The 60^th anniversary of Israel’s independence is a good time to engage in personal and national soul-searching. The Zionist movement has successfully realized the vision of the prophets and its own vision: the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

Those who have shared in this enterprise have reason to feel satisfaction and pride. The Jewish people has founded a state that is flourishing and thriving - in spirit, culture, science, technology, agriculture and industry - and with its own strong security forces.

Does this mean that the Jewish people has fully achieved the vision? In my opinion, after 60 years we are only at the beginning of the road to fulfillment of the vision of the prophets and of Zionism. A large part of the Jewish people is still scattered in all corners of the globe; there is still a need for the Jewish people to mobilize in order to defend and strengthen the Jewish national home and safeguard its future; and the Zionist vision needs a 21^st century injection of energy.

The State of Israel today is a strong nation, but its achievements are not the outcome of its physical attributes. Israel is small in area and in population, and has no natural resources. Its achievements and strengths derive from the Jewish “brain” and spirit.

The Jewish spirit is what brought me, personally, like most Zionist Jews, to enlist on behalf of the State of Israel. This feeling of personal obligation as a Jew, as an individual, to the Jewish people as a whole – “All Jews are responsible for each other” – is based on an awareness and deep understanding of the challenge facing the Jewish people at this stage of its history. It is what motivates Zionist Jews wherever they are, and above all the younger generation, to enlist for Zionism’s national missions, in all spheres of life.

What is required today to energize 21^st century Zionism is a vision that ignites the heart and mind, and acts as a source of inspiration and attraction for young people in Israel and the Diaspora: a vision that challenges the Jewish people to bring about the creation of an “exemplary society” within the sovereign life of the state. Such a vision, which is well-suited to the traditional Jewish ideas of redemption and tikun olam (repairing the world), presents the majority of the Jewish people with a challenge well worth undertaking. While the age-old hope expressed in “Next year in Jerusalem” is not fulfilled by actually arriving in Jerusalem, “building Jerusalem” articulates the unceasing aspiration to act on behalf of a higher and better cause, as individuals and as a people.

The Jewish people’s enlistment is also required for the physical defense of the state. Even after 60 years of independence, Israel’s security is still challenged by the refusal to recognize its right to exist as an independent Jewish state or, in other words, by non-recognition of the right of the Jewish people to a national home in the Land of Israel. Jews in the Land of Israel have been attacked since the dawn of Zionism and the physical offensive goes hand-in-hand with ideological/diplomatic/propaganda attacks that delegitimize the idea of a Jewish state. This offensive comes from a variety of sources:

Jihadic Islam – claims that the Land of Israel is sacred Muslim ground and that infidel Jews have no right to live on it.

Arab nationalism – its strength has declined since the rise in power and influence of Jihadic Islam, but it still exists, denying the Jewish people’s right to a state for Arab-nationalist reasons and looking on Jews in the Land of Israel as temporary residents or “colonialists”.

Naive or radical liberalism – those who have fallen into the Arab propaganda trap and have become convinced that the problem is the post-1967 “conquest”, ignoring pre-1967, and even pre-1948 Arab aggression. In recent years, they have fallen for the “Apartheid” propaganda line.

Anti-Semitism – the old type climaxed in Nazism or pogroms while the new version wears the guise of being “anti-Israel”.

This offensive is also backed up by internal trends that may be termed post-Zionist and anti-Zionist in Israel, and post-modern in the west – those who mistakenly view national identity as negative.

The anti-Israel offensive sets a challenge for all Zionist Jews, wherever they are. The attacks can be countered on the Internet and in other media, on campuses, in one’s own circle of friends and above all within the Jewish community. The offensive makes it imperative to strengthen belief in our path and its rightness, and first and foremost in its substance.

The assurance of life and of the fulfillment of the prophets’ vision compels the construction in Israel of a society that is exemplary. A model society. “Redemption” is not just a religious idea; it is also sound common sense. All members of the Jewish people - Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and those who define themselves as secular - can find a challenge to fulfill within this vision. The challenge for the Jewish people in our generation is to turn the vision into reality.