Imagine a World Without Israel

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Imagine a world where, on May 14, 1948, no flag was raised over Tel Aviv, David Ben Gurion has not declared the independence of the Jewish state, and no modern state of Israel was born. The British Mandate continues, a relic of a bygone empire—directionless, unstable, and adrift. The longing of a people exiled for two thousand years remains unanswered. And something extraordinary is missing—not just in the Middle East, but in the very soul of the world.

Imagine a world without Israel.

In this imaginary world, the Jewish people—survivors of genocide, keepers of memory—remain without a homeland. Without sovereignty, without self-defense, and without sanctuary, they live in a state of permanent vulnerability. After the Holocaust, no nation opens its gates fully, no land rises to say “never again” with action instead of words.

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The dreams of generations remain dreams. The Jews are still dispersed, maybe tolerated, sometimes hunted, but never fully at home. There is no Israeli Defense Force to shield them, no Law of Return to offer them refuge, and no airport in Tel Aviv ready to bring them home.

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There is no Six-Day War to alter the arc of history. There is no Jerusalem restored to Jewish prayer and presence. The Western Wall—the Kotel, the last remnant of the Second Temple, a sacred echo of thousands of years of longing—remains cut off. From 1948 to 1967, under Jordanian control, Jews were completely barred from accessing the Wall. Synagogues in the Old City were destroyed or desecrated. The ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was vandalized. For 19 years, not one Jew—not a rabbi, not a refugee, not a survivor—was allowed to approach the holiest place in Judaism.

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In a world without Israel, that injustice never ends.

There is no Western Wall plaza, no open space for prayer, mourning, celebration, or silent reflection. There are no bar mitzvahs with Torah scrolls carried on proud shoulders. There are no late-night whispers of Psalms against ancient stone. The Wall becomes a forgotten relic, fenced off, silenced. Not only Jews, but also Christian and other pilgrims, are denied access to the place where the First and Second Temples stood. Religious freedom in Jerusalem—so often taken for granted in our world—is absent in this alternate reality.

Without Israel, the Temple Mount is not shared, but restricted. The city of peace becomes a city of barriers and bans, not a city of prayer and pilgrimage. There is no living, breathing Jerusalem where synagogues, churches, and mosques stand side by side in uneasy, but enduring, coexistence. Instead, there is one voice, one authority, one gatekeeper—and all others are silent.

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And what of the rest of the world?

Without Israel, the ripple effect is global. Israeli medical teams do not land first in disaster zones. There is no field hospital with an Israeli flag in Nepal or Haiti. No bone marrow registry that saves lives on every continent. No Israeli innovations that provide clean water to African villages or restore mobility to paralyzed patients through cutting-edge technology. The “Start-Up Nation” never launches, and with it, the world loses countless breakthroughs in medicine, cybersecurity, agriculture, and environmental sustainability.

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There is no revival of the Hebrew language, no flourishing of Israeli music, art, literature, or film. The cultural tapestry woven by Jews returning from Yemen, Ethiopia, Russia, Poland, Iran, and Morocco is never created. The miracle of a people returning home after two thousand years—rebuilding, renewing, and reviving their ancient culture in modern form—is lost to history’s “what ifs.”

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Israel is more than a country. It is the embodiment of resilience. It is the answer to unspeakable loss. It is proof that exile does not mean erasure. It is a light, often imperfect but fiercely burning, in a world that can so easily fall into darkness.

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A world without Israel is a world that forgot how to hope. It is a world without the Western Wall’s tears, without Jerusalem’s harmony of holy sounds, without a homeland for a people who have carried their identity through fire and exile. It is a world where memory overwhelms the future, and where the dream of peace never finds a voice.

To imagine a world without Israel is not just to erase a country—it is to erase a story of return, a triumph of spirit, and a defiant testament to survival.

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The fact that Israel is today celebrating its 77th year of independence is a victory for the entire free world. It is the symbol of how dreams of every individual and nation can become reality.