Happy Birthday Israel

This item is from Atlas Shrugs.

"It's Israel Independence Day. I went to a zimreah (a night of Jewish songs) and I have to tell you, watching these Jewish children singing the "greatest hits" of this ancient genre in Hebrew, clapping and dancing, the parents kvelling, against the majestic architectural beauty of an old shul, I couldn't help but think -- despite the thousands of years of persecution and prosecution, the blood libels, the hate, the abject cruelty, the jealousy, the violence, the unremitting hunger for our annihilation, the constant boot in one costume (SS) or another (Hamas), I looked at the joyful throng of ebullient parents, children, bubbies and zaydees and I thought, I'd rather be on the receiving of all that evil than be on the other side.

Baruch Hashem. Happy Birthday Israel!"

Maggie's Notebook has a blog entry on the birthday, plus the anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909.