Israel at 60

Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Prize-winning Author

Israel in sixty years? When it comes to Jewish history, it is dangerous to indulge in prophecy. Who would have predicted Abraham leaving the grandiose home of his father and his idols to discover that God alone ruled the world? And Moses, the man with a speech defect, an inspired spokesman for his people? And David the young shepherd, a warrior and king?

Had anyone predicted Hitler's crimes? Only three years after the saddest and cruelest chapter in Jewish history, a sovereign Jewish State was proclaimed: Was it predictable? Was its military victory over five well armed Arab armies predictable? And the Six-Day war? And the Yom Kippur war? And the influx of a million Jews from the Soviet Union? And the assassination, by a Jewish fanatic, of the legendary Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin?

To try to predict is ill-advised and dangerous.

Having said all that, can I avoid the urgent question of tomorrow? There I consider myself an optimist. I believe that, at one time or another, Israelis and Palestinians will live together. Yes, there will be two states — a Jewish one for Jews, and a Palestinian one for Palestinians. Historically unavoidable, this is bound to happen. But how, and at what price? That I cannot figure out. All I know is that suicide terrorism must be eliminated.

I am looking forward to tomorrow with hope.