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David Margolese

Israel is an idea

While we are engaged in destroying Hamas, Muslim leaders are busy telling us that this is impossible.

Why? Because Hamas, they explain, is not just a terrorist organization. It’s an idea. And you can’t destroy an idea. 

Now it’s true that you can’t destroy an idea. It will always be there. But you can defeat it. Defeat it to the point that it no longer has power in the world. 

Like the earth being flat. An idea that most people accepted for millennia. No more. The idea still exists, and there will always be a few who believe it, but on a practical level the idea has been defeated. Drop dead defeated. Same with slavery being the natural order of things, gladiators being legitimate entertainment, and child beating being an acceptable form of discipline. 

So ideas can definitely be defeated, and to the point that for all intents and purposes they have been destroyed. 

There are moments in history when leaders come to a fork in the road upon which they have been traveling. At these moments some leaders choose the new path in the fork, while others continue down the old one. September 11, 2001 was such a moment. 

When Al Qaeda crashed two jets into the world trade towers and killed three thousand people, Muslim leaders were presented with their fork. How did they respond to this? Did they want their nation to be a nation that burns and destroys buildings, or did they want to be a nation that builds buildings?

Some leaders answered this one way, others another. Those that decided they wanted to build, ie become a more progressive society, include UAE (Dubai), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain among others. 

Those that chose to continue down the same path of destruction and terrorism include Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Today these two groups of nations represent two radically opposing ideas — building versus destroying.  

So yes, Hamas is an idea. So is Hezbollah, ISIS, Al Qada, Taliban, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. 

And the idea of all of them is intolerance and obedience through destroying.

But you know what? Israel is also an idea. And as the Jewish state, Israel represents the greatest idea the world has ever known. The idea of her prophets…‘justice, justice you shall pursue.’ Justice is Israel’s DNA. 

The statement, ‘there is no justice in the world,’ is a universal refrain throughout the ages. And it’s true. All societies pay lip service to the idea of justice, but instead operate on the principle of self-interest. No one has yet actually built a just society.

But just as America hasn’t finished building a society of liberty to model the idea of freedom to the world, Israel is just getting started building an ethical society to model the idea of justice to the world.

Israel is an idea. An idea of building rather than destroying. We can’t defeat darkness? Of course we can.

About the Author
David Margolese is the co-founder and former CEO of SiriusXM, America's largest radio broadcaster. Nominated by Harvard Business School as Entrepreneur of the Year, inducted into NASA's Space Technology Hall of Fame, he and his wife Michal and their six children live in Israel.