Happy Birthday, Israel!

The State of Israel turns 60 this week and nobody knows how to "make a party" quite like the People of the Book. A-listers Tony Blair and President Bush are heading to the Middle East early next week in anticipation of May 14, the day Israel was officially recognized by the United Nations by majority vote in 1948. My work colleague in Tel Aviv is currently partying and I am forced to blog about it from afar (and daydream about July 4 on the beach).

As the crossroads of the world's three major religions, Israel is a country of contradictions (to quote MSN). 6 million Israelis packed into a land the size of New Jersey is an island of democracy flanked on all sides by hostility. People of all religions get blown up in buses and in markets yet they continue to stay tuned for their regularly scheduled life. IDF soldiers patrol the streets with guns not because it makes a good tourist photo op (my mom wasn't happy when she saw a photo of me smiling while doing a present-arms pose with an M-16) but because the next war could happen outside of the bar that you're sucking down cocktails in.

On the flip side, Israel is beautiful country that is hands down the perfect environment for a Jew with a short attention span. Don't like the weather? A two hour drive north or south will take you either to a mountain ski resort or to the Negev desert. Life here is fast, whether it's watching scary drivers drive 100mph in their mini-cars or as an employee in one of Israel's world-leading tech firms. Created during an era of post-colonialism, Israel was and still is a model of how a nation can rise from nothing and achieve greatness in such a short amount of time.

Jews from all over the world have made aliyah (became citizens of) to Israel and while it's a wonderful place to visit, I certainly wouldn't want to live there. Sure after you've heard your umpteenth anti-Semitic comment Israel definitely looks attractive but America has corrupted me and I couldn't possible move to a place where central a/c is limited and walk-in closets are unheard of. While my heart may yearn for Israel but my ass belongs in America, and I'll gladly raise a glass of Maccabee to that this Israeli Independence Day.