Thank you for Israel

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, Eitan Haber saw fit to honor the 24 scientists and visionaries,  who were instrumental in creating Israel's nuclear deterrent, the forgotten people behind the project:

 

Ernst David Bergmann, Manes Pratt, Amos De-Shalit, Israel Dostrovsky, Zeev (Venia) Hadari (Pomerantz,) Gideon Yekutieli, Munia Mardor, Binyamin Blumberg, Zvi Zur, Shalhevet Fryer, Yohanan (Zenka) Ratner, Igal Talmi, Dan Tolkovsky, Israel Pelah, Yona Ettinger, David Peleg, Gideon Rechavi, Gideon Frank, Uzi Eilam, Yosef Tulipman, Giora Amir, Avraham Sarusi, Micha Daft, Yitzhak Gurevich.

 

Many of them are in fact well remembered, and not just for their contributions to the nuclear project. Ernst David Bergmann was the father of Israeli organic chemistry and made vast conributions to peace time research and chemical warfare. Dan Tolkovsky was commander of the Israel air force. Munia Mardor was founder of Rafael, the Israeli weapons development authority.  And of course, in addition to those 24, Shimon Peres and David Ben Gurion played vital roles in establishing the nuclear deterrrent.

 

But the nuclear project actually involved the dedicated work of thousands of people over many years, and the miracle of Israel is not summed up in a reactor in Dimona and a few (hypothetical) bombs. Yossi Harel, legendary commander of the Exodus and hero of many other exploits died this week, reminding us of our debt to him, and to myriad others like him. We are here because of the heroism and quiet self-sacrifice of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, from the heros of Gush Etzion and the Negev Beasts of 1948 to the unsung heros in the "strongpoints" of the Suez Canal in 1973, who held their own against the huge Egyptian invasion, to the heros of the unfortunate Second Lebanon war, and the people of Sderot, who quietly go about their business trying to ignore the Qassam rockets of the Hamas.

 

To all of them, it is fitting that we say, "Thank you for  Israel."