There are many statistics that I love to remember on Israel Independence Day — that we are the only western country with a growing birth rate, that we are the only western country that has more trees today than we had 100 years ago, that we consistently rank as one of the countries with the highest happiness index, that we have one of the best air forces in the world — imagine that only 72 years after that rickety four-plane group.

Israel is a celebration of Jewish strength. And from the beginning, it was the youth who took the lead in the fighting, settling, and sacrifices that were essential to the creation and sustenance of the new State of Israel.