Defying the Impossible: How Israel Proves the Experts Wrong

The experts are adamant: Israel’s aspirations are unrealistic. They insist that we must cave to our enemies’ demands, that we will never be able to fully uproot Hamas, and that we must relinquish our presence in our biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria for the sake of peace. They speak with absolute certainty about what Israel cannot achieve.

We’ve seen this story play out before. In 1896, when Theodor Herzl published The Jewish State and launched the modern Zionist movement calling for the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, the scornful reactions came fast and furious. The so-called experts mocked and dismissed his vision as an impossible dream.

The famed historian Simon Dubnow held that Herzl’s Zionist project was “politically, socially, and economically” impossible. He believed that at most 1,000 people a year could move to the Holy Land, and so it would not help the millions of Jews suffering in Eastern Europe. He wrote, “Political Zionism is utopian by three: the dream to establish a Jewish State supported by international law, the dream to achieve the migration of a substantial element of the Jewish people to that State, and the dream to solve the problem of the entire Jewish people through the establishment of a Jewish state…” (Simon Dubnow, Zionism, Demographic Realism and Wishful-Thinking: Public Letters on Ancient and Modern Judaism, March 1898).

Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg, known by his pen name Ahad HaAm, also dismissed Herzl’s vision: “Only a fantasy bordering on madness can believe that so soon as the Jewish State is established millions of Jews will flock to it, and the land will afford them adequate sustenance… We must confess to ourselves that the ‘ingathering of the exiles’ is unattainable by natural means” (The Jewish State and the Jewish Problem, in Ten Essays on Zionism and Judaism, 1922).

Yet these brilliant experts were wrong. Everything they said could not happen – happened. Today, there are well over seven million Jews living in Israel. The Jewish state is a powerhouse – a global leader in technology and innovation, with one of the world’s most powerful armies, a rapidly growing economy, and a population that grows more traditional and connected to G-d with each passing year.

How did these experts get it so wrong? Because they forgot the words of the Torah: “Behold I am Hashem, the G-d of all flesh. Is anything too wondrous for Me?” (Yirmiyahu 32:27).

The Malbim explains: “Hashem informed [Yirmiyahu] that although the city would now be destroyed and Israel would be sent into exile as the first among exiles, through personal providence to punish them for their sins, nevertheless His original plan would not change – the plan that determined the Land would be an inheritance for the children of Israel. This is necessary because He is the G-d of all flesh, through His overall governance that connects all generations through many cycles and combinations, ‘and nothing is too wondrous for Me.’” 

As the “G-d of all flesh,” Hashem’s providence extends across all generations, weaving together seemingly impossible circumstances to fulfill His promises. What seems utterly impossible to human eyes is simply another step in Hashem’s master plan.

Somehow, the miraculous growth of the State of Israel did not convince the world that G-d is not bound by what is “realistic.” In 1974, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Gush Emunim – a movement promoting Jewish settlement throughout Judea and Samaria – was established. At the time, most people, Jews and non-Jews alike, were very skeptical about whether it was realistic for Jews to settle Israel’s biblical heartland.

Yaakov Sharett, son of Israel’s second prime minister Moshe Sharett, said: “None of the settlers intend to really settle these territories. It’s doubtful whether even one permanent settlement will result from this” (cited in Yigal Kenaan, Mekor Rishon, April 1, 2011). Today, well over 500,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria – and the number is growing at a rate that is faster than the rest of Israel’s Jewish population.

We are told that uprooting Hamas is not realistic, that annexing Judea and Samaria is unattainable, and that rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash is merely a fantasy. But we believe in a G-d Who fulfills His promises – and transforms the seemingly insurmountable into reality. “Is anything too difficult for Hashem?” (Bereishit 18:14). The answer then, as now, is clear: nothing stands beyond the reach of the G-d of Israel.

Rabbi Elie Mischel is the Editor of HaMizrachi magazine and the author of “The War Against the Bible: Ishmael, Esau and Israel at the End Times” (2024).