Does anyone remember what happened on this date 66 years ago? Do some of you remember listening on the radio? Israel became the Jewish State. After the UN Partition vote in November of 1947, this was the day that Israel declared its independence. Great Britain was no longer in charge. As soon as the declaration of independence was read by David Ben Gurion, five Arab countries attacked Israel.

I grew up singing Israeli folk songs, mostly about peace and believing in the Israeli dream. “Im tirtzu ayn zo agadah, If you will it, it is no dream.” Theodore Herzl said. Debbie Friedman set it to music. I sang it with every paper I delivered and every yard I raked earning money to go on my NFTY Summer Tour as a 16 year old.

On Kibbutzim we sang, “For our hands are strong and our hearts are young, And the dreamer keeps a dreaming’, Ages on, Keeps a dreamin’ keeps a dreamin’ along…What did we do when we needed corn? We plowed and we sowed to the early morn…” The early Israelis made the desert bloom, learned about drip irrigation, desalinization of water, solar energy. They built towns, brought Hebrew back to life, absorbed refugees from Europe and from northern Africa and Arab countries. All while fighting for its very existence.

Israel fought wars in 1948, in 1956, in 1967, in 1973. It invaded Lebanon in 1982. There have been two intifadas and any number of terrorist attacks. On Yom HaZikaron Israel mourned 23,169 fallen soldiers and 2,495 terror victims since the founding of the State of Israel. How is this possible?  How is it possible that we have lost so many, so very many? One of them is mine. It clouds my understanding of Israel.

Yuval didn’t ask to be a soldier yet he understood that was his destiny. His parents were Holocaust survivors. They lived on a kibbutz. They never talked about their life prior to the kibbutz. They lost children in the Holocaust and Yuval’s older brother in another war. His father tended the cotton fields and his mother made beautiful batik cloth. I still have napkins she made. Yuval knew he would be a soldier, an officer. And so he was. He had a very typical Israeli philosophy. Very matter-of-fact. Either we go to war or we don’t. If we don’t it is no problem. If we go to war, either there will be casualties or there won’t. If there are not, there is no problem. If there are casualties, either they are serious, or they are not. If they are not serious, there is no problem. You get the idea. He went to war. He was a casualty. It was a problem. And he died a hero.

It is times like this that I want to sing, Blowing in the Wind. “How many times must a man turn his head. How many times must the cannon balls fly.” How many young men (and women) do we have to send off to war? When will we be safe.

But Israelis are optimistic. In an article that was published today in Israel Hayom, http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4098, 93% of Israelis are proud to be Israeli and 80% wouldn’t live anywhere else. People are not concerned about the political situation and surprisingly the biggest fear is for personal safety, 17%.

This survey, based on 500 “typical Israelis,” fills me with hope. It does not address the fact that Israel is complex. Israel is intense. There are no black and white answers. There are no simple answers to complicated intractable problems that are now generations old. Israel does not always do everything right. Managing a country is different than remembering a dream. Building a country is not the same as praying for peace. Sometimes difficult choices have to be made.

Despite the ambiguities, the complexities, Israel has a right to exist. Israel needs to exist. As a Jewish state. I am proud of Israel. Undeniably, unabashedly proud. Proud that the technology that drives my cell phone was invented in Israel. Proud that every time there is a disaster anywhere in the world, Israel shows up, sometimes quietly behind the scenes but they always show up and they are always effective, based on the painful knowledge they have cleaned from all those wars. Proud that their main hospitals do not discriminate against anyone, that they treat Jew and Arab alike. Proud that there are more Nobel prize winners per capita than anywhere else in the world.

But Israel is complex. So I worry. I worry about Jews being judgmental of other Jews. Women have a right and an obligation to davven. It is a mitzvah. I worry that Jews don’t let other Jews have honest and open dialogue about Israel. That many congregations won’t even talk about Israel for fear of offending one group or another. That many Jews will no longer speak out when Israeli politicians seem misguided. That somehow saying anything critical is considered anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. That J-Street was not allowed as a member of the Conference of Presidents. I worry about what fear does. When those who were oppressed for so many years, generations really, become the oppressors. When fear drives our actions rather than pursing the dream of peace. I worry about the peace process breaking down, again.

How we get to an age where everyone can sit under their vine and fig tree and none can make them afraid. That is Isaiah’s dream. It is mine too. Speedily and in our day. Working for that dream, working for peace is how I will spend Yom Ha’Atzma’ut. It is how I keep Yuval’s memory alive.