Never bet against the Jewish future

If history has taught us anything, it is this: never bet against the Jewish people. The past two years have been among the most painful Israel and the Jewish people have faced in decades.

War. Hostages. Sirens. Terrorist attacks. Ever-present antisemitism.

The headlines suggest the Jewish story has entered another dark chapter. But history demands perspective. During World War II, over one and a half million Jews served in Allied forces. Not one of them had the power to bomb the tracks to Auschwitz or assassinate Hitler.

In the opening hours of the 1948 War of Independence, Egyptian warplanes dominated the skies over Tel Aviv, bombing the city’s airfield and power stations, while the newborn Jewish state had almost nothing with which to defend itself.

Today, just 78 years later, the Israeli Air Force dominates the skies of the Middle East. Israel’s defence systems intercept ballistic missiles travelling at extraordinary speeds, and Israel has demonstrated the capacity to reach every despot sworn to its destruction.

Yom Ha’atzmaut is not only a celebration of what Israel is today, but how far we have come in just a few generations.

When we look not just at the past two years, but at the past 80, something remarkable becomes clear. Despite the turbulence of this moment, the outlook for Israel and the Jewish people has never been stronger.

In 1948, the Jewish people stood in the shadow of catastrophe. A third of our nation had been murdered by the Nazis. Survivors were scattered across displaced persons camps, with few places willing to take them in. In the land of Israel, the Yishuv numbered just 650,000 Jews.

And they faced annihilation. Five Arab armies stood ready to invade the moment a Jewish state declared independence. The Yishuv had no real air force, no tanks, no missile defence, no defensible borders.

And yet, somehow, we prevailed.

In its first three years, Israel went on to absorb over 700,000 Jewish refugees, more than doubling its population under conditions that would have broken any other nation.

Today, the same people who had no refuge built a state that guarantees one. The same state that once scrambled for second-hand aircrafts from Czechoslovakia, now commands the skies of the Middle East. The same nation that for two millennia depended on others for survival now possesses the capabilities to defend its citizens and deter its enemies.

While others in the region built tall buildings and monuments to wealth, Israel built systems to save lives: missile defence, a dominant air force, and bomb shelters in homes and buildings across the country.

Not to project power, but to protect life and ensure that Jews would never again be helpless.

When the Iranian regime extended its reach across the region, arming proxies from Gaza to Lebanon, Syria to Yemen, Israel did what it has always done: it defended its people while making every effort to minimise civilian harm.

This is the Jewish paradox. A people shaped by centuries of persecution, who refuse to live as victims.

Yes, antisemitism has reappeared in modern form. The slogans have evolved. The platforms have changed. But the hatred itself is ancient. Jewish history teaches us we cannot eliminate antisemitism. No generation ever has. Nor should fighting antisemitism become the organising principle of Jewish life.

Instead, we can win a different struggle, the struggle for Jewish confidence.

We hope for a world where Jews live proudly and openly. Where Jewish identity is expressed, not concealed. Where, for the first time in two millennia, the Jewish people have a state capable of defending them.

A state that ensures that Jews determine the Jewish future.

As Menachem Begin said, the days of Jews with trembling knees are over. We stand tall with 3700 years of civilisation behind us and 77 years of sovereignty and self-determination.

History has already written the answer: Never bet against the Jewish people. Never bet against the State of Israel.

Alon Cassuto is the CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia.