"Israelis have good reason to celebrate today, and U.S. Christians can join them... Yet our joy is tempered by sorrow."--IRD President Jim Tonkowich
Contact: Loralei Coyle, 202-682-4131, 202-905-6852 cell, lcoyle@TheIRD.org; Radio Interviews: Jeff Walton, jwalton@TheIRD.org; both with the Institute on Religion and Democracy
WASHINGTON, May 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today the nation of Israel is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its independence, according to the Hebrew calendar. On May 14, 1948, as Great Britain relinquished its mandate over Palestine, Jewish leaders there proclaimed the modern state of Israel. U.S. President Harry Truman, overruling many of his top advisers, was the first to recognize the new nation.
Israel’s Arab neighbors immediately launched a war to destroy the nascent Jewish state. Israel survived that war and has survived three more wars and thousands of terrorist attacks over the intervening decades.
But hundreds of thousands of Arabs were displaced in the 1948 war. The plight of the Palestinians has become a permanent grievance. And many actors in the region—Syria, Iran, and the Hamas movement that controls Gaza—are still committed to the destruction of Israel.
Jim Tonkowich, IRD President, commented:
"Israelis have good reason to celebrate today, and U.S. Christians can join them. Israel is the longest-lived democracy in the Middle East. It enjoys a vibrant, multi-party system, an independent judiciary, and freedoms of speech and press. Jews, Muslims, and Christians practice their faiths with few restrictions.
"After the Holocaust, Israel provided a refuge for Jews from around the world. Yet Israel's Arab minority is freer than the Arab majorities in most surrounding countries.
"U.S. Christians differ in their understanding of Israel's place within God's plans for human history. But the vast majority does glimpse some kind of divine Providence in Israel's existence and preservation. We are grateful for President Truman's courageous step in 1948 and proud of our nation's role as one of Israel’s few reliable friends.
"Yet our joy is tempered by sorrow. We are mindful of the unresolved conflicts and unrelieved sufferings that date back to 1948. We pray that Israelis, Palestinians, and all their neighbors may finally know peace, security, self-determination, and justice. And we hope that our nation may be a peacemaker."
The IRD, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.
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