no place else in the world

An eighth grade common core assignment question in California (link) asked students to consider whether the Holocaust was an actual event or "“propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain.”

A State Dept. official is quoted by the Times of Israel as saying, “I guess we
need another intifada to create the circumstances that would allow progress.”  I guess killing a few Jews is a small price to pay to get the ball rolling, but what can you expect when the Secretary of State labels Israel an “apartheid state” and the US former ambassador to the UN correctly notes (link) that, “The Obama administration has had the worst relationship, the most hostile relationship with Israel than any American presidency since the state of Israel was created.”

In Europe, the Jews of Odessa are getting ready for a mass evacuation (link).  In Brussels the government had to intervene to cancel an “anti-Semitic hatefest” rally that would have been attended by hundreds (link). 

I could go on and on and talk about the rampant anti-Semitism in France, what goes on in England, and we haven’t even touched on the Arab world. 

Do you need any other excuse to celebrate Yom ha’Atzmaut?  Look around the world – where can we be safe and secure except in our own homeland?  Where have we ever seen Torah flourish the way it has in our homeland?  Where can the character of Am Yisrael be free to express itself except in our own homeland?

Sure there are problems.  The Yerushalmi says that geulah is going to come “kim’a kim’a,” bit by bit, like the sun that rises slowly in the morning.  Geulah is a process, not an event.  But at least we are privileged to watch the first stages unfold before us.  How can you not give thanks?