israel can not only be elected to the Knesset and sit on Israeli courts, but they can become musicians. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is based in Spain, to be sure, but it is led by Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim, and is an Israeli attempt to let young Muslims become professional musicians. Israel is also a country where Arab women can become physicians. The percentage of Jewish women doctors in Israel is certainly higher than that of Arab Israeli women doctors, but the door to medical education and practice is open to Jews and Arabs, men and women, alike.

What happened to the Palestinians who fled to Arab countries? Some became citizens in Jordan. Elsewhere in the Arab world, they remained foreigners. Some of them still live in refugee camps after an unprecedented 65 years. They are treated with no dignity or respect in most of the Arab world.

If Israel were the only country on earth, it would be legitimate to say that Israel has committed many sins during its history, especially during its War of Independence, when it was fighting five Arab nations. But compared to any other country dealing with the hellishness of war, Israel is uniquely good.