IF asked, one might find it difficult, at least momentarily, to come up with a list of striking commonalities between two such seemingly different places as Israel and Colorado.
Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the US, had no problem with it last week.
Colorado and Israel have a lot in common, an articulate and energetic Oren told a sizable audience at a March 18 press conference at the Colorado State Capitol.
Were both frontier societies. People came out here in search of freedom, in search of opportunity, to fulfill themselves. Thats exactly how Israel was founded people seeking freedom, seeking opportunity, awaiting to define themselves in our case, to define ourselves as the Jewish people in a nation-state of Jewish people.
After an informal breakfast hosted by Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, Oren briefly spoke to media, state legislators and pro-Israel activists before heading to chambers where both houses of the State Legislature passed a resolution calling for continued support by the Colorado General Assembly for a strong relationship between the United States and Israel.
A Senate press release announcing the resolution noted that Colorado currently sends more than $36 million in annual exports to Israel.
Describing himself as a frequent visitor to Colorado, a fan of the Tattered Cover bookstore and an admirer of Colorados extraordinary statehouse, Oren pushed his Colorado-Israel analogy a bit further.
Just as the early frontier people in Colorado faced tremendous challenges from their environment, so too did we in Israel face immense, immense challenges, from disease, clearing those swamps, making the desert bloom, he said.
And we lived in a very rough neighborhood, an extremely rough neighborhood. On May 14th 1948, we declared our independence.
Asking an audience member how many people currently reside in Denver, Oren was told about half a million.
That was the size of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, just over half a million people. We had basically handguns to protect ourselves, no economy, no major allies in the world, and we were attacked by six Arab armies who wanted to throw us into the sea and we beat them back. We won that war.
OREN encapsulated Israels historical tradition of facing and overcoming challenges the absorption of nearly two million immigrants, the maintenance of what is today a strong and vibrant democracy, the development of a an effective educational system.
He didnt shy away from a bit of nationalistic boasting, telling his listeners that Israel today has six world class universities, issues more scientific papers, creates more technological patents, has more start-up companies and boasts more Nobel Prize winners than any other country in the world on a per capita basis.
Yet it remains Israels continuing fate to face daunting challenges, some of which are just as daunting as those faced in 1948.
We are facing terror, Oren said, 50,000 rockets in the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
We face terror, terror that every day could strike every single one of our cities, from Metula in the North to Eilat in the South.
Terrorism, he suggested, might not be the worst.
We face an international campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel. It means not only to deny us the right to defend ourselves but to deny us the right to define ourselves, Oren said.
We define ourselves as a Jewish state and people around the world are saying, you cant define yourself that way; you have no legitimacy as a sovereign Jewish state.
Then there is Iran.
We face the monumental challenge of a rapidly nuclearizing Iran, Oren said.
Yes, theyve had some technical difficulties this year. Theyve gotten over them. Theyre running pretty much close to schedule. The United States and Israel see very much eye-to-eye. We have the same clocks. We know exactly where the Iranians are and what theyre aspiring to achieve military nuclear capability.
The Iranian challenge, in Israels eyes, has far deeper implications than the fact that one day soon Iranians might be able to stick a warhead on top of a missile, Oren pointed out.
Thats an Iran that can take their military nuclear capabilities and give them to terrorists. Terrorists dont need missiles. Terrorists need a suitcase. Terrorists need a container on a ship.
A nuclear-armed Iran is an Iran that would trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Can you imagine how we would be viewing the Middle East right now with all these brave people striving for democracy if it were armed with a nuclear arsenal? Youd be looking at it in a slightly different way with great trepidation.
Yet another challenge looms in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to which, Oren emphasized, we aspire and are committed to.
Speaking plainly, Oren put the onus on the Palestinians for the lack of progress in the process, denouncing them for not making a good faith effort to negotiate a realistic peace.
Instead they try to end run the peace process, theyre trying to get various people to recognize their state without making peace, Oren said.
So whatever two-state solution ever comes to be would be a two-stage solution. The next stage would be Israels dissolution.
That same state that doesnt make peace with us would have the same rockets that Hezbollah has, that Hamas has, and we would face 50,000 rockets not just in the north and south but in the east as well.
THE final challenge that Oren articulated was the rapidly widening public discontent in the Arab world a challenge, he suggested, that has at least a fair chance of reaching an outcome favorable to Israel.
Even there, however in what we are seeing in the Middle East all around us, in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, in the Persian Gulf; people rising up and protesting and demonstrating for democracy and freedom cautious skepticism is called for, Oren said.
This is a challenge for the State of Israel, he said. We have seen how democratic movements in the Middle East, well-intentioned democratic movements, have been hijacked by terrorists who transformed those states into terrorist states. Weve seen it in Lebanon, weve seen it in Gaza, weve seen it in Iran.
Responding to a question from the Intermountain Jewish News, Oren emphasized that Israel has been surprised by these developments, but not entirely.
Israel, he said, watched the bloody green revolt in Iran in 2009 with great interest.
And we knew that there were certain regimes in the Middle East that were in transition, in Egypt, for example, because Hosni Mubarak was not in the best of health so there would be some type of transition, Oren said.
We were prepared for that, but nobody knew for certain the timing, the extent, the suddenness of these events that have swept the Middle East over the last two months.
Our position was, first of all, to keep a low profile. We didnt become much involved in this and were still continuing to keep a very low profile.
Although wary of forces that will likely seek to turn the budding Arab democracy movement into new and improved forms of totalitarian rule Oren mentioned Egypts Muslim Brotherhood in particular he described Israelis as cautiously hopeful.
Were a true and peace-loving democracy to emerge in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, elsewhere in the Middle East, we would be the first to embrace them, Oren said.
Democracies keep peace treaties. Its extremely rare where democracies have to go to war against one another, because people have an interest in peace.
Not widely noticed or commented on, he added, is the fact that in the recent Arab demonstrations only rarely were Israeli flag burning and the usual anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli placards prominently displayed.
There was very, very little of it, Oren said.
That taught us all a lesson, and the lesson is this: That when Arab populations have an opportunity to protest about something other than Israel because in the past, all they could protest was about Israel they will protest for rights, for job opportunities, for a future for their children.
We look upon that with great optimism.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
