Where are the Flags?

This is part one of my blogs (read: rants) about the unfortunate lack of national pride I see around Israel.

When I lived in New York, there were American flags everywhere. In schools, by the post office, the library, police stations, hardware stores, gas stations, and even in the synagogues. Sure, that last one was almost always accompanied by an Israeli flag, but the Stars N' Stripes were there. Just like in the song.

In Israel I don't see too many flags. By the Western Wall there are a few, and I know there are a bunch by the Knesset. But not in post offices. Not in schools. Not at gas stations, hardware stores, or a lot of other public institutions. In fact, on the very day I decided to write this blog, I visited three governmental offices in the course of errands that needed to be run. Not one of them had a flag.

I think this reveals something that's wrong with this country.

(Now, I know many people like to go on and on about today's ills. But I'm an optimist. I think the problems can be solved. But that's a different blog. End of aside)

Many Israelis have lost that sense of national pride that used to flow through this country like a raging river. Many have bought into the media slant that Israel is a big bully, and by showing national pride I think they may be afraid to offend those who feel oppressed.

Well, the truth is, flags can indeed be inflammatory. There was a controversy in the southern US about the Confederate flag. It was raised over many southern courthouses and official buildings, and many African-Americans found it to be offensive, as it reminded them of the days of slavery.

Well, you know what? The Israeli flag is not the stars and bars. The blue and white of this country is a symbol of the yearning felt in the hearts of Jews in the diaspora for a place to call their own. It's a symbol of a dream that the Jewish people have dreamt for nearly two thousand years; the dream to return home to the land from which we were so cruelly thrown out. Before Jordan, before Egypt, before Syria, even before the Romans who renamed our land Palestine. We were here, and we hoped to return.

Now that we actually have returned, don't be ashamed of that flag. Don't hide it. Raise it high! Fly it so it can be seen from miles away. Hoist it up, as if to say to those Jews whose yearnings and dreams and hopes were not realized: 'We did it! We took your dreams and made it real!' Hold it up to the world, who banished us from land after land, who tortured us with pogroms, who villified us with blood libels, who cremated us in their ovens, and tell that world: 'We did it! Despite all you've done to us, despite all of your attempts to keep us down, despite your failed efforts that continue until today to deny us our God-given heritage, we have our country.'

We have our flag.