An online initiative seeks to recount the positive accomplishments of the State of Israel in honor of its 60th Independence Day celebrations.
“Everyone knows how to criticize everything which is wrong with Israel - politically, religiously, socially and militarily,” explained Dan Illouz, a young activist who launched the Tzipiyah.com blog, dedicated to "a universal yearning for national renewal."
“Truthfully, it is important to have some constructive criticism," he added, "[but] periodically, we need to look back and remind ourselves of all the good we have done. We need to look back at our positive actions and take inspiration from them in order to move forward.”
With that, Illouz published a call to Jewish and Israeli bloggers for posts answering the following question: "What are the four accomplishments of the State of Israel which make you most proud?"
Illouz’s group blog has 15 regular writers, meaning a total number of submissions equaling 60. “Each writer will use his own style – some simply listing answers, others writing longer pieces, others even simply using pictures to describe their feelings. He calls on other writers to email him their submissions and links to their web sites and their lists of four to tzipiyah@gmail.com
"Brought millions of Jews to our homeland and rescued many from persecution," wrote one person on the Facebook group setup for the project. They also listed: "Reforested a barren land - Israel is the only country that that has more trees than it did 100 years ago." Another person wrote: "The destruction of the nuclear reactor in Iraq and the recent hit on the nuclear facility in Syria!"
A first, second and third post have already appeared at Tzipiyah's web site.