‘I have loved you with an everlasting love’: 77 reasons I love Israel as she turns 77
Jerusalem, Israel — Never has it been more challenging to be an Israeli.
Yet never have Lynn and I been more grateful to be citizens of the State of Israel, or to live in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, or to be in love with the God of Israel and His Word, or to have the honor and joy of teaching others about God’s great love and prophetic plan for Israel and the Jewish people.
The war that was launched against the Jewish state by the Iranian regime and its terror proxies on Oct. 7, 2023, has been brutal and barbaric.
Over the last 19 months, we and our fellow Israelis have been living through our nation’s darkest hour.
The Iranian regime and its terror proxies have been relentlessly attacking us from every side.
It’s not just the missiles, the rockets, and the bombs.
It’s the avalanche of lies being told against Israel by the so-called “mainstream” media.
And the toxic torrent of vicious anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda being pumped into the cultural ecosphere via Communist Chinese-owned social media companies like TikTok and Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite TV network, and many other social media platforms.
It’s exhausting and depressing.
Lynn and I are grieving over the non-stop slandering of our country and people.
At the same time, we’re grieving the deaths and the wounding and traumatization of so many Israelis and Palestinians.
If these weren’t difficult enough, so few of our people truly and personally know the Messiah, the very One whom God the Father sent to save us, bless us, redeem us, and transform us some 2,000 years ago.
That said, I absolutely love living here.
I love being a citizen of the State of Israel.
I have great hope for the future of our country.
And as we celebrate 77 years since our first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, declared our independence, I want to share with you 77 reasons why I love this country.
Would you share them with family and friends on social media? Many thanks to all of you who do.
I LOVE ISRAEL BECAUSE…
1. The rebirth of the modern State of Israel – on May 14, 1948 – was one of the greatest miracles in the history of mankind and the dramatic fulfillment of ancient biblical prophecies that most people in the world had considered fairy tales or lies, and believed would never come true.
2. The very existence of Israel today – and the survival of the Jewish people throughout human history, despite so many attempts to destroy and annihilate us – is living proof that God and the Bible are true, for the Bible is His holy and powerful Word.
3. God declared in the scriptures that He loves Israel: “The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness’” (Jeremiah 31:3).
4. God calls Israel the “apple of His eye”: “For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘After glory He has sent Me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye’” (Zechariah 2:8).
5. God declares that He dwells in Israel: “For the Lord dwells in Zion” (Joel 3:21).
6. God made it clear in the Scriptures that He sovereignly chose Jerusalem – the eternal capital of Israel – as His very own city: “I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel” (2 Chronicles 6:6).
In 2 Chronicles 33:4, God says, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.”
7. God regards Israel – and our capital, Jerusalem – as the epicenter of the world: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with [the rest of the] countries all around her’” (Ezekiel 5:5, NIV).
8. God sovereignly chose to send the Messiah to be born in Israel, to live in Israel as a Jewish man, to perform miracles in Israel, to preach the Gospel in Israel, to die in Israel, and to rise from the dead in Israel. (See all four Gospel accounts in the New Testament)
9. Jesus is the most famous Israeli of all time, followed and beloved by more than 2.6 billion people worldwide today.
10. When the Messiah returns to govern the entire world for 1,000 years, He will come to Israel and live in – and reign from – Jerusalem. (See Zechariah 12 and the Book of Revelation)
11. The Hebrew prophet Daniel called Israel “the beautiful land” – and he was right (Daniel 8:9; 11:16, 11:41).
12. The State of Israel allowed my family and me to make aliyah, to move here, and to become citizens of this beautiful, miraculous country.
13. Lynn and I have made some of the dearest friends of our lives here in Israel.
14. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, was right when he famously said, “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.”
15. Israel’s three greatest exports are the Bible, Judaism and Christianity.
16. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the number of Christians is increasing. The Christian population grew by 1.3% in 2023 to 187,900, and Christians make up 1.9% of the population of Israel, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
17. Israel is the safest and freest country in all of the Middle East and North Africa for followers of Jesus to live, work, and practice their faith.
18. Wonder Woman is an Israeli – Gal Gadot, who played the superheroine in the film that grossed $821 million at the box office worldwide, was born and raised in Israel. Gadot (pronounced “Ga-DOTE”) is arguably the most famous Israeli in the world today, eclipsing even the prime minister.
19. Israel has more museums per capita than any other country in the world.
20. Israel is the only country in the world to have more trees today than it did 50 years ago.
21. Drip irrigation was invented in Israel – “Amazing to think that the huge worldwide industry of modern drip irrigation all began when Israeli engineer Simcha Blass noticed a tree growing bigger than its neighbors in the Israeli desert and found that it was fed by a leaking water pipe. Today, Netafim, the company founded in 1965 to commercialize his idea, is recognized as the worldwide pioneer in smart drip and micro-irrigation. It has revolutionized the agricultural industry, operating systems in 112 countries with 13 factories throughout the world and 2,400 employees”. (Israel 21c)
22. The world’s leading desalination system was invented in Israel – “Israel’s IDE Technologies is the leading company worldwide in desalination – the process of turning seawater into drinking water – with 400 desalination plants in 40 countries producing 2,000,000 cubic meters of water a day. IDE Technologies operates the world’s two largest desalination plants in Israel and is now building China’s largest and greenest desalination plant. The new plant uses runoff steam from a power plant to help run the desalination machinery – producing water for the power plant, drinking water for the community, and salt to sell”. (Israel 21c)
23. Cell phone technology was invented in Israel – “It was at Motorola’s Israel R&D center that Israeli engineers first developed original cell phone technology. Most of the technology in your mobile phone can be traced back to Israeli engineering. From the tool that guards your mobile identity to a new keyboard solution, Israeli expertise keeps your phone from getting bigger while staying cutting edge.” (Israel 21c)
24. Voice mail technology was invented in Israel.
25. The most impressive, state-of-the-art GPS navigation app in the world – Waze – was invented in Israel. In 2013, Google bought the Israeli company Waze for a cool $US1.15 billion.
26. Amazon’s Kindle eBook platform was invented in Israel – “The Java platform inside Amazon’s best-selling Kindle was developed in Israel. Some four years ago, Amazon contacted Sun, later acquired by Oracle, and asked the company to develop a customized platform to run the software in a new e-book reader device under design. Sun handed the project on to its Israeli R&D office in Herzliya, and it was designed and developed there. After several years, a prototype was created to Amazon’s satisfaction, and manufacturing began. Amazon is now the undisputed leader in the e-reader category.” (Israel 21c)
27. PlayStation was invented in Israel – “Circuit technology engineers at the IBM Haifa Development Lab played an integral role in developing the Cell Broadband Engine chip controller that powers the Sony PlayStation 3, introduced in late 2006. The idea for the powerful chip came from Sony-Toshiba-IBM and was turned into an actual product through the collective efforts of 30 researchers working in Israel. The PlayStation 3 sold 197,000 units on the first day of its debut on the market and one million within the first six weeks. IBM R&D Labs in Israel was established in 1950 and now encompasses about 1,000 employees at the Haifa Research Lab, the IBM Israel Systems and Technology Group Lab, and the IBM Israel Software Lab. Locations include Haifa, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Rehovot, and Jerusalem.” (Israel 21c)
28. The first USB flash drive was invented in Israel.
29. One of the world’s most advanced early microchips – the Intel 8088 – was invented in Israel.
30. The world’s first instant-messaging system was invented in Israel.
31. Two of Microsoft’s most important operating systems, NT and XP, were developed primarily in Israel. Microsoft has had a strong presence in Israel for many years and has two R&D centers in Herzliya that employ around 2,300 people. In 2021, Microsoft opened a new campus in Herzliya. It expects to employ around 4,500 people when it finishes current expansion projects.
32. Semiconductor chip maker Intel was one of the first multinationals to come to Israel. It set up a small chip design center in Haifa in 1974 – Intel’s first facility outside of the United States. Today, Intel Israel employs around 13,900 people and serves as the corporation’s global R&D headquarters for wireless technology. The 8088 processor was designed and developed here, as were important processors such as the 12th-generation Alder Lake processor, which powers millions of laptops worldwide. In 2021, Intel announced a $10 billion investment in manufacturing and R&D in Israel.
33. The PillCam was invented in Israel – “Founded by Dr. Gavriel Meron in 1998, Yokneam-based Given Imaging revolutionized the world of gastrointestinal diagnosis by developing a miniature camera in a pill, called the PillCam, to visualize and detect disorders of the GI tract. The PillCam is now the gold standard for intestinal visualization and is sold in more than 60 countries around the world.” (Israel21c)
34. The world’s leading collision prevention and driverless car technology – MobileEye – was invented and created in Israel.
35. The game Rummikub was invented in Israel.
36. The game MasterMind was invented in Israel.
37. Six of the 15 current justices on Israel’s Supreme Court are women.
38. Until recently, the president of Israel’s Supreme Court was a woman – Esther Hayut. The United States has never had a woman serve as chief justice of the Supreme Court.
39. Khaled Kabub, an Israeli Arab citizen, became the first Muslim Israeli Arab to serve on the High Court. Previously, he served as vice president of the Tel Aviv District Court.
40. There are 35 women serving today in Israel’s parliament – the Knesset – the highest number in the country’s modern history.
41. Ten Arab Israeli citizens currently serve as Members of the Knesset, Israel’s national parliament – and in total, 100 Israeli Arabs have served in the Knesset throughout the nation’s modern history.
42. Mansour Abbas – an Israeli Arab Muslim politician who leads the Arab political party Ra’am – in 2021 became the first leader of an Arab party to join an Israeli coalition government. He says he is a proud Israeli and has pushed back against critics by rejecting the notion that Israel is a country practicing “apartheid.”
43. Raleb Majadele, an Israeli Arab politician who used to serve in the Labor party, became the first Arab Muslim ever to be appointed as an Israeli Cabinet Minister in 2007. He first served as minister without portfolio, and later as minister of Science, Culture and Sport. This represented a dramatic breakthrough for Israeli Arabs serving in the government.
44. Approximately 56% of all tourists to Israel are Christians who want to visit the Holy Land and walk where Jesus, the apostles, and the prophets walked.
45. Of the 7,000 languages in the world, Hebrew is the only dead language in history ever to have been revived from effective extinction.
46. Today, there are over 10 million Hebrew speakers worldwide, most of whom reside in Israel.
47. The population of Israel today is 12 times larger than it was in 1948 – 10.1 million today, compared to only 806,000 back then.
48. Approximately 7,732 million Jews are citizens of Israel today, making up about 77% of the population.
49. Approximately 2.11 million Arabs are citizens of Israel today, representing 21% of the population. (The rest of the Israelis identify as an ethnic group other than Jewish or Arab.)
50. About 31% of Israel’s population are immigrants, while the rest are "sabras," born in the land.
51. Remarkably, 28,000 new immigrants came to Israel to become citizens in 2024, despite the Oct. 7, 2023, outbreak of war.
52. The international legal legitimacy for the modern State of Israel comes from UN Resolution 181, more commonly known as the “Partition Plan.” The resolution “was approved on November 29, 1947, with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions, and one absent.”
The countries that voted for the resolution – and thus for the creation of the State of Israel – were: Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussian S.S.R., Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukrainian S.S.R., Union of South Africa, U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Uruguay, and Venezuela.
53. On March 26, 1979, Israel signed a historic peace treaty with Egypt, following intense negotiations at Camp David in September 1978.
54. On October 26, 1994, Israel signed a historic peace treaty with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
55. On September 13, 1993, Israel attempted to make peace with the Palestinian people, signing an interim peace agreement known as “Oslo I.”
56. On September 28, 1995, Israel went further in its efforts to make peace with the Palestinian people by signing a second interim peace agreement, known as “Oslo II.”
57. On September 15, 2020, Israel signed the “Abraham Accords,” a historic peace and normalization agreement, with the United Arab Emirates.
58. On the same day, September 15, 2020, Israel also signed the “Abraham Accords” with the Kingdom of Bahrain.
59. On October 23, 2020, Israel and Sudan announced a dramatic and historic peace and normalization agreement.
60. On December 10, 2020, Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco announced a dramatic and historic peace and normalization agreement.
61. Israel and Saudi Arabia are growing increasingly close, and leaders of both countries have expressed a desire to forge a historic peace and normalization agreement with help from the United States.
62. Israel is the leading country for venture capital fund investment per capita, surpassing the United States.
63. In 2023, Israel was ranked as the No. 3 country worldwide in terms of startup companies per capita.
64. Israel has the third-highest rate of entrepreneurship, and the highest rate among women and people over 55 in the world.
65. Israel recycles 90% of the wastewater it produces – more than any other country globally
66. More Jewish people live in Israel than in any other country in the world, including the United States. In fact, almost half of the world’s 15.8 million Jewish people now live in the State of Israel.
67. Despite the horrors of war, Israel is currently ranked as the 8th happiest country in the world.
68. 80% of American Evangelicals believe that the Abrahamic Covenant, which granted the Land of Israel to the Jewish people, was a promise God made for all time – unconditional and irrevocable – while only 5% disagree. (see Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem survey by LifeWay Research)
69. 80% of American Evangelicals believe the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of Bible prophecy; only 20% view it as merely a geopolitical event unrelated to God's promises. (see Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem survey by LifeWay Research)
70. Nearly 8 in 10 Evangelicals (76%) believe that Christians should support the Jewish people’s right to live in the sovereign State of Israel. (see Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem survey by LifeWay Research)
71. More than 7 in 10 American Evangelicals (72%) say they want to learn more about what the Bible teaches regarding Israel’s future. (see Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem survey by LifeWay Research)
72. American Evangelical Christians are deeply concerned about the need for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace with one another. Indeed, 59% of Evangelicals believe Christians should do more to love and care for the Palestinian people, and fully 66% of younger Evangelicals agree. Moreover, 73% are concerned for the safety of Christians in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Additionally, 41% agreed with the statement: “Jewish people have a biblical right to the land of Israel, but also have a responsibility to share the land with Palestinian Arabs.” Only 28% disagreed, while 31% were unsure. (see Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem survey by LifeWay Research)
73. The United States was the first nation in the world to recognize the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 – and President Harry Truman, a devout Bible-believing Christian, made his decision to support the Jewish state despite intense opposition within his own administration, including from his Secretary of State. Truman’s decision was announced to the world just 11 minutes after Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared the nation’s independence.
74. Israel currently has diplomatic relations with 168 countries – an extraordinary development, given thousands of years of antisemitism and the efforts of many in modern times to isolate and shun the State of Israel.
75. The New Testament reaffirms, over and over again, God’s great and enduring love for Israel and the Jewish people, and explicitly rejects the heresy that God is finished with the Jewish people. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:1–2).
76. What’s more, as he writes about the Jewish people – his fellow Israelites – the Apostle Paul states in the New Testament that “they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28–29).
That is, the promises and covenants that the God of Israel made in the Old Testament to Israel and the Jewish people are still valid today – still in effect in the New Testament era. Why? Because, as the apostle explains, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” When God promises something, that’s it. Nothing can change, cancel, or revoke His expressed will. I’m so grateful for and encouraged by this truth.
77. The Bible promises that one day, “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). Why? Because the God of Israel loves us with an unconditional and everlasting love. What great news!
Could I go on?
I absolutely could.
But 77 reasons seem sufficient for the 77th anniversary of the prophetic rebirth of the Jewish state.
As Israelis celebrate both our modern independence and sovereignty – even as we grieve the deaths, wounds, and captivity of so many – please don’t stop praying for Israel and the Jewish people, even as you continue praying for our neighbors.
Please implore the Lord to set all the captives free, according to Isaiah 61:1-3.
Please pray that the Lord would graciously grant us victory over our enemies and mercy to us and our neighbors.
And please never, ever forget that the beautiful, miraculous story of Israel and the Jewish people is far, far from over.
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
