From the Government Year-book, October, 1952

And who is like Thy people Israel, a na
tion one in the earth . . .

( I CHRONICLES 17, 21)

If thou shalt say in thine heart, These
nations are more numerous than I . . .
Thou shalt not be afraid of them.

( DEUTERONOMY 7, 17-18)

Assuredly, on the 1 4th day of May, 1948, almost every Jew
in the world celebrated the Proclamation of Israel's State--but
few at that wonderful moment gave thought to the weighty
problem which declaration of independence called up, or the
tremendous difficulties which the young republic had to over-
come. Yet, while the cheering of exultant crowds still echoed
in our streets, the thunder of enemy guns shook the length and
breadth of the Land and our sleep, that very night, was shat-
tered by the bombs of an invading Air Force. And when, after
eight long months, the War had ended, our racking cares were
not dispelled. War was over but peace had not come. There
began an exodus out of all the wretched exiles of Europe, Asia
and Africa: hundreds of thousands of hapless, penniless men and
women poured in; within three years the population had doubled
itself, and we were faced with the gigantic tasks of absorption
and housing, the fusion of divergent origins, the laying of foun-
dations for an orderly State life. Many, dumbfounded, saw that
the State was not come to make their lives easier; rather, it laid

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