Yesterday, I was honored to attend the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s presentation of filmmaker Gloria Greenfield’s (no relation) incredible documentary, ‘A Collective Descent into Evil: The Lethal Obsession with Jews and the Jewish State’ chronicling the societal evil brought on by Islamization and leftist radicalization after the attacks of Oct 7 that targeted Jews and Israel. We were also privileged to hear remarks in person from Melanie Philips who was also part of the documentary.

The event was appropriately timed for Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s versions of Memorial Day and Independence Day, which are timed back to back, for a powerful transition from memorializing the dead to celebrating the nation they died to protect.

“Can these bones live, the Lord asks Ezekiel. And generations, after each slaughter, they come again, the descendants of the dead to reclaim the hills of their ancestors. Rising like the red flowers out of the soil. Like the bones out of the earth. They come up as slaves out of Egypt and out of the captivity of empires, their tongues as numberless as the earth. Here they come again to set up kingdoms and nations. And there in shadows on the dust, a handful of men fight off a legion; swords, spears and rifles in hand they face down impossible odds. They fight and die, but they go on.” I wrote in my own commemoration.

Israel is celebrating its 78th birthday by surviving. Despite everything, Israel still lives. Despite being outmanned outgunned, surrounded by Muslim states that want it gone, by a world eager to appease Islam and sell out any nation that stands in Islam’s way, it’s still here.

78 years might not be a big deal in Europe, where nations go far back much further, but much as America is preparing to celebrate a big birthday, there’s a big difference being nations that continue into decline, and nations that are growing and thriving.

For its 78th birthday, Israel has crossed the population threshold to 10 million (this includes its Muslim colonist population, the Jewish population is currently approaching 8 million) and while that number may not be a big deal in some countries, every bit of it was hard won, extracted from the teeth of Nazism, Communism and Islam.

Thus, the slogan, “Am Yisrael Chai’, the people of Israel live. For nearly a century, Islam has tried to destroy the revival of Israel, but it still lives, making it the nation that Islam cannot destroy and an example to the rest of the world.