It all starts with the Declaration of Independence.
On May 14, 1948, 2,000 years of exile came to an end. My parents have described this moment to me dozens of times. My father in Jerusalem, my mother at Kibbutz Kfar Hamaccabi, both of them, along with our entire persecuted nation, glued to their transistor radio. Israel's establishment was a defining moment in their lives and the lives of the Jewish people, who felt an excitement the likes of which it seems we would find difficult to imagine today.
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At the very moment when that historic declaration was read, a unique bond was formed between the State of Israel and the United States.
The Declaration of Independence, the closest thing to a constitution that Israel has, includes universal, democratic and liberal principles that reflect those same principles upon which the United States was founded. As Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion said, "The State of Israel … will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."
A genius document, to be sure.
When I was asked to write about the special relationship between the two countries, I was reminded of a defining moment in my life, my US citizenship ceremony. At that time, the issue of citizenship was fairly negligible from my perspective. I didn't give it much thought. I had been a green card-carrying US resident for a number of years, and I applied for citizenship for purely technical reasons. But the ceremony itself surprised me.
Imagine thousands of people of all races, backgrounds and belonging to every social status gathered together in a dreary sports arena, taking an oath of allegiance and pledging to abide by a series of laws, which while written a long time ago, remain groundbreaking to this day. I was surprised by how emotional the ceremony left me. I mean, I am the proudest Jewish Israeli there is. Why should I get all emotional over an American political ceremony? Until suddenly, I got it. I understand the uniqueness of the US political structure and the connection and similarity between Israel and the United States.
You are considered an American citizen if you agree to play by the rules of the American Declaration of Independence, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Israel's Declaration of Independence and the US Declaration of Independence are a reflection of one another.
They are sisters, just like their countries.
Continuously striving to improve
Throughout the Western world, there are many today who question the ethics of liberal democracy. Liberal democracy is not the unequivocal decision that "majority rules." The majority does not rule; the majority has a moral responsibility. Liberal democracy looks out for the rights of the minority with great fervor. This is no simple task, and sometimes it's downright infuriating, but even Ben-Gurion and Jefferson knew they needed to set these foundations out in writing for future generations, lest we momentarily forget.
I have done my part for Israeli public diplomacy, in public and behind the scenes, for over a decade. I have spoken to thousands of people from all over the world thousands of times, it's in my blood. After years of public diplomacy work, I can confidently say that I know what works, and what will subtly, but definitively, silence Israel's detractors: Minority rights, women's rights, Arab rights, LGBT rights, freedom of worship and freedom of speech, even if what is being said makes us uncomfortable, government support for Israeli artists even if their work is critical of the state: All these things prove to the world that Israel, just like the US, encourages dialogue and discussion and is even attentive to them.
Liberal democracy is what allows for discussion, even if that discussion is heated. If we continue to preserve the values that both Israel and the US were founded upon, who will defeat us? As long as we take care to maintain these principles, the special relationship between the countries will also be maintained, and the BDS movement, along with all the other boycott movements, will lose their power and be swept into their natural place in the trash bin of history.
And if we could borrow one more element from the Americans, let it be the principle laid out in the preamble to the US Declaration of Independence, which notes that this historic document has been ordained and established "in order to form a more perfect Union."
Yes, the country they were fighting for and willing to give their lives for is not perfect, nor will it ever be. But they aspired to continue to improve that union, that same idea, that country. They understood the process was ongoing and would never be fully complete, but that the very existence of the process would ensure its principles were preserved.
How inspiring.
Thank you for everything, our older and wiser sister.
Noa Tishby is an Israeli actress, producer and singer.
