Is Israel crucial to Jewish survival and continuity?
• The stakes could not be higher. It is my contention that on Israel – on its existence and survival – hangs the very existence and survival of the Jewish people. Or, to put the thesis in the negative, that the end of Israel means the end of the Jewish people. They survived destruction and exile at the hands of Babylon in 586 B.C. They survived destruction and exile at the hands of Rome in 70 A.D., and finally in 132 A.D. They cannot survive another destruction and exile. The Third Commonwealth – modern Israel, born just 50 years ago – is the last. The return to Zion is now the principal drama of Jewish history. What began as an experiment has become the very heart of the Jewish people – its cultural, spiritual, and psychological center, soon to become its demographic center as well. Israel is the hinge. Upon it rest the hopes–the only hope–for Jewish continuity and survival.
